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After I’d written my last article, about where to put the ball in your stance, many people got in touch with me asking to explain more about distancing the ball between your feet. Looking back, I realise that, because I’d struggled more on distance from my body, I spent most of the last article discussing that aspect.

By the sound of most of your emails, though, it seems many of you are more interested in the positioning along the line of the shot, rather than from the body. Golfers truly do come in many shapes and sizes! From my original notes I’ve put this second part of the article together for you.

So, just to recap the previous article, you should have the ball the distance away from you of the club and swing you’ll be using – that is, further away for the driver, woods and long irons, and nearer to you for the short irons, wedges and putter.

So what I was taught to do once I’d mastered that, was again based on the club selected for the shot, and placing the ball at different positions along the line of the swing. So there are 2 elements of positioning that are dependent on club selection – distance from the body and placement along the line of the shot.

Essentially, the longer the shaft of the club, the further forward along the line of the swing the ball should be. Starting with the driver, then, we place it up towards where our front foot would intersect with the line of the swing – that being the left foot for righthanders like me.

The driver is the longest of the clubs, and requires more of a rounded swing than any other clubs. Because of this, we don’t want to hit the ball too early in the swing, so when we place it near to our front foot, we will be hitting the ball on the upswing rather than the downswing.

Amateur golfers will only use the driver for the vast majority of the time on a tee shot. The combined effect of placing the ball forward in the swing, and having a high tee which is also recommended for a driver, will see us hitting the ball up from the tee, thus sending it further.

With the other clubs not requiring as big a swing, and also not needing us to hit the ball quite so much on the up, we position the ball further back down the line of the swing, with the shortest clubs having their best ball position in line with your eyes, in the middle of your stance.

Mike Jackson runs an online golf equipment store, where you can buy golf clubs, golf balls, golf gifts, golf bags etc.