Instruction

5 Things You Need To Be Doing To Have A Solid Golf Stance

June 03, 2016

A good golf swing begins with an even better setup. That's why, before you focus on anything else, it's important to make sure you have a solid stance. We spent some time on Thursday night with Adam Kolloff, a Jim McLean Master Instructor who's based at Liberty National Golf Club, and we asked him to explain the anatomy of a perfect setup.

We captured his entire explanation via Facebook Live, which you can watch here:

Here are Kolloff's five essential takeaways when setting up to a ball with a 7 iron:

1. Ball position: The ball should be either in the center of your stance or just a touch forward of center.

2. Set your toes: Your trail foot should be perpendicular to your target line, and your lead foot should be flared out about 20 degrees toward the target.

3. Distance from the ball: Your arms should hang comfortably down. If your arms are reaching out, you're standing too far from the ball. If your arms are close to your body, you're standing too close to the ball.

4. Width of stance: Your feet should be shoulder-width apart.

5. Weight distribution: You want 50 percent of your weight on your front foot and 50 percent of your weight on your back foot.

These takeaways change ever-so slightly as you move through the set. As your club gets longer, your ball position moves more forward and your stance gets a touch wider (the widest you'll ever want to be is just outside shoulder width). As your club gets shorter, your ball position moves farther back (but never back of center) and your stance gets narrower.

Kolloff ended his Facebook Live lesson by explaining how you should change your setup should you want to hit a draw or a fade.

Now that you know the essentials of a perfect setup, you're ready to swing away.