Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro

Ball position has a huge amount to do with how a golfer strikes the ball and it’s the same in this dropkick driver scenario that where the ball is placed is fundamentally important to how the golfer can strike it. But actually having the ball positioned too far forwards and too far back have both been proven to have the same sort of inconsistent effect on the strike particularly with this dropkicking element. Let me just explain that through for you.

I’m going to take my orange cane down here just so you can see exactly where the ball is placed within the width of my stance. Now, the correct ball position for a driver, I feel, should be just inside the left inset. So between the left heel and maybe two inches inside, something like that would be a good driver position. Obviously, that’s set up for the right-handed golfer reverse it for the left-handed golfer.

Now, having the ball too far forwards, having it sort of outside the little toe like this, it just means the low point in the swing is too far back behind the ball. The ball is too far ahead. Then the club is going to rise too much. So the golfer strives to swing lower to make sure we don’t top the ball. As we swing low, we hit the ground then we top the ball as well. So having the ball positioned too far forwards can cause fairly major issues with this dropkick driver scenario.

The other issue, move the ball position too far back. So we might think, “Well, I’ll shift it back so it’s not too far forwards.” Generally speaking, having it back here center or behind, center is going to cause some pretty serious issues as well. Psychologically, that ball is so far back in my setup. There is really no desire for me to drive forwards. So I’m just going to get on to my back leg. Effectively, I’m staying back or moving back to get to the ball, to capture it with the ball. So I move back this way, so I’m behind the ball, then I swing down, I’m not driving forwards because there’s no need to. The ball is not far forwards. I’m just staying back and I hit the ball fat and I get a bit steep on it too.

So you can see how having the ball positioned too far forwards and too far back can cause problems. So next time you go to the range and practice particularly with your driver, if you’ve been hitting the ground a bit before the ball, lay a club or a cane down here opposite the ball perpendicular to your target line. Go ahead and set yourself up and just make sure it’s nicely into that front side. Then in the backswing, you can move away slightly but not too far. And then also make sure you drive forwards and get through with a nice bit of commitment. And hopefully, that positive ball position will have a positive effect on your driver strikes.