Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
One of the real keys to good address position is the feeling that the hands and arms are hanging down from the body. And it shouldn’t be necessarily a feeling of reaching or stretching. So as the golfer sets up to a short iron and 8-iron here. As I setup to the ball, my hands and arms are going to hang down away from my body, almost vertically down my shoulders. I don’t want to have my hands reaching out too far over here. This is going to create problems. Likewise having the hands too close, tucked in and under the body here, whether that’s actually hanging backwards or downwards, there’s going to be a problem. So a great little tip and checkpoint, the way you can check that you are standing a correct distance away from the ball, take a mid iron like an 8-iron and setup to the golf ball as you feel like you would do normally and comfortably.
And when you're in this position here, grip hold of club, let everything relax, and then just remove your rear hand so for me that’s my right hand. I take my right hand off, and I hold it here, and I just relax it and completely shake it out. And it should stay very close to its original position. So I can now bring my right hand back on, and it grips the club perfectly as it was. And if I was too far away and stretching for this, and then I take my right hand off, you can see how it hangs inward, so it drops in here. This would tell me I was reaching and stretching. And likewise, if I was too close to the ball and I was over the ball this way, then I take my right hand off and actually hangs over there in front of me. So I need to move to a position where that hand hangs comfortably, then it should be nicely gripped on. That’s the rear hand, so the right hand for the right-handed golfer, naturally setting up to the ball, take the hand off, relax and bring it straight back on again. And that’s a great way of checking that your hands and arms are hanging freely to make sure your distance from the golf ball is correct in your setup. 2016-09-27 Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro
One of the real keys to good address position is the feeling that the hands and arms are hanging down from the body. And it shouldn’t be necessarily a feeling of reaching or stretching. So as the golfer sets up to a short iron and 8-iron here. As I setup to the ball, my hands and arms are going to hang down away from my body, almost vertically down my shoulders. I don’t want to have my hands reaching out too far over here. This is going to create problems. Likewise having the hands too close, tucked in and under the body here, whether that’s actually hanging backwards or downwards, there’s going to be a problem. So a great little tip and checkpoint, the way you can check that you are standing a correct distance away from the ball, take a mid iron like an 8-iron and setup to the golf ball as you feel like you would do normally and comfortably.
And when you're in this position here, grip hold of club, let everything relax, and then just remove your rear hand so for me that’s my right hand. I take my right hand off, and I hold it here, and I just relax it and completely shake it out. And it should stay very close to its original position. So I can now bring my right hand back on, and it grips the club perfectly as it was. And if I was too far away and stretching for this, and then I take my right hand off, you can see how it hangs inward, so it drops in here. This would tell me I was reaching and stretching. And likewise, if I was too close to the ball and I was over the ball this way, then I take my right hand off and actually hangs over there in front of me.
So I need to move to a position where that hand hangs comfortably, then it should be nicely gripped on. That’s the rear hand, so the right hand for the right-handed golfer, naturally setting up to the ball, take the hand off, relax and bring it straight back on again. And that’s a great way of checking that your hands and arms are hanging freely to make sure your distance from the golf ball is correct in your setup.
