Proper ball position is a critical element in making a solid impact with all of your clubs. Most of us are still lead to believe that the ball should be positioned in relation to the feet, that the mid- to short-irons are to be positioned in the center of the stance, the long irons positioned between the center of the stance and the left heel and all woods should be positioned off of the left heel.
The problem with this reference is that stance width will vary from player to player and change from one day to the next. Therefore I recommend placing the ball in relation to your upper body.
The golf club being swung in a circular – pendulum type motion, we refer to the bottom of the swing as the arc. With the body being responsible for swinging the golf club, we can predict the lowest point of the arc by finding the center of your body. In this case we make reference to ones sternum (breast bone).
Ball positions range from the outside edge of the left shoulder to the middle of the sternum.
As a preference our ball placement should be as follows
- All irons placed just left of sternum
- Fairway woods and hybrids inside edge of left shoulder
- Driver outside edge of left shoulder to achieve impact on the upside of the arc.
Remember that the ball position is relative to the bottom of the swing arc of the club you are using except for the driver.