Ball Position with Wedges Part 5

If you are hitting a full shot with one of your wedges, the ball should be exactly in the middle of your stance, or just slightly back from that point. You don't want to have the ball forward in your stance when you hit a wedge, because you will likely need to slide in the downswing in order to reach the ball and make solid contact. In order to stay balanced and make an aggressive, downward strike into the ball, a center ball position is ideal.

Unfortunately, many golfers position the ball forward in their stance when they hit wedges because they want to 'help' the ball up into the air. You don't need to help the ball at all – the loft on your wedge is going to do the job of pushing the ball up into the sky. However, if you feel like you have to scoop the ball in order to get elevation, you just might be tempted to move the ball forward and release your hands prior to impact. This will spell disaster for your iron shots, and it is the reason that many amateur golfers are unable to hit a solid shot when making a full wedge swing.

To play good wedge shots on a regular basis, keep the ball in the middle of your stance and trust the loft on your wedge to do its job. By hitting down through impact, you will impart backspin on the ball and the shot will climb nicely into the air in preparation for a soft landing. Practice time on the range is the best way to learn how to trust this action as it happens out on the course. Hit wedge after wedge from a middle ball position until you truly believe that the ball is going to go up in the air when you hit down on it aggressively. Whether you are playing from the middle of the fairway or from the rough, hit down on your wedges from a balanced position and you will love the results more often than not.

Ball position is crucially important to your success on the course, and yet most of your golfing companions will not spend even a single moment of practice time working on this fundamental. If you want to stand out from the crowd and make some progress toward lowering your scores, you will be different. Take time to work on ball position and dedicate yourself to refining all of the 'small' details in your swing. It won't actually take that long to find a good ball position for each of your clubs, and the work that you do will continue to pay off for the rest of your golfing life.