Proper Golf Stance: Top Tips For a Great Golf Setup

Three Types of Stances (Square, Closed, or Open)

The second part of your stance is whether it’s square, closed or open to the target. 

• Square: This is a neutral position where your feet are parallel to the ball and target (this is known as “parallel left” of the target). Since you’re standing to the side of the golf ball, you don’t want them square to the target itself, but parallel to the left. 
• Closed: With a closed stance, your feet point more towards the target or even right of the target. This will help promote an inside to outside swing that should produce more of a draw shot.
• Open: With an open stance, your feet are much further left than “parallel left” of a square stance. This will help promote an outside to inside swing that generally produces a fade. 

In a perfect world I’d suggest always using a square stance but as you know, there is no “one way” to swing the club. There are plenty of examples of great players who have used an open stance to become some of the best ball strikers in the world.  

Regardless of which type of stance you prefer, something that good players tend to do is flare their feet externally. As Golf.com noted, “Turning your toes out about 20 degrees — maybe even more — effectively makes you more flexible. It creates greater range of motion in your hips, which produces a distance boost in very short order.”

This is even more important with your driver as you want to gain as much distance as possible. Flaring your feet makes it easier to get a bigger turn and thus, more club/ball speed which leads to longer drives. Plus, it helps with irons too – especially if you’re the type of golfer who sometimes sways laterally in your swing.

Add a slight flare to your stance and watch it improve your swing overnight. 

Weight Distribution 

Another thing to think about during setup is your weight or balance between your feet. Each shot requires you to move your weight differently and it’s important to set up correctly.

For example, with a driver that is teed up, you want to hit up on the golf ball to promote a positive launch angle. But if your weight is 70% on your lead leg, this is nearly impossible and will likely lead to a pop-up. Instead, you want roughly 60% of your weight on your trail leg so that you’re more likely to hit the ball on an upward angle. 

Similarly, with wedges, you want your weight more on the lead side to promote a descending blow. If too much weight is on the back leg, you’ll hit the ball with the bottom grooves and thin it.

With irons, you want your weight distributed roughly 50-50 (or 55-45) to promote compression. 

Related: Learn How to Shift Your Weight 

Knee Flex

Another important part of building a solid stance is the amount of knee flex at address position. You want some knee flex, like an athlete in any other sport but not too much. Otherwise, you’re squatting down which doesn’t allow you to use your lower body properly. 

Here’s how Tiger Woods described the “perfect” knee flex in his book, How I Play Golf. 

“I want just enough bend in my knees to feel balanced and ready for action. I have a sense of being light on my feet. My weight is distributed evenly from heel to toe, and my hips and shoulders are ready to rotate freely with full cooperation from my legs and feet.”

This helps activate the lower body properly and create ground force to push up and generate more power. Too much knee bend reduces shoulder turn and doesn’t allow you to create enough speed. While too little knee flex minimizes the lower body movement and leads to poor balance. 

Distance from the Golf Ball

Do you stand too close to the golf ball, too far away, or just the right amount? This is something that most everyday golfers never consider in their stance and can hurt your swing before it even begins.

As Tiger Woods also said in his book, “Standing the correct distance from the ball at address is vital if I am to make a sound swing. If I’m too close or too far away, I’m forced to make all sorts of anatomical adjustments in order to compensate – and I won’t compensate very well.” 

To address the ball properly you want to:

• Bent over at the hips.
• Have your knees flexed.
• Let your arms hang freely.

This will allow you to rotate around your spine and not change the angle throughout the swing. Whether you’re hitting a driver, 5-iron, or wedge, your hands remain the same distance from your thighs. 

Ball Position

The final checkpoint in your stance is ball position. This will differ based on the club and shot you’re about to play which I’ll break down in the next section. 

Golf Stance For Each Type of Clubs

As mentioned earlier in the Golf.com article, there is no “one size fits all” stance. Instead, it changes based on the club you’re hitting. 

Driver and Fairway Wood Stance 

To make the right move with your driver, stance and ball position are key to success. 

With a driver, you want the ball off the left heel (assuming you’re a right-handed golfer) so that you hit up on it at impact to increase launch angle. Remember, a driver is teed up so you need to adjust the ball position in your stance. 

Your driver stance should be slightly wider than shoulder width apart. Doing this will allow for a full body turn and create maximum power in your swing. But don’t overdo it and think wider is bigger – just more than shoulder width is perfect. 

For fairway woods off a low tee or the deck, you will need to adjust ball position again. Since it’s not teed up high, you want to actually make a slightly descending blow. 

A great example of this is Henrik Stenson who is basically the terminator with a 3-wood (check out the below video). With fairway woods, the ball position is in the front center, but definitely not off your left heel like a driver. A slightly narrower stance than the driver is perfect.