Distance question

When I started, I was placing my ball under my left eye for all shots except driver and putter. It has really helped build hand eye to where I rarely top or trench. Problem is that my irons are not that distant IMO. Yesterday I moved the ball back and it got the iron distance to increase by 20 yds without any swing speed change.

Lots of the discussions here are about 1/2, 3/4 and full swings to control distance. Is ball placement advisable as another tool to control distance or am I going down another rabbit hole?

Dave G said:

When I started, I was placing my ball under my left eye for all shots except driver and putter. It has really helped build hand eye to where I rarely top or trench. Problem is that my irons are not that distant IMO. Yesterday I moved the ball back and it got the iron distance to increase by 20 yds without any swing speed change.

Lots of the discussions here are about 1/2, 3/4 and full swings to control distance. Is ball placement advisable as another tool to control distance or am I going down another rabbit hole?

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The only time I've ever seen ball placement solely used as a distance control is in golf videogames. To a certain degree you can use it to manipulate the flight of the ball and therefore distance (back, in theory de-lofts the club, meaning more distance), but there are many other factors that come into play like having to manipulate the swing for face angle, spin, etc. I am by no means an expert in the swing and all it's effects, but nothing is that simple and always has multiple consequences.

Moving the ball back is de-lofting the club a bit, that is why you will get more distance. It is similar to using one higher number club. Trying to control distance with ball position could be a pretty tricky proposition. There are other things that go into your angle of attack, like, are you transferring your weight forward on the downswing, or hanging back a little. I think you are right about "another rabbit hole". Been there myself many times.

ball placement most definitely can be used to to control distance. Why changing your ball placement got you a bunch more yards, I don't know. But the bigger question, yes ball placement is another tool for shot making.

I guess you might be able to for distance, but I've never heard of that personally. Ball position to me has always been to adjust flight of the ball higher or lower. I've never heard it adjusting distance by 20 yards though, that's pretty crazy to hear.

cbaker2882 said:

I guess you might be able to for distance, but I've never heard of that personally. Ball position to me has always been to adjust flight of the ball higher or lower. I've never heard it adjusting distance by 20 yards though, that's pretty crazy to hear.

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Same here. I’m assuming he’s talking carry so if he’s hitting low flighted balls compared to before he may be seeing run out but that imo is probably not the way to go with irons.

As to op on ball position I have heard several instructors talk about playing the ball in the same position either off front shoulder or placard of the shirt and then vary the stance based on type of club.

Mostly carry. Ex. 50° wedge with ball under left eye (I'm right handed) consistantly gets me 55 yards with (guessing here) about 48 yd carry and a 7 yard rollout.

I move the ball to about my right heel and I get 70 with 58 carry and 12 rollout. Same swing speed same hip initiation...

Yes, I know I'm delofting the club.

35 years ago when I first learned golf the "standard" ball position was to move the ball further back in your stance as the club loft increased.

Fast forward to now. Starting back in March I used the same ball position (always under the left eye) to rapidly develop my hand eye coordination. Now that I can consistently get under the ball I'm going back to that original concept (moving the ball back based on club loft) to re-gain distance.

My question here was more along the lines of - is it advisable to incorporate that ball placement as another way to control distance, much like a 3/4 swing or am I asking for trouble?