The Steady Golf Set Up Game (Video) - by Pete Styles
The Steady Golf Set Up Game (Video) - by Pete Styles

So the one thing that golfers are always searching for is more consistency with their shots. And if you want the golf ball to be consistent, you know you've got to be consistent, you've got to do the same thing each time. And that particularly applies to the setup position. We need you to do the same setup each time to produce the same swing, to produce the same shots. So getting in a good consistent setup position, we know that's important and here is a great game to help you do it.

What we are going to do is just setup to the golf ball; get ourselves in a comfortable position and then measure a couple of the key positions to make sure you are doing it the same each time. First thing I am going to do is take my golf club and lower it down on to my left side of my front leg because a right handed golfer that's my left side. And then I measure how far above my knee that is, and let’s say that's two inches. I then step away, I then setup again without looking, setup and I can measure again and it should land exactly in the same spot. I can either look down and see that or I can actually feel where it’s landing on my knee, it feels the same spot. I could then try it with a different club, try it with a bigger club. The setup drop down position should be exactly the same, repeat with the shorter club, check that. That means I am always addressing the ball the right distance away. Try that three times, if you hit the same spot three times, you know your distance away is pretty good. Another area that we might want to check and we want to measure with this game would be the width of your stance. So again, you'd setup, position your feet without looking and then you would measure the width of your stance with your golf club and just have a look how far down it comes. Quite often, the shaft has got little ribs in it or little shaft stickers, or if you are using a graphite shaft, it might have the writing on there, you can measure that down to a certain point. And then you would go again, setup, try and get the same width, drop the club down, check, was it down to the same point again. And again, the more consistently you can do that, the more comfortable your setup would feel on a regular basis, the more consistent your shots would become. One last little checkpoint would be the ball position. So we take the ball and fix it and then we set ourselves up into a good position, look down and make sure we've got it on the right position. Now I've actually got myself this big white line down the middle, which kind of negate that idea of the game, that's probably too easy. So I would actually step away from that, set myself up here and then drop the club down and just make sure it’s always landing in the consistent and correct position. So the correct position would be kind of centered with the wedge moving forwards half an inch per club as we go through to the bigger clubs and ultimately the driver would be just sitting on the left instep. But it’s not about getting that right every single time, it’s about doing it consistently every single time. So every time I address the golf ball, I've got to make sure that it’s in the same place, I then shift full, come back to the start again, do that again, make sure it’s in the same spot. The more consistently I can do that, the more consistently I am going to be able to hit my golf shots. So that's the setup and measuring game.
2015-07-07

So the one thing that golfers are always searching for is more consistency with their shots. And if you want the golf ball to be consistent, you know you've got to be consistent, you've got to do the same thing each time. And that particularly applies to the setup position. We need you to do the same setup each time to produce the same swing, to produce the same shots. So getting in a good consistent setup position, we know that's important and here is a great game to help you do it.

What we are going to do is just setup to the golf ball; get ourselves in a comfortable position and then measure a couple of the key positions to make sure you are doing it the same each time. First thing I am going to do is take my golf club and lower it down on to my left side of my front leg because a right handed golfer that's my left side. And then I measure how far above my knee that is, and let’s say that's two inches. I then step away, I then setup again without looking, setup and I can measure again and it should land exactly in the same spot. I can either look down and see that or I can actually feel where it’s landing on my knee, it feels the same spot.

I could then try it with a different club, try it with a bigger club. The setup drop down position should be exactly the same, repeat with the shorter club, check that. That means I am always addressing the ball the right distance away. Try that three times, if you hit the same spot three times, you know your distance away is pretty good.

Another area that we might want to check and we want to measure with this game would be the width of your stance. So again, you'd setup, position your feet without looking and then you would measure the width of your stance with your golf club and just have a look how far down it comes. Quite often, the shaft has got little ribs in it or little shaft stickers, or if you are using a graphite shaft, it might have the writing on there, you can measure that down to a certain point. And then you would go again, setup, try and get the same width, drop the club down, check, was it down to the same point again. And again, the more consistently you can do that, the more comfortable your setup would feel on a regular basis, the more consistent your shots would become.

One last little checkpoint would be the ball position. So we take the ball and fix it and then we set ourselves up into a good position, look down and make sure we've got it on the right position. Now I've actually got myself this big white line down the middle, which kind of negate that idea of the game, that's probably too easy. So I would actually step away from that, set myself up here and then drop the club down and just make sure it’s always landing in the consistent and correct position. So the correct position would be kind of centered with the wedge moving forwards half an inch per club as we go through to the bigger clubs and ultimately the driver would be just sitting on the left instep.

But it’s not about getting that right every single time, it’s about doing it consistently every single time. So every time I address the golf ball, I've got to make sure that it’s in the same place, I then shift full, come back to the start again, do that again, make sure it’s in the same spot. The more consistently I can do that, the more consistently I am going to be able to hit my golf shots. So that's the setup and measuring game.