06/16/2017

When you’re hitting shots, how often do you consider the ball position?

You probably think the secret to hitting longer drives is the brand-new $400 driver with the speed grooves, secret slots, adjustable weights, and mega-fast face.

Either that, or you think you just need to figure out how to swing the club faster.

Maybe you’re the person who thinks, “all I need to do is get my swing to look like the ones on TV and I’ll start bombing tee shots.”

What if I told you, a simple thing like ball position can have a drastic influence on the distance you hit your drives?

In this video, PGA teaching professionals and industry leaders Joseph Mayo and Grant Waite talk about the importance of solid ball position:

Driver Ball Position

When looking back at this video, this dynamic duo dives into the importance of strong ball position when hitting drivers.

The average golfer swings the ball at 90 miles per hour. This is drastically different than what the average PGA Tour player swings their driver, which is typically in excess of 110 miles per hour.

Simple physics tells us amateur golfers need to do everything they can to give themselves optimum yardage.

Since the golf ball sits on a tee with the driver, this means a golfer can do one of two things:

They can either…

1. Hit up on the ball (positive Angle of Attack), or…
2. Hit down on the ball (negative Angle of Attack)

Now you’ll read a lot of blogs on the internet from people with various opinions on this topic. But Joseph Mayo makes an unequivocal statement to understanding this.

“For the club golfer, without question, the distance gained is going to come from hitting up vs. hitting down.”

— Joseph Mayo

Now there’s an optimum ball position for achieving this.

Grant Waite indicates there is a point to use as a frame of reference for ball position. Now many golfers talk about their feet for ball position. This can be okay, but Waite gives an even better frame of reference.

If you have access to a camera (have your friend film you from in front of you), try to have the ball position in line with a position just underneath the left shoulder (think armpit!).

This results in the ball being forward in the stance.

Joseph Mayo and Grant Waite believe they have never had to tell a student once to move the ball back in their stance. 

With a forward ball position, the club will bottom out on the arc, and start traveling up to a finish.

Key: Don’t try to hit up on the ball. Simply move the ball up and swing your normal swing. Hitting up will happen as a by-product.

So there you have it, move the ball up, hit up on the ball as a product, and start seeing a difference in the distance of your tee shots.

Good luck and please leave any comments you have, below!