A consistent golf swing is built from the ground up, and that foundation is your stance. Before you even think about turning your shoulders or hinging your wrists, the way you stand to the ball dictates your balance, power, and ability to deliver the club back to the ball repeatably. This guide will walk you through every component of the golf stance, offering practical, step-by-step advice to build a solid, athletic setup that you can trust on every single shot.
In golf, we're trying to create a consistent, powerful, rotational action. Your stance is what makes that possible. Think of a baseball player at the plate or a tennis player waiting to return a serve. They're in an athletic "ready" position, balanced and prepared to move powerfully. The golf stance is no different. It's not a passive pose, it's an active position of readiness that directly influences three major factors in your swing:
In short, focusing on your stance isn't just a basic tip for beginners. It's a fundamental that every great player diligently maintains because they know it's the bedrock of their entire swing.
Building a great stance isn't about finding a single rigid position. It's about understanding the core components and customizing them slightly for different clubs and shots. Let's break down each element.
Your stance width is your primary source of balance. It needs to be wide enough to support a full rotation, but not so wide that it restricts your ability to turn your hips.
For Mid-Irons (like a 7, 8, or 9-iron): A great rule of thumb is to place your feet about shoulder-width apart. If you were to measure from the inside of your heels, it should roughly match the width of the outside of your shoulders. This gives you that perfect blend of stability and mobility, creating a strong base to turn against.
How Width Changes for Other Clubs:
A common mistake is going too narrow, which makes it hard to stay balanced, or too wide, which prevents your hips from turning freely. Finding that shoulder-width sweet spot for your irons is a fantastic starting point.
Where you place the ball in relation to your feet determines where the clubhead will make contact with it in your swing's arc. The bottom of your swing arc (your low point) should be slightly after the ball for an iron shot, allowing you to hit the ball first and then the turf.
A simple system for ball position is a great way to build consistency:
This is the part of the stance that feels the most unnatural for new golfers, but it’s absolutely essential. We almost never stand this way in daily life. Most people bend at the waist and slouch. In golf, we want a powerful, athletic posture that comes from the hips.
Here’s how to get into it:
At first, sticking your bottom out and leaning over like this will feel odd. Many golfers I coach feel self-conscious doing it. But I promise you, when you look in a mirror or on video, you'll look like a golfer who’s ready to hit a great shot. This posture keeps your spine in a neutral position, which lets your torso rotate freely and powerfully.
Your last step is to settle into your stance and feel your weight distribution. For a standard shot with an iron on flat ground, your weight should be balanced perfectly 50/50 between your right and left foot. You should also feel the weight balanced toward the middle of your feet - not too much on your heels and not too much on your toes.
Being balanced 50/50 at address sets you up for the correct weight transfer during the swing. As you swing back, more weight will load onto your back foot, and as you start the downswing, you'll push off and transfer the weight smoothly onto your front foot through impact. Starting in a balanced, neutral position makes this sequence much easier and more repeatable.
Even with the best intentions, it's easy to fall into a few common stance traps. Here are some of the biggest ones I see and how to fix them.
This is perhaps the most frequent posture mistake. It happens when a golfer rounds their upper back and shoulders, creating a "C" shape in their spine. This posture severely restricts your ability to turn your shoulders on the backswing and through-swing. It often leads to an arm-dominant swing with little a lot less power.
The Fix: Focus on the hip hinge. Stick your chest out and pull your shoulders back slightly before you bend forward from your hips. Keep your back relatively straight and feel as if you are maintaining this straight line from your tailbone to your neck as you tilt over the ball.
As we discussed, a stance that’s too wide will lock your hips and make it almost impossible to rotate. You might feel stable, but you lose a ton of power. A stance that's too narrow makes you unstable, you’ll have trouble keeping your balance during a powerful swing, leading to topped shots or chunks.
The Fix: Routinely use the feedback of an object. Place a club on the ground in front of your toes. After you set your stance, look down. Are your heels about as wide as your shoulders for a mid-iron? If not, adjust accordingly. This simple check can solidify your foundation.
Placing the ball too far back in your stance often leads to a steep, downward strike, causing low, diving shots or heavy, fat contact. Placing it too far forward can make you reach for the ball, leading to thinned shots or pulls to the left (for righties).
The Fix: Develop a consistent pre-shot routine. My favorite technique is to start with your feet together, with the ball in line with the center of your feet. For a mid-iron, take a small step with your lead foot and an equally small step with your trail foot. The ball will now be perfectly in the middle of your stance. For a driver, take a tiny step with your lead foot and a much larger step with your trail foot. This makes your ball position perfectly repeatable.
A consistent golf stance - with an athletic posture, proper width, correct ball position, and balanced weight - is the fundamental that makes everything else in your swing work. By making these setup elements a non-negotiable part of your pre-shot routine, you remove huge variables and build a powerful, repeatable foundation for every shot you hit.
While understanding these fundamentals is a huge step, applying them correctly on the course, especially on uneven lies or under pressure, can be another challenge. Instead of guessing, we created tools to take the uncertainty out of your game. My team and I developed Caddie AI to act as your personal, on-demand coach and caddie. If you’re ever facing a weird lie - ball above your feet, in thick rough, or on a downhill slope - you can snap a photo, and our AI will instantly analyze the situation, telling you how to adjust your stance and setup to play the shot with confidence.
Thinking about hosting a golf tournament fundraiser is the first swing, executing it successfully is what gets the ball in the hole. This guide will walk you through the entire process, step-by-step, from laying the initial groundwork months in advance to watching your happy golfers tee off. We’ll cover everything from securing sponsors and setting your budget to planning the on-course fun that makes an event unforgettable.
A golf handicap does more than just give you bragging rights (or a reason to demand strokes from your friends) - it’s the game’s great equalizer and the single best way to track your improvement. This guide breaks down what a handicap is, how the supportive math behind a handicap index a is, and exactly how you can get one for yourself. We’ll look at everything from Course Rating to Adjusted Gross Score, helping you feel confident both on the course and in the clubhouse.
The compression of a Pinnacle Rush golf ball is one of its most defining features, engineered specifically to help a huge swath of golfers get more distance and enjoyment from their game. We'll break down exactly what its low compression means, who it's for, and how you can use that knowledge to shoot lower scores.
Figuring out which spikes go into your new (or old) pair of Puma golf shoes can feel like a puzzle, but it’s much simpler than you think. The key isn't the brand of the shoe, but the type of receptacle system they use. This guide will walk you through exactly how to identify your Puma's spike system, choose the perfect replacements for your game, and change them out like a pro.
The Golf Genius app is one of the best tools for managing and participating in competitive golf events, but figuring it out for the first time can feel like reading a new set of greens. This guide cuts through the confusion and shows you exactly how to use the app as a player. We’ll cover everything from logging into your tournament and entering scores to checking the live leaderboard so you can enjoy the competition without any tech headaches.
Walking onto the first tee with sweaty palms, worried you’ll be a good partner to paly wtih...or even asked back again ...We’ve all been there - trust me! The real trick of feeling confortable... is about how you handle you’re ready to plsy. THIS guide explains the simple rules of the rode to show you hnow t play golf while staying calm relaxed and focused... an having much morse fun while you,',re aat it? You'll also play with confidence a dn make fiendsa while you're at i
Just ask a question or share a photo and Caddie gives personalized guidance for every shot - anytime, anywhere.
