Section 3 - Set Up

With parallel alignments with all parts of the body there are a number of other important references useful for a correct set up position. The left arm and club shaft should appear to be in a straight line for all normal full shots and because of the right hand being lower on the club than the left, the top half should appear to tilt slightly away from the target. The players’ head should be closer to the right foot than to the centre of the stance and should also be behind the ball and the club head.

In the lower part of the body there should be an even weight distribution on the feet and legs with a little angle out in both feet. Front to back the weight should be from the balls of the feet to the heels at address and there should be a slight flex in the knees. The backside should feel like it sticks out, to give room for the arms to swing past the body and to counter the bend from the waist.  The bend from the waist or hips should allow the spine to remain fairly straight, which is important to allow the upper body to turn correctly. The head should be up and the arms should hang away from the body slightly.

The position of the ball in the stance relative to left foot, is also an important consideration in the set up. With iron shots the ball should be struck with the club head slightly moving with a descending blow. With the woods the ball should be met with the club head reaching the very bottom of its arc at impact with the ball.

There are two schools of thought as to what to do with the ball position for the different clubs. The first suggests that with the longest clubs you play the ball from a position just inside the left heel and as the clubs get shorter the ball slowly moves back to around the middle of the stance with a pitch shot. You will also be standing closer to the ball with the shorter clubs so the ball moves on a diagonal line toward the right heel.

This will indeed mean that with the shorter irons the club will be approaching on a much steeper angle of attack and that deeper divots will occur. With the ball moving forward in the stance with the long irons and woods the club approaches on a shallower angle and less divot is taken. So the ball with a driver or fairway woods is swept away with the the club right at the bottom of its arc when it meets the ball. This is the way that perhaps half of all the golfers in the world play. 

The other half use what is called a universal ball position. This is where the ball is played from the same position relative to the left foot with all clubs. Generally this position is between the inside of the left heel and the middle of the stance but can be affected by the players’ preference in their ball flight. For someone that wants to play the ball predominantly with a draw they would play all shots from closer to the middle of the stance. A person that prefers a fade or left to right shaped shot would tend to play from more forward in the stance. 

Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman have been advocates of a one ball position but one played straight to fade shots while the other played straight to draw shots. Tiger Woods has small variations in his ball positioning with the different clubs and also according to the type of shot he is trying to play. Playing the ball from a universal position is a pretty good way to start and then experiment from there.

One ball position can also mean a greater consistency in getting the club to reach the bottom of the swing arc at the same point every time and also at the outside of the around and around arc. These two arcs are going to have a great deal of influence on the starting direction of the shot and on the trajectory. If the ball is more back towards the right foot the ball will tend to start further to the right. And if the ball is forward, it will start to the left. With the ball back in the stance this will generally lead to a lower shot and with the ball further forward it will tend to make for a higher shot.

As far as posture goes this is also a very important part of the setup. The most important thing with posture is that you maintain whatever angles or flexes you established at address.

One of the most difficult things to do during the swing is to bend forward and then have to turn your body back and through whilst basically keeping that same bend. But this is something that good players all tend to do well. Any changes in your spine angle will make it more difficult to make solid contact and to hit the ball in the centre of the clubface.

Normally it is easier to turn around your spine when you are bending forward from the hips and not the waist. Also the shoulders need to be back and not rounded at address.

From the ground up you should have your weight distributed from the balls of the feet back to the heels. This means that you should almost be able to wiggle or lift your toes on both feet in the address position if your weight is set properly. If you get your weight on your toes during the swing you’ll likely get closer to the ball resulting in heeled shots or struggle with balance throughout. By the same token having the weight go back toward the heels is also going to lead to problem.

At address there should be a slight flex in the knees and this as with the spine angle needs to be pretty much maintained during the swing.

During the backswing you should be turning around that slightly flexed knee which should just about stay in the same position. In the down and through swing you need to turn around the left knee which is why it is also important to have a little bit of angle out in the feet.  The slightly angled out feet will help to have the bottom half turn level.

The backside should feel like it sticks out at address to help give room for the arms to swing in front of the body.  As explained earlier the spine should be fairly straight and you need to bend forward from the hips with the head neither up nor down too much. The arms then need to hang slightly away from the body and this varies slightly with each club and it certainly varies from player to player.  There is no exact way to measure how far to stand from the ball so experimentation and individual advice is needed.