Ball position

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Onscreen text: Charles Schwab Presents Improving Your Game with Michael Block

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Onscreen text: Irons: Ball Position Michael Block PGA Professional

Michael Block: How important is ball positioning? It's huge. Number one, as we all pretty much know, if the ball's forward in your stance, you're adding loft—the ball's going to go higher. It goes higher, it goes shorter. It's in the middle of your stance—that's pretty much what your normal distance should be. And then it's back in your stance—your D loft in the club taking loft off of it¬—it's going to go lower, but a little bit further. Now, more importantly is, what's the ball going to do? Is it going to go straight, draw, or fade based on these ball positionings? So now you're going to learn.

Michael Block: Dead center should go somewhat straight, but a lot of people have this misconception. They feel like if they put the ball further forward in their stance, they're going to hit more of a draw. When in reality is, when the pros want to hit a cut, they put the ball forward because the club is now working to the inside as you make contact, which is putting a left-to-right spin on the golf ball.

Michael Block: So having the ball more forward is going to hit a cut and it's going to go a little higher. Vice versa, if I've got the ball back in my stance, I'm going to hit the ball as my club's still working from the inside path and through impact. So it's going to start out to the right and then draw or hook back in a lower ball flight. So, dead center, usually pretty straight. Ball forward, high fades. Ball back, low draws. I hope this helps.

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