"Some will never learn anything because they understand everything too soon."
Blount

Golf clubs are designed to demanding specifications. The golf balls you play with are constructed of the finest materials and tested to give you the highest levels of performance under extreme conditions. Yet most players don't allow the ball and the club the opportunity to get together and show you what they can do. Striking a ball a quarter of an inch off center will reduce the distance it carries by ten percent or more. Just enough, I imagine, to put you in the lake or the bunker on your favorite par three.

The easiest way to prevent this from happening is to establish the correct ball positions and stick with them. You might be thinking, "I've tried a lot of ball positions and none of them works." Or, "I just use what seems to be working today." Let's keep in mind what we are working on here. The platform is a concept that works because the fundamentals work together. Each part contributes to the whole. The placement of the ball is as important to the whole as grip, stance, footwork, rotation, and alignment. Experimentation is done on the practice tee, and change is made only after you are convinced that it is appropriate for your game.

We have been working on a consistent platform. We are doing that to produce a consistent swing. Not thirteen different swings, just one consistent swing. We are doing this so we can know in advance where the bottom of the arc of your swing will be. That is how we know where to place the ball. When you swing the driver and the three wood on the tee box you have a goal in mind. You want to strike the ball just after the bottom of your swing, as the club is on the rise. In your swing path this occurs naturally, at a point directly in front of a line that runs perpendicular from the instep of your left foot to the ball-target line. We are going to call this ball position #1. You will play your driver and teed-up three-wood from ball position #1.

Next we have a group of clubs that we prefer to sweep from the grass. I call this giving the grass a haircut. These clubs do not take a divot. This place occurs naturally at a point located just one ball back of ball position #1. The clubs you will have the most success playing from here are your fairway woods, and the long and some mid irons. This is ball position #2.

The next group of clubs consists of our short divot with these clubs. The position for this club is two balls back from ball position #l. The clubs in this group are your 8-iron through the lob wedge. This is ball position #3.

In each of the ball positions you are hitting different length clubs. The longer clubs require a wider stance. With the driver and teed-up three wood your feet will be shoulder width apart. If you have narrow shoulders and are tall you will want to make this stance wider to give you the stability that you need.

There is nothing complicated about these three ball positions, so quit experimenting and use them to your advantage.