Proper Golf Stance and Ball Position for Every Club in Your Bag

"One spot for every shot - When it comes to the fundamentals, consistency is paramount. If you can repeat the same positions, moves, and methods over and over, you’ll simplify your technique and ingrain the correct habits." - Greg Norman (Australian GolfDigest)

I started golf the wrong way! Having never played, some guys at work said "Just come on out and play with us." I have since accrued a decade of bad habits. About 6 years ago I wanted to get serious about golf so I went and took a lesson and asked the instructor, "Where the heck do I put the ball and my feet when I address the ball?" He pulled out a photocopied image from Ben Hogan's book “ Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf” and pointed at it saying "start by standing shoulder-width apart and you put your feet here and the ball there". Simple enough, right?

He emphasized that having the correct stance and ball position can drastically improve your consistency, making the game a lot more fun. (Note: This is for the full swing. Personally, I use Pelz method and place both my feet about a club head wide and slightly open to the target with the center ball marker stick between them. We will cover that in a future article.)

Homer Kelly's " The Golfing Machine" goes into college level textbook detail about the physics and geometry of the two primary methods used to setup for a golf shot.  You either stand square to the target line and move the ball up and back in your stance - or - keep the ball in the same location off the lead foot and open and close your stance as pictured above.  Both are correct and both accomplish a similar outcome, just differently.

Stance Caddy is designed to support the geometry of Hogan's open/closed stance diagramed above. There are many other articles about the former method which we will not cover here in this article. Honestly, if you prefer the former method, we are not marketing the Stance Caddy to you. Sure, we would appreciate the sale, however, you can take an alignment stick and mark it up to accomplish a similar outcome which doesn't rely on a bit of geometry to neutralize the d-plane which is what the Stance Caddy open/closed stance achieves.

What is the D-Plane and how does it impact your golf setup?

What is the d-plane? Here is a link to some detail about it, but in short it is the effect of your swing arc, angle of attack, club face at impact, and starting direction of your golf shot. If you think about it, we are supposed to hit our wedges and irons before we strike the ground. That implies our clubface has not yet bottomed out. With the steep angle of attack of the shorter more lofted clubs this leaves the clubface open just a bit as you strike the ball on the way to the bottom of the arc. The open stance for wedges and irons like your 9 iron or 7 iron leads to a slight push right for right-handed players and left for us left-handed players. 

The opposite is true for the driver where our intention is to hit up on the ball. If we are hitting up, then our clubface had already squared up at the bottom of the arc and we are now starting ever so slightly to close the face. The closed stance, pulling your trail foot back, first promotes bottoming out before the ball and it also counteracts the fact that the clubface is starting to close. 

Of course, the angle of attack for long irons and fairway woods hovers between wedges and drivers, but optimally are still a slight downward angle of attack. 

Summarizing above, the method that was documented by Ben Hogan back in 1957 is still scientifically sound and can be proven out with modern day launch monitors. In fact, FlightScope Mevo+ Pro Package can model the d-plan of every shot you take!

This is even more fun to use with our one of a kind fade and draw templates where you can actually see the effect of modifying your setup for those shots with the Stance Caddy!

How does Stance Caddy support Hogan's setup?

We reverse engineered the image from his book. We started with a protractor and started measuring out the angles represented. Scale was an issue as it was hand drawn from feel. If we designed to the exact scale of the picture he would practically be doing the splits with his driver. 

We took some measurements, applied some modern day instruction points  and came up with the design. Using the Stance Caddy you measure your shoulder-with and mark that number. For instance, I am 16" from shoulder joint to shoulder joint. When you open the Stance Caddy to hit, below is how you are setup.

• Ball placement is 2 ball widths from your lead heel (same as an iron head width). 
• Your lead heel is set along the black line shown on the device, not the white bar which gives you that 2 ball setup.
• Your toes, on both feet, are set to 1 or 2 inches off the device. Make sure they are equidistant to keep all of the angles in place.
• Your lead foot is 1/4 turn or 22.5 degrees flared open to the target (promotes better hip rotation and reduces strain on your hip and knee).
• Addressing a wedge the outside of your heels are under your shoulders.
• Addressing a 5 iron the center of your heels are directly under your shoulders.
• Addressing a driver the inside of your heels are in line with your shoulders.
• All clubs in-between are on a sliding scale as marked on the device.

To set your alignment, place an alignment stick where you will be placing the ball and aim it at the target. Then set the Stance Caddy down parallel to that target line where your toes will be about two inches off of the device. This sets up the perfect "railroad track" alignment allowing you to burn in the correct alignment perspective as you practice.

Start striping the ball!

Are Hogan and Norman the only players who favor a single ball position?

Nope! In fact, there are many professional players and instructors that have documented their preference for the single ball position method because of the consistency you can build in your stance and swing arc low point promoting better ball striking. 

Some include:

Butch Harmon -  "Keep The Ball In One Place For Every Club (GolfDigest)",

Eric Cogorno,

Ali Taylor

and Jack Nicklaus!

Ultimately, mastering these basics will give you the best chance to hit more shots in play and enjoy this great game even more! So grab your clubs, your Stance Caddy, and get out on the range!