Today, I’m going to dismiss a myth. It’s pretty hard to say isn’t it? I did it on the first time. That myth is simply this: it’s that your ball position is determined by the club that you have in your hand. Now, you hear all this all your life, “Wedge back here, 5 iron in the middle, driver forward.” You’ll never be consistent if you do that because it’s not the club that determines the ball position, it’s the lie of the land. I’m going to take my golf club, aim it at my target, square my body to the ball and keep it fairly neutral. Middle of my stance to slightly forward. The reason this is slightly forward is my right hand is below my left hand. Now, how do I know this? Well, it’s very simple. Everybody is built a little differently but we all balance. So what I do is I aim the club at my target, square my body to the club, put the club in front of me. Now, we’re going to go back to Caddyshack, you know a little nah nah nah. I’m going to close my eyes and I’m going to take the club back and forth and get less and less until I can feel my body just settle. Now I’m going to drop the club straight down. Guess what. I got good ball position. If I’m sitting up like this and I put the club up here and I close my eyes and I go like that until my body balances, boom, I’ve got the ball too far back in my stance. Because I’m a human being and I’ve got balance points, my body is going to try to return that club to this point and not this point. Let me show you what happens on an uphill lie. Here we are on an uphill lie. This thing’s called a hillside; it’s something I used to teach with and I let my members hit golf balls up so they can practice those difficult shots they get on the golf course and not just that flat lie on the range. Now, with an uphill lie, guess what, I’m not going to lean downhill. I don’t want to fall over when I swing. I’m a human being: I’m going to lean into the hill. Once I get comfortable, I’m going to take the club. I’m going to put it in front of me and I’m going to go back and forth, let my body just balance, let it settle. I’m going to drop it down and guess what? My ball position has moved forward, my center gravity. My balance point has moved forward. It’s just the opposite on a downhill lie. On a downhill lie, you lean back into the hill, your ball position moves back. Have you ever had that downhill lie where you hit 6 inches behind it, either miss the ball or chunk it. Well you can eliminate that shot by playing the ball back on a downhill lie, forward on a uphill lie and letting the lie of the land determine your ball position. Just little subtle changes in ball position makes a big difference in your golf game.
