Moving the ball around within your width of stance has a huge impact on how the ball height and flight changes. So hitting the ball high and low is not just about changing the clubs in your bag. But you could change the height of any specific club by moving that ball position. So here I’ve got my 6-iron, and I know if I play my 6-iron from a normal ball position, I know what the flight looks like. But let’s suggest I want to hit the ball higher than that, maybe I’ve got to go over a tree, or it’s down wind I want to take advantage of a big strong down wind. I could actually play the ball slightly more forwards in my stance to a degree. If I move it too far forwards I’m actually going to struggle to strike this thing.

So it’s only a marginal change. You might consider just moving it a balls width or two balls width at most. So if that would be a nice position for a normal 6-iron. I could move it one ball and two balls at most and that’s going to produce a much higher flight and likewise having it normal ball position, move it back a ball, move it back two balls, that makes a big difference as well.

Now the reason why that difference happens is because of the shaft angle at impact and therefore the face angle at impact. So if I have the ball position in a normal 6- iron’s spot, pointing the shaft at my left hip, you will see the handle is a couple of degrees ahead of the club face and that’s fine, that’s how I would normally hit the ball and at impact that would be about the same place. But if I move that ball position back and then I point the handle at my left hip again, I have now increased that shaft angle a huge degree, and every degree I move the shaft angle is a degree that comes off the club face. So my six iron has probably now got the loft of about a four or even a three iron.

Golf clubs change by about four degrees per club. So my six iron, fine move my handle forwards four degrees; I’ve now got a 5-iron, move it forwards another four degrees, eight degrees in total I’ve now got a 4-iron. Move it forwards again I’ve now got a 3-iron. So I hit my 6-iron here and I hit it like a 3-iron and I just sting it out, and I sting it out very low and very forwards. Great shot if I’m playing into a head wind, great shot if I’m playing out from underneath the tree and I need to keep the ball out and running. Likewise playing it forwards in my stance. A couple of balls with more forwards it’s closer to my left in step. It would produce an impact position here that’s a shallower impact. So I’m not hitting down on the ball so much I’m, hitting on level or even up slightly, the handle of the golf club starts to level out with the club head or even if it’s a very good lie starts to get slightly behind as I hit more upwards on the golf ball I’ll produce a much higher flight.

You have to sort of put a proviso around all of this, that the strike still needs to be good. Because you move the ball too far back or your ball too far forward, you just strike it could differ. So start by making small alterations, a little bit forward, a little bit back and see how that can change the height and the flight of your golf shots.