What is the Right Stance Width for Your Golf Swing?

The game of golf is made up of countless little pieces. The results you get on the course are really the sum of how well you are able to bring those little pieces together.

In this article, we turn our attention to an important piece of the overall golf puzzle – stance width.

This point is easy to overlook but it plays a key role in how well your swing performs throughout each round.

Complicating this discussion is the fact that you won’t be able to use one single stance width for all of your shots. In fact, you will find yourself changing the width of your stance constantly from shot to shot, all day long. But don’t worry, because with a basic understanding of how stance width works, you’ll be well on the path to a more consistent golf swing. So let’s dive in!

Stance Width – The Basic Concept

Before getting into any specifics regarding how you should position your feet, let’s look at the bigger picture.

What is the point of dialing in the right width for your stance? There are two things you are trying to accomplish here:

• Using the proper stance width allows you to maintain balance throughout the swing
• Good stance width also enables a full turn back and through

Both balance and rotation can be improved with the right width of stance, but here’s where it gets tricky – going too far in one direction to help one of those elements can actually take away from the other.

For example, a particularly wide stance will almost certainly lead to better balance, but going too wide is going to restrict your turn. The goal here is to strike a balance that serves both goals well enough to leave you with a balanced powerful swing.

A Word About “Shoulder Width”

If you have played a variety of sports in your life, you have probably gotten used to hearing that you should be standing with your feet shoulder width apart for many athletic endeavors. And to be sure, that is a good starting point for plenty of sports. Whether a basketball player on defense or a running back preparing to take a hand-off, keeping your feet near shoulder width seems to work well.

But it’s not so simple in golf.

In fact, a shoulder width stance is simply going to be too narrow for many of the shots you need to hit.

Image via GolfDigest.com

For anything longer than a wedge, you will likely want to stand with your feet a little farther apart than shoulder width, especially for a driver which requires a stance that can accommodate the powerful turn.

The Left Foot, Right Foot Method

For a right-handed golfer, we are going to suggest using a method of putting your left foot into position first, then placing your right foot for every single shot. When done correctly, this technique makes it easy to get into a good stance over the ball, and you’ll be able to adjust the width of your stance based on the club in your hands.

Follow the step-by-step instructions below to try this out for yourself:

1. Using your driver, approach a ball on the driving range that you have teed up and is ready to hit.
2. As you approach the ball, place your driver head on the ground behind the ball and move your left foot into position for the stance. The ball should roughly be lined up with the inside of your left foot, although that is somewhat flexible from player to player.
3. Now that the club and your left foot are set, the last step is to drop your right foot out to the right at the appropriate spot. This is the part that takes practice. Most likely, you’ll want to set that right foot just outside of your right shoulder to create a solid base. However, you can experiment with this on the range to find where the right stance width is for you. With enough repetitions, you should get a feel for that stance, and it will become easy to repeat.

No matter what club you are using, you can use this same technique for taking your stance. With a wedge, the first part of the process will be the same, but you won’t drop that right foot out to the right as far when you finish the stance.

Image via GolfDistillery.com

Spend enough time practicing your stances, either at home or at the range, and you’ll become comfortable finding the right position for your feet depending on which club you are holding.

Comparing Your Knees

If you feel balanced and powerful during your swing, you can be pretty sure that your feet are in roughly the right position. With that said, there is an easy way to check on the width of your stance if you still aren’t sure how it’s going.

When you are done hitting a shot, hold your finish and compare the position of your knees to one another.

• If your knees are right next to each other, your stance is probably an appropriate width
• If your left knee is closer to the target than your right knee (for a right-handed golfer), your stance may be too wide
• If your right knee has passed your left knee and is closer to the target at the finish, your stance may be too narrow

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As always in golf, there is room for personal preference here, so use these guidelines just to point you in the right direction, rather than seeing them as hard and fast rules.

It’s worth putting some time and effort into practicing your stance so you can set your feet in the right spot for each swing. It’s also important to note that you are going to gain some insight into your own game as time goes by, and you might have to adjust your stance in certain situations as a result. For instance, you might find that you like playing from a slightly narrower than normal stance on a downhill lie, or maybe you are more comfortable with a wider stance when the wind picks up.

Keep track of these personal adjustments and you’ll continue to refine your game over time.