The Setup

Setup:

In this post, part of the setup mentioned will include ball position and stance.  Realize that setup, although boring to listen to and drill, is crucial to the consistency of your golf shots.    

General stance tips: shoulder width apart for 6,7,& 8 irons, slightly wider for the 5 iron to Driver, and slightly smaller for the 9 iron and up (Driver stance on left, 7 iron stance on right).  Also make sure that your right side    

Iron (left) vs. Driver (right)

Ball position should always be in relation to your upper body, not the lower body because your feet can move slightly independent of your center of mass (the center of your chest).  The ball positions for the irons  are generally slightly forward of center and at about your left armpit for the driver.  
Notice that the hands are set just inside the left leg for all clubs (yellow circles in photo). 

Have the same ball position for each iron (about in line with the Nike emblem on his shirt), just shift your right foot back for a more stable base.



"Most professional golfers usually stand like Aaron Baddeley at address - they let their arms hang down naturally (near-vertically) from their shoulder sockets so that the hands are under their chin, and they do not extend their arms outwards like Moe Norman (see below) thereby creating a near-straight line relationship between the left forearm and the clubshaft. Here is an example of another professional golfer adopting a traditional/conventional address hand position.

Luke Donald at address - capture image from a swing video

Note that Luke Donald lets his upper arms hang down vertically from the shoulders and his hands are below his chin 

1. usually just in front of the chin when hitting a driver
2. just below the chin when hitting mid-irons
3. just inside the chin when hitting short-irons 

• Note the angle between the forearms and the clubshaft (red lines) - it's not a straight line. 
• Note that the hand plane line (yellow dotted line) passes through his belt buckle. 

The reason why most professional golfers adopt that type of hand position is that it allows the wrists to hinge/cock easily, and biomechanically naturally, during the backswing. It is biomechanically more difficult for the wrists to hinge/cock easily during the backswing if the arms are stretched out at address and the arms/clubshaft form a straight line" (Mann).

As a general rule of thumb, if you have the correct posture then the bottom of grip should be about fist and thumbs length away from belt buckle.  This is more of a minor detail since you really want to be sure to have that angle between your forearms and the club shaft for easy hinging/ cocking.  

Have your right knee kicked in (right photo) so that the right hip is over instep of the right foot, otherwise you will have your hips sway (left photo) which will cause over the top shots and a loss of distance and consistency.  

A common fault (shown left) is the hands too low at address.  The butt end of the club should point into the belt buckle (shown right).

The hands too low causes an under the plane (plane is red portion)  approach, poor spine angle at impact, and steep impact plane.