Beginner Distance From the Ball: What Is the Correct Distance? (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Beginner Distance From the Ball: What Is the Correct Distance? (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

Another massively main important part of getting yourself set up to the golf ball correctly is ensuring you that you are the right distance away from the golf ball, so one of the fundamentals that could change a little bit if you are not careful. So this is one of the fundamentals that needs to change when you change your club.

As we have discussed before, the clubs aren’t always exactly the same length. So we can’t have a perfectly set measurement between the feet and the golf ball for every single shot because clubs are different length, so we need a little bit of movement in this. One of the best ways I think you can set up to the golf ball is place the club behind the ball, set yourself with your normal width of stance, your good posture and just a small knee flex, and then just let the golf club rest gently down onto your front leg or your front thigh, so from this angle here I get myself comfortable, I let the club rest nicely down onto my front leg and it will land just around about an inch to two inches above the top of my front knee cap, roughly three fingers above the top of my front knee cap. So from this angle again, setting myself up there, nice comfortable distance away and then dropping the club down just on that position there.

Now if I was to take a shorter golf club, taking one of my wedges, I would feel that I’m too far back in the same position, so I would have to move a little bit closer, dropping the golf club down here and that would land just above the top of my knee cap again, that’s me in the right position. If I leave the club there just to mark the position of where my feet were and then I take my driver, which is the longest club I have in my bag, as I set with my driver to get me the same distance away, to drop the club down just above the top of my knee cap, get my hands and my grip comfortable. You can see how much further back away from the golf ball I have to stand. So this is my longest club back here and my shortest golf club all the way up here and clearly standing this close to the golf ball with this club simply doesn’t work.

So setting up to the golf ball the distance away from the golf ball that you stand is one of the things that does need to change when you are changing clubs. But try and make sure it’s nice and consistent, use the measurement here of setting up, dropping the golf club down just one or two inches above the top of the flexed front knee cap and that would give you a really good fundamental position of how to set up for the right distance back from the ball.

 2012-07-31

Another massively main important part of getting yourself set up to the golf ball correctly is ensuring you that you are the right distance away from the golf ball, so one of the fundamentals that could change a little bit if you are not careful. So this is one of the fundamentals that needs to change when you change your club.

As we have discussed before, the clubs aren’t always exactly the same length. So we can’t have a perfectly set measurement between the feet and the golf ball for every single shot because clubs are different length, so we need a little bit of movement in this. One of the best ways I think you can set up to the golf ball is place the club behind the ball, set yourself with your normal width of stance, your good posture and just a small knee flex, and then just let the golf club rest gently down onto your front leg or your front thigh, so from this angle here I get myself comfortable, I let the club rest nicely down onto my front leg and it will land just around about an inch to two inches above the top of my front knee cap, roughly three fingers above the top of my front knee cap. So from this angle again, setting myself up there, nice comfortable distance away and then dropping the club down just on that position there.

Now if I was to take a shorter golf club, taking one of my wedges, I would feel that I’m too far back in the same position, so I would have to move a little bit closer, dropping the golf club down here and that would land just above the top of my knee cap again, that’s me in the right position. If I leave the club there just to mark the position of where my feet were and then I take my driver, which is the longest club I have in my bag, as I set with my driver to get me the same distance away, to drop the club down just above the top of my knee cap, get my hands and my grip comfortable. You can see how much further back away from the golf ball I have to stand. So this is my longest club back here and my shortest golf club all the way up here and clearly standing this close to the golf ball with this club simply doesn’t work.

So setting up to the golf ball the distance away from the golf ball that you stand is one of the things that does need to change when you are changing clubs. But try and make sure it’s nice and consistent, use the measurement here of setting up, dropping the golf club down just one or two inches above the top of the flexed front knee cap and that would give you a really good fundamental position of how to set up for the right distance back from the ball.