I just finished Ben Hogans 5 lessons, and was surprised towards the end to see he suggests the ball, for him anyway, stays slightly inside his lead heal for each club. His trail foot changes based on the club. Every other video or website suggests the ball moves from center to just inside lead heel as club length increases.
by Business-West-9687
14 Comments
Which way is the target from this stance?
Remember, as your club gets longer, your stance width will widen. Here’s a good (random) article about it: http://grouchygolf.blogspot.com/2006/01/golf-tips-ball-position.html?m=1
This is taught. I think Sean Foley has talked about a few players doing this. It’s not uncommon.
It just depends on the player, there’s a few guys on tour who kinda do this.
Also the opening and closing of the stance to zero out the path is another factor as well.
Couple older guys did this too, I can’t remember who else but Nicklaus was famous for playing most shots where he felt like it was off his lead heel and varied his stance.
https://youtu.be/met1JPK9aJA?si=rjHN-lf-3_kNNunR
There’s Jack himself explaining it.
It’s effectively the same thing. with a narrower stance the ball is closer to the center of your stance relative to the distance to your lead foot.
The picture may not be exactly to scale, and this is likely more of a cheat-sheet / setup helper for people to understand the concept or to help with consistent setup.
The concept being-
As you move from your wedges to your driver, the ball moves further from the middle of your stance and closer to your lead foot relative to the width of your stance.
Hogan was also not using modern equipment (specifically drivers) which have changed drastically from his era to current, which would likely affect ball position.
Did he really angle his lead foot 40 degrees like this?
I line up basically all my shots a bit off the lead foot. I like the feeling of having room to “step into” the shot. Turns out this isn’t uncommon. I feel very uncomfortable lining up say a 7i in middle of my stance, and lining up a driver like that would short circuit my brain. Anyway, lots of ways to play.
I tried lining up on my driver like the and it was great. Until it wasn’t. My alignment started getting whacked trying to manage every club’s stance and ball placement.
My conclusion is that Ben Hogan knew his swing and I’m not Ben Hogan.
I use some variation of this. Driver with closed stance and pitch shots with open stance. Irons something between those. I didn’t know that until I had a plenty of gameplay videos taken by my buddies.
After realizing that I do play like that, my course play got better since I didn’t practice earlier in the same way I played. I had alignment sticks for my feet but didn’t realize that it changed natural stance. I had a strange left bias in approach shots for months due that.
Instructions unclear. Looked like a fool on the dance floor.
https://preview.redd.it/a3xbjizzo9xe1.jpeg?width=2532&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=707fc5cf4d0c0a23f1f41c322d027bf9921d9f11
Tiger played the ball off his left heel on normal shots unless he was trying to hit a low/punch shot. This is a screen shot from his POV video. He also played a high fade so the ball landed softly. This is a drill I use when I don’t feel like my weight is properly shifting to the lead side. I’ll move the ball forward like this to force my lateral bump and weight shift. This is also good to do if you play irons with minimal offset.
This set up is a cornerstone of how to alter your set up to hit shots higher and lower by altering the back foot.
This style is correct to a degree. But it explains one very important thing most won’t see. You are moving your sternum (your center) to alter your low point. But, the ball, left arm and ball don’t change. No matter what pitch or serve comes the ball is hit near the front of your body. In front of you.
You always make contact with the grip near that spot
https://preview.redd.it/0b0wwl0at9xe1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=725dc4191353c032db78ebcbcde79fff0ae18e16
Now, I’m sliding a bit and my left hip is turned out of the way. But see, my LW is played up front but my back foot is up front moving my weight forward and my head more forward in the set up. It’s the same as moving the ball back. But moving the ball back has you hitting the ball with your hands too far back. The hands are always out in front of the middle of your body at impact. Always.
So right foot up front, low shots and chips, right foot back is higher shots and power and adding height to low lofted clubs. He’s closed with the driver to promote a draw and power. He’s open with wedges because they are easy to pull and it helps the body lead and keep the club delofted.
I hope this explains this genius and 70 year old technique
I feel like this promotes weight transfer to the lead side. I struggled with it then started a drill where the ball is about 3″ in front of your lead foot. This really gets you to transfer the weight
He wants you to have the same swing no matter the club. It makes a lot of sense to me tbh, why change your swing when you can just move your right foot instead of
This promotes a power fade, which Hogan hit the majority of his career. I was a scratch golfer for awhile when much younger and playing more using all the tips from this book and a $200 set of executive irons. Swing felt automatic and effortless. Then I took a break from golf, got new clubs and that same stance let me down, no more fade and hit everything left. I’m sure it still works well but I only really open my stance on short chip shots now.