Ball Position Drift
What is actually happening
Your swing is fine. The ball is standing in the wrong part of it. Every swing has a natural bottom, the spot where the club wants to hit the ground. When the ball creeps too far forward or back in your stance, the club gets to it before or after that bottom. Nothing about your motion changed. The target moved.
What it costs you
Play it too far back and the club comes in steep with the face shut. That means low, smothered shots and deep divots. Too far forward and the club is already swinging up, which means thin contact and a weak ball that drifts right. Most golfers feel those misses and start rebuilding a swing that was never broken.
Short irons play from the middle of your stance. The ball moves forward one ball-width at a time as the club gets longer, ending at your lead heel with the driver.
Two-Stick Station
Lay one alignment stick down your target line and a second across it at a right angle, pointed at the ball. The cross-stick turns ball position from a guess into a setting you can see. Start with a wedge and the stick at stance center. Hit five shots, then read the ground: the divots should start just in front of the stick, because a wedge meets the ball on the way down. Move the stick one ball-width forward for a 7-iron and hit five more. Finish with the stick at your lead heel and hit five drivers, where there should be no divot at all, just a clean sweep. Film one swing at each station face-on. The divot pattern is the whole report card, and it can't lie about where your bottom is.
Is this the one costing you shots?
Film one swing and you get every position frame by frame with reference lines drawn on your video, so this one is easy to spot. Its automated check is in the works.
Analyze my swing freeCurious how the measuring works? See what we measure at each position.