How to check your ball position and improve your consistency, in 3 steps

ball position examples

Want to improve your consistency? Start with your ball position.

GOLFTEC

Ball position — it’s really important! Just ask Lee Trevino. The good news is that it’s really easy to check, as our friends at GOLFTEC outline. All you need is a golf ball, and a club or alignment rod, placed perpendicular

You can watch it in the video below, or scroll down for a quick summery.

1. Driver

With your golf ball and alignment rod in place, take a stance that’s shoulder-width apart, making sure your left heel is flush to the alignment aid on the ground.

A ball position forward in your stance helps you hit up on the golf ball, with the low point of the swing for most golfers actually occurring behind the golf ball.

2. Fairway wood

Your fairway wood should still be up in your stance, but slightly less so. Your lead foot should be about a clubhead’s width outside the stick on the ground. That small adjustment brings the low point of most golfers’ swings slightly in front of the ball, which helps you make a level-to-down strike on the ball.

3. Wedges and Irons

And for wedges and irons? The stick should be in the middle of your stance. This pulls the low point of your swing notably in front of the ball, which will help you make a descending blow onto the golf ball with lots of backspin.

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Luke Kerr-Dineen

Golf.com Contributor

Luke Kerr-Dineen is the Game Improvement Editor at GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com. In his role he oversees the brand’s game improvement content spanning instruction, equipment, health and fitness, across all of GOLF’s multimedia platforms.

An alumni of the International Junior Golf Academy and the University of South Carolina–Beaufort golf team, where he helped them to No. 1 in the national NAIA rankings, Luke moved to New York in 2012 to pursue his Masters degree in Journalism from Columbia University. His work has also appeared in USA Today, Golf Digest, Newsweek and The Daily Beast.