Open, closed or square stance?

potbunker

When I changed to a more offset iron 2 years ago, my ballstriking went all to pieces.
Now with new irons I am better but still inconsistent.
At the range the last few times, I went back to my pre-lessons old stance of open at address and it all started clicking again.
It is too early to profess this as a revelation, but trials will continue.

So what set up do you use and have you experimented with address position changes?

FauxAmish

potbunker

I will always try to adhere to a square stance based upon a RR track setup.

If one is having issues, IMO, it will most likely be one of "casting" rather than the stance.

Take a square stance and work on shortening the back-swing with what you think are 3/4 swings while bracing the right side and see if there is any difference. Work on making solid contact, and when that is accomplished, then gradually increase the back-swing if needed.

Solid contact being the key, not length of swing.

A work in process here, not necessarily a process that always works.

Release

My first decade of golfing, I was using mostly a slightly close stance at address. It seemed to worked the best at the time. Gradually I used the variable stance to ball position like in the book of 5 lessons by Ben Hogan, that was great for awhile. Trouble was, I did not practice often so each time I had to find the match of the stance and ball position with the lie, using several practice swing.

I then moved to the square alignment, and only change stance position when called for specialty shot. That worked real well during my best ball striking years.

Now I prefer a square to slightly open stance, since I need more help with the follow through to have more torque. Old body does not generate enough torque so I have to help it a little. The open stance seemed to eliminated some of the pulls and cross the line when trying to finish strong.

potbunker

Release Now I prefer a square to slightly open stance, since I need more help with the follow through to have more torque. Old body does not generate enough torque so I have to help it a little. The open stance seemed to eliminated some of the pulls and cross the line when trying to finish strong.

Older body, sad, but this is my thought process also.
Losing flexibility my initial thought was closed which helps you turn. However, does -0- for getting the club head through the ball and generate drive with the hips and legs.

letthebigdogshunt

When I first started to play the game some 50+ years ago. I just stood near the ball and swung the club. I had no swing thoughts in my head or set up thoughts. I only played a 15-20 times a year back then. 25 years ago I started getting serious about golf. Since then I have play with a slightly open stance for irons and depending on what type of shot I wanted to hit I would adjust for woods and driver. Today I drop my left foot back a bit and my foot also slightly open. I don't worry about distance with irons, just try to hit it pure and the same distance each time with my irons. Plus I have gone to hybrids to help with the longer irons as my swing speed has gotten slower in my old age.

Release

Yes, in golf as in any other stuff in life, we sometimes reverse the cause and the result.

In golf, often times we hear how to correct a situation. Actually, it should be how to produce the desired result.
Work it backward from the desired result.
I wanted to have straighter ball flight and higher trajectory and after trying out several combination a human body could handle without turning into a pretzel ( an older human body .....) the square to slightly open stance worked out the best for me.
Of course, after some getting used to at the beginning.
It took me several months to get completely comfortable doing it automatically but some of my friends still working on it after several seasons ( open the stance instead of the hacker's closed stance ).
Right now, I'm not only trying to maintain distance and control, I'm finding out a golf swing which cause less damage to an already battered human body. My back swing is not completely parallel at the top, however, I'll take 3/4 back swing, set it , then a full finish. Result is not that far away from my peak average many years ago.

Imagine what it'll be, with what I know now, take it back 30-40 years with a younger me. Most likely, still could not make it to the Tour, but I would be a very competitive golfer.

PA-PLAYA

I seldom change my setup unless I'm fighting a weak push or slice. That's not very often, maybe a couple times a season I'll stumble upon a too-steep swing that requires a little subtle adjustment to help promote more of an initial move that helps me get back on plane. If it's not chronic, I can get the proper feeling of on-plane within a few holes of hitting from a slightly closed stance. But that's about the extent of my setup adjustments.

I don't deliver more than 95-97 mph of club head speed with driver, so a slight fade or gentle draw doesn't generally get me into too much trouble. My bad swings have me missing the fairway by maybe 5 yards on a relatively calm day with little wind, so it's not like I struggle with direction very often. I might have one really bad swing per round where I get a little quick at the top with my transition and then obviously I'm at the mercy of the softness or firmness of the ground with regard to how far off-target my ball ends up.

Square setup works fine for me. I also make every effort to pinpoint an intermediate target within a few feet in front of my ball that is the line I'm wanting to start my ball on, which helps me get the club square at address and then allows me to likewise get my setup square to that line. Aiming the club at something a few feet away is most always more accurate than aiming at a tree or some other reference point 250 yards away.

Even at slower club head speeds, a few degrees off one way or the other can be the difference between hitting from short grass versus rough, or putting versus a shot from off the green.

My key is making the bad swings more playable, and that's usually a lot more simple to do if you're aligning yourself to the target accordingly. If you're breaking 80 or shooting better scores than that, the missed shots have less to do with contact and more to do with alignment and aim.

You watch all those guys on tv, and they're all pretty much setting up very square to the target with little deviation. And even when they're needing to hit a small cut-shot or tight draw - their setup adjustments are very subtle, almost so subtle that it's difficult to detect that they've changed anything.

Harvey always said - take one aspirin - not the whole bottle. Keep it simple.