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Can Teeing The Ball In FRONT Of Front Foot Work?

J

jrs362

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Help me come back to earth on this one. I've mentioned in the past I've had trouble hitting my driver. Last night, on the 3rd hole, I once again hit a low burner, maybe 5-10 feet off the ground. While it ended up in the fairway, I wasn't really happy with it.

When I got to the 4th tee, I sliced my first ball way off to the left. Far enough that I didn't even feel like walking over to try to find it. At that point I was starting to get irritated so I wanted to experiment. I tee'd up another and played it from about 4-5 inches in FRONT my my front foot. I'll admit my stance at address was a bit awkward, but I proceed to hit the ball off the toe of my club, but it went straight. I tee'd another and did the same, but stood a couple inches close to my target line at address, still keeping the ball 4-5 inches in front of my front foot. I then proceed to play a power fade that went about 260 and stopped in the middle of the fairway. This had me excited.

Next hole was an uphill Par 4 playing about 220. I've never driven the green here (usually only play a 4i from the tee). I pulled my driver and gave it a shot. I proceed to land the ball just at the base of the elevated green and it ran up and to the left of the green, beyond pin high.

I can't remember ever doing something on the course that felt so wrong, but provided good results.I know the ball position is too far forward, but it's working for me right now. Tell me how bad it is to play the ball from this spot. What swing flaws are making this ball position work? Swing path too flat? Weight shift too early in the swing?
 
definitely sounds like a weight shift issue. I had a problem with doing something similar or even "topping" the ball. I took a lesson to help figure it out and my instructor put it on video. It was easy to see how i was lacking weight shift/rotation. Video above is a good drill to help with that.
 
Anything is possible I guess. As long as you understand YOUR swing arch in YOUR swing, then you know where you need/can place the ball with any club you are using. To move a ball outside of your swing arch though, would mean you have to manipulate your swing, and I wouldn't do that unless you're honestly looking to make a swing change.
 
A guy in my regular group does this and it seems to work for him. He's a pretty good player too. I don't think anyone would recommend it but if its working for you for now then no reason not to keep at if its going to fix the like weight shift issues mentioned above.
 
Its not something I would recommend long term. It's a great drill but playing that way will bring all types of bad habits into play down the road. The better plan of action would be to find the area of breakdown in your swing that is giving you fits.
 
My dad taught himself to play, he has played the game the way you describe for 40 years. He hits a huge cut, and is not very long. He is 67 drives it 200-210 max and can still get around in the low 80s using that ball position.

When he tees it up, you wouldn't even believe he could make contact, let alone hot almost every fairway.


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Post a video of your driver swing, preferably face-on. Someone here (likely Freddie) can spot where you're going wrong. As Freddie said, it should not require strange contortions.
 
Thanks guys. Funny seeing that others have done or seen the same thing done. I'll see if I can snag a video next time out with the proper ball placement. I tend to agree with everyone that it's probably a weight shift problem. Last year before I quit using my driver I'd re-tee after a poor tee shot and exaggerate the weight shift only to hit it dead straight 90% of the time. I'm also fighting the mental aspect now where I can place the ball in the proper location but sit there thinking there's no way I can hit that without topping the ball or drilling it into the ground.
 
I do this as well. I'm very new to the game and have very little idea what I'm doing, but it seems to be the only way I can get the ball in the air with any kind of consistency.
 
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