(lively instrumental music)
- Hi Adam Bazalgette here, scratchgolfacademy.com founder
and two time PGA Teacher Of the Year award winner
down here in Naples.
Beautiful day here, want to talk to you today a little bit
about golf ball position for short irons.
Where should you put the ball at address?
If you like this video hit the like button.
Subscribe to the channel.
Love to get you more free content that'll be coming.
So let's talk about that subject a little bit.
Now before we really get into it, it's fairly simple.
But I want to show you a close up of the club
because this'll inform you what's required
at impact for these short irons
and therefore the rest of it'll make more sense.
Let's have a closeup look.
So it's vital to understand
what's required of impact on short irons.
This is a nine iron.
Now remember the sweet spot,
obviously it's between heel and toe.
It's not down here at the bottom of the club,
it's more like there several groves up
in this kind of an area.
Now this is a beautiful lie,
but it's a fairly firm fairway lie.
So in this instance if the shaft is vertical
or slightly tilted back,
you're gonna hit the ball too low on the face.
As you can see, you must have some forward tilt
of the club to create that proper contact point.
Now certainly some of this is golf swing and hands forward,
but if you don't have your weight
and hands forward a little bit you can't do this.
And it's so difficult to do that
if the ball position's way forward.
It's very hard to achieve that,
so something in the middle,
is gonna help you at impact achieve this tilted position
that puts the sweet spot on the,
on the back of the golf ball.
Remember too, we're not trying
to significantly hit down on the ball.
It's a pretty level strike right at the bottom,
but it does have the forward lean element
that gives it just that fraction of downward hit.
Okay, so now that we're a little bit more clear
on what's required at impact.
What's the ball position that's gonna help you match that?
Well I would suggest
as a starting point middle of the stance.
Now certainly there's been some great players over the years
that played it a little more forward.
We'll talk about that in a second.
But for the average golfer and even
for the better than average golfer in the amateur ranks
it's pretty difficult if the ball is up forward
to get enough weight shift and enough shaft lean to get
that club face to that sweet spot,
properly tilted up onto the ball.
You can do it.
Hey if you're a young aggressive player
with great hip turn, and great weight transfer,
and a lot of lag probably a long hitter would
be indicative of that, you might be able
to play it up a little bit.
But likely a little bit more in the middle
is gonna be the proper position.
Now here's a couple of variables.
If the ball's too far back, you're gonna tend
to hit a little to downward at it.
The club swings down in this area,
relatively level in that area,
and then back up again obviously in this area.
So you've got to find a spot
that's not so down you're pounding into the ground,
and knocking loft off the club too dramatically.
And by the way, what you'll see when you do that
is usually some deep divots
and then subconsciously you'll adjust
and create some space and some thin shots.
Nor of course, do you want to play it up here
where you're picking a lot of balls,
hitting them low on the face.
So you gotta find that right spot,
again I'm gonna suggest about in the middle for you.
How do you find that?
Couple of ways you can work on that.
Number one, set up in front of a mirror.
Get directly in front of a mirror
and check it out and you'll see it.
Number two, now and again
when you take you're set up in practice,
just dangle the club from the middle of your chest.
From about your sternum bone,
and you'll pretty much see what the middle
of the stance is there.
So I hope this helps you.
Again this is for short irons,
maybe seven iron through sand wedge something like that.
We'll have another video on long irons.
If you like these videos, subscribe to the channel.
We'll get you all this free content
that'll be coming over the next year or so, or more I hope.
And scratchgolfacademy.com is the home website.
All kinds of material for you there.
Hope this helps you, with ball position on your short irons.
(lively instrumental music)
(mouse clicking)