Kung Pao Revelation

So I'm at the Chinese takeout place last night, using the wait for my Kung Pao Chicken as an opportunity to think about my latest swing issues.

Whenever I have swing issues I always go back to basics. It's often a setup problem. "Why am I pulling shots, and why am I topping or thinning long irons and fairway woods" I wonder. Could it be ball position? Could all of these faults be the result of playing the ball too far forward? That seems a possibility, but I haven't changed my ball position. I'm mulling this over when suddenly it hits me!

WRT ball postion, I've always followed the standard teaching instruction of placing the ball off the front heel for driver shots and progressively back towards the center of the stance as the loft of the clubs increase.

But ball position, I suddenly realize, is affected by the width of stance! I haven't changed my ball position, but I have recently broadened my stance in an attempt to reduce a sway in my backswing. So my ball position is now effectively farther forward in my swing.

Eager to test my theory, I went to the driving range near my house after dinner. I placed a ball on the mat, took my new stance and then a couple of practice swings. Sure enough, my club brushed the turf a bit behind the ball. So I moved my back foot forward. Not very much - just an inch or two - enough to narrow my stance just a little bit. Now when I brushed the mat with my practice swings the bottom of my swing arc was even with the ball.

Voila! I proceeded to hit a bucket of balls as well as I have in years. Short irons weren't pulled, long irons and fairway woods flew high and straight, and with all shots - from driver on down - I had the feeling that I was swinging with more power and making contact with the ball at just the right moment.

Surprisingly, narrowing my stance didn't cause a sway on the backswing - perhaps because one of my two swingthoughts was to keep the weight on the inside of my back foot on the backswing. My lower body was relatively quiet during the swing but I felt like I was able to push off my rear foot for added power.

My other swingthought was to continue to swing "down and through" the ball - as per the other recent "revelation" I had while reading Byron Nelson.

With swing issues, sometimes, usually in fact, it's something just this simple.