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Golf Swing – Hand Alignment
From these basic foot-to-ball alignments, something else happens in your address position that you must be aware of and allow for. Your hands will be slightly behind the ball. This is also contrary to most golf instruction, which says that with the driver and other long clubs the hands should be positioned at least even with the ball, and as you work down to the shorter clubs the hands get ahead of the ball. With the ball-to-foot alignment I recommend, you can’t achieve the hands-ahead position unless you are something of a contortionist. And you shouldn’t try to be one. If you are lined up off the left heel it is natural for the hands to be slightly behind the ball. It is part and parcel of the main objective, getting the ball up.
If there is one danger to this basic hand position, it is that you are susceptible to pulling shots to the left. This happens especially when your right hand is too dominant in the swing action. Admittedly, the setup of the hands I am suggesting puts the right hand in somewhat of a dominant position, but I don’t believe it is enough to be a major problem so long as you work the hands from the top of the swing to the ball with the left hand leading, the specifics of which I will discuss in the chapter on the Downswing.
For now, however, to keep from pulling the ball left, you must make a good lateral move forward with the hips when you start the downswing and make sure the left hand is not dominated by the right. Significantly, both these actions are essential to any good golf swing, no matter where you place the ball at address, so it’s not a compensation at all. As I’ve said, I will talk in the chapter on the Downswing on both the hand and hip actions.
An Open, Square, and Shut Case
As to the matter of open, square, or closed stance, this does change in relation to the clubs used. In the old days, everyone played everything from a basically closed stance, the right foot drawn back from the target line. They did it in large part because most everyone in those days was a hand hitter and hooker. I am not alone in saying that there are three different stances in this regard. From the wedge up to the 8-iron, the stance should be open, the left foot pulled back a few inches from the intended line of flight. That’s because with the relatively short swing taken with these clubs there is little body movement and you want to have the left side out of the way when you move through the ball, just as you do with all other clubs. The open stance facilitates this.
From the 7- to the 5-irons, the feet should be square to the target line, and on the long irons, woods and driver, it is slightly closed. Not shut, just closed a hair.
These are not ironbound rules, as you might expect. With the driver, Lee Trevino stands with such an open stance it is almost incredible that he puts the ball in play. On the other side) if you watch
Sam Snead’s alignment from directly behind, you will note that he is in a basically very closed position-set up right of his target. There is a lot of room between these extremes to find out what is best for you. The one you come up with will be the “right” one if it gets you results.
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