We've launched the new forums! Read more here

Ball Position for irons

-CRW-

-CRW-

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 5, 2013
Messages
10,399
Reaction score
1,977
For those of you with some experience, do you find that ball position is pretty constant for one particular number iron between different sets that you have owned. For example, following the PGA Tour Academy DVD lessons, I hit my 7 iron through 5 iron one ball position forward of center. It seems about right for me with my RBZ irons.

If I switched to a different make of irons, like a forged club with less offset, would the ball position change. Or is this entirely subjective?
 
I have always tried to maintain the same ball position no matter what model club I am playing.
 
For me, I play generally the same ball position for almost every club, which stays the same with every set of clubs I have used. The only reason I change ball position is to alter my ball flight...further up for higher flight...further back for lower flight ect.
 
Position would change with club length.
 
Driver inside left foot. Everything else is middle of left pectoral for full swings.
 
Speedliner said:
Position would change with club length.
Click to expand...
laterally, yes. but not forward/backward. In other words, closer to the ball for clubs that are shorter in length. farther away for longer clubs. All of them should bottom out in the same point in your swing though, so all irons should be the same position in your stance, with respect to distance from center.

I was always taught that the shorter the club, the father back in your stance it should be played. More than one teaching pro has shown me why that is a bad idea. Physics just doesn't allow for that.
 
I used to vary my ball position a lot with the irons, sort of like a progressive scale from long iron to wedge moving left to right. I have since pretty much settled on a couple positions. One for the driver, one for the woods, one for irons (just a hair left of center) and then wedges inside the right foot. It seems to work well, and hasn't needed a whole lot of tweaking for different club styles.
 
blugold said:
Driver inside left foot. Everything else is middle of left pectoral for full swings.
Click to expand...



What blu said... To elaborate the ball will look like it moves forward more in your stance as you clubs get longer because your stance widens. To try this out measure about three balls off your left foot. Put your ball down and then without moving your left foot narrow your stance (wedges) and widen your stance (long irons). What you will notice is the ball stayed in the same spot but it moved closer to your right foot for wedges (promotes steeper angle of attack) and further from your center on long irons (promotes a shallow attack).

I'm not the best at explaining things when I'm multitasking but read that twice and you'll get what I'm saying =).
 
Last edited:
-CRW- said:
For those of you with some experience, do you find that ball position is pretty constant for one particular number iron between different sets that you have owned. For example, following the PGA Tour Academy DVD lessons, I hit my 7 iron through 5 iron one ball position forward of center. It seems about right for me with my RBZ irons.

If I switched to a different make of irons, like a forged club with less offset, would the ball position change. Or is this entirely subjective?
Click to expand...
Thanks for the question. Ball position has nothing do with the club your swing but more to do with your swing arc. It will will also vary based on your posture.

If your swing bottoms out by your right foot or left foot, this is were the ball should be place. Your swing could also bottom out in the middle of your stance. Most amateur golfers have an inconsistent ball position due to the fact they don't have a repeatable swing.

Also going to a forged iron would change your ball position.
 
-CRW- said:
Thanks for the article/video. It makes sense and I will give a try for a while.
Click to expand...

This made sense for me on Saturday, but not on Sunday :) I was hitting the ball extremely well and had many well stuck iron shots following the sean foley ball placement methodology on Saturday but struggled terribly the next day.

Tadashi has hit the nail on the head though in this following comment "Most amateur golfers have an inconsistent ball position due to the fact they don't have a repeatable swing"

In my case, by Sunday, I was aching from my round on Saturday (lack of course time) and couldn't repeat my pure striking due to my 'inconsistent and non-repeatable swing" due to muscle fatigue and a sore back from the day before ! However, I stuck with my ball placements as I know that was not the issue - it was my swing. The aim now is to continue with the theory and try to get consistent strikes with the sean foley ball placement method.

I didn't realise playing back to back rounds of 18 was so demanding :)
 
Bump. Any further info on this would be appreciated Freddie.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top