I read so many articles, watch a mountain of videos and tried many different variations of ball position to be an expert. Haha, if you believe that well there is something about swamp land for sale. I have tried so many different combinations with so many different clubs that I think I am floating between ‘got it’ to ‘what the heck am I doing’! There is one thing that I did find out through all my trial and errors; there is no right answer for this topic. However, I think I do have a solution to the possibilities.
For my game, I find that my ball needs to be placed at different positions similar to the image to the left. One thing I realize is that my ball placement changed due to how I physically swing my clubs. Therefore, my ball is placed slightly back in my stance in order to make solid contact with the clubface.
If you have not figured out the big tell yet, well here it is: the ball position for all golfers changes depending on their physical ability to swing a golf club. I realize that this may not be the euphony that you might be looking for, yet it is so simple and basic I think it is often overlooked. Depending on the club, the ball position does change to account for the length of the shaft and swing plane. This is a known fact. The challenge is to find that sweet spot on the ground where you club face is supposed to make contact with the ball.
Using the striker stickers, I am able to determine if my ball position is proper. As you can see, I hit the ball above and below the sweet spot on my 7 iron. As I hit ball after ball (no more than 12 balls per sticker) I noticed that if my ball was an inch forward in my stance I below above the target area. Conversely, when the ball was back to far in my stance, I hit above the red circle. Hence, I was able to adjust my ball position to find the perfect spot for more consistent contact.
When I found the proper position, this is what my sticker indicating where I was hitting the ball on the clubface should look like:
With the majority of my misses are high, I had my ball place too far back for three balls. (this is a known setup error for my game) One final adjustment and I was able to hit the target area more consistently and accurately. The results of my ball flight was amazing and well worth the effort trying to figure out the perfect ball position for my swing.
As mentioned earlier, the words ‘for my swing’ are very important. Few amateurs have the exact same golf swing. We all have minor (sometimes major) swing variations that are produced by plethora of reason. Therefore, it stands to reason that our ball position needs to be different to account for our unique swings.
I realize that my thoughts flies in the face of convention. By establishing a standard ball position it is possible to produce a better swing, however my experience tells me that most golfers do not want to put in the time or effort to achieve this ‘better’ swing. We have a unique physical composition, therefore our swing paths and rotation abilities will vary; so should the ball position.
My ball position has changed over the years to match my changing golf swing. I know when I place the ball in the optimal position in my stance, good things happen in my game. As I continue down my golf journey, I will remain cognizant of any changes to my swing that will affect my ball position. But for now, I am good to go!
I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!
The Grateful Golfer 
two comments:
1. I had a lesson from a teaching pro such that all irons should be played from the same spot–somewhere between inside of left foot and middle of left breast. This is basically what I do thus requiring a slight change in body angle (ie the bending of the waist between spine and thigh bone) which seems ok as long as whatever angle is chosen at setup is maintained throughout the swing.
2. Many many years ago (probably in the 1980’s) on a call in radio program I asked Ben Crenshaw about the different shaft lengths and why shouldn’t they all be the same (thus same swing, same ball position). He insisted that different shaft lengths were part of the different distances that different clubs would carry. I said I thought that the different lofts would take care of that and he thought I was incoherent. Now I note that there is at least one pro who has the same shaft lengths on all his irons, go figure, I should have patented the idea.
I should also admit that I’m not very good.
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Steve
The idea of adjust you your swing angles and positions for every club makes know sense to me because of the complexities you mentioned. There are too many moving parts in a golf swing to make that many adjustments all the time. I follow the ‘try to swing the same way’ with my irons and hybrids. Woods are slightly different. I will not say the teaching pro was wrong, however his efforts were to try and mold you into a player he had in mind vice what you are capable of achieving.
As far as same shaft length for all your clubs, Bryson Dechambeau is unique in this matter; he experiments with many different aspects of golf. If the same length clubs was better than normal equipment, I am thinking more pros would adopt this innovation. Regardless, who knows what would have happened if you patented the idea; you could have been the next Karsten Solheim.
Cheers Jim
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