Addressing the ball is just as important as most of the swing aspects we look at, but for some reason many people tend to overlook your address when proving tips on the golf swing. Most people focus on aim and alignment, tempo and swing speed, and even follow through before ever looking at how you address the club. I can attest to this, addressing the club is vital to setting up the rest of the swing. If you are not addressing the club correctly, you will not be able to have a proper take way, which hinders your down swing, and eventually your follow through… so yes, the proper set up at address is vital to the entire golf swing. During this section, I will cover a few of the tips and drills that I have applied to my game throughout my lengthy career. Although all of them may not work for you, you will be able to find something in the following section that helps you perfect your set up.

The most important part of the setup, is how you handle your arms. When I say this, I mean are they relaxed? Are they tight and restricted? To decide which one you are, simply step up to the ball and address as you normally would. Now, stand straight up and bring your club up. From here, drop your arms to their relaxed state… and put the club back down. This will be your new setup, and it does require some practice to get used to this motion. Having your arms relaxed at setup, allows for you to basically remove a lot of the negative motion they can provide. Yes, your arms help generate power, which leads to distance, but your arms also bring a world of trouble into your accuracy if you are giving them too much restriction. By allowing your arms to relax freely, you will see much more consistency in your accuracy throughout your entire bag. As I did already mention, you will need to invest plenty of time and focus to this drill, because it does take quite a bit of time to become comfortable and confident.

The next thing we will look at is hand position. We have corrected your arms, but now we will need to correct the hands… and you will be on your way to addressing the ball properly. There are a few things you can do with your hand placement to add height and lower height, but today we will only be focusing on how to hit a normal golf shot. The ideal hand placement requires the butt of the club to point towards your belt buckle area. If you move your hands too far forward, you de- loft the club, and actually ensure your hands will be too far out in front throughout the entire swing. The opposite happens when you move the butt of the club too far back, you actually add loft to the club, and ensure that your hands will be behind your swing throughout. This is quite a simple fix, you simply need to point the butt of your club at your belt buckle at address. This will allow for the proper alignment of the club head, and will also allow for your hands to be in the correct spot throughout the entire swing.

I realize these tips don’t seem to be the most difficult, but trust me when I say this, they do take some time to perfect. Aside from pointing the butt of the club at the correct location, you will need to really invest some time to ensure you are comfortable with the arm drill. I highly recommend focusing on this motion for a few weeks, because to be quite honest, it will take that long to become truly comfortable with the motion. As with all of my drills, I will leave you with a challenge: Set aside two full weeks for practice. During this time, truly focus on relaxing your arms and standing the correct distance from the ball. While you are working on this drill, I would also suggest picking up a package of contact tape. This will help you see where the ball is hitting the club face, and really help you with your contact. After you have dedicating a few weeks to this drill, then you can slowly start to play your normal rounds. During the rounds, really take your time before you hit the ball, and relax the arms and take the proper set up to the ball. You should see beautiful results, with your misses being much closer to the target. I also suggest taking notes of your set up while you are practicing, and apply these to every club in the bag. This will ensure you are doing the exact same motion each time… which allows for you to repeat the correct steps over and over. Repetition is key.