This has probably happened to you: you’re playing badly and your partner offers the suggestion that the ball is either too far back or too far forward in your stance.

He/she may be correct, but treat their advice with caution.
For starters your ball position may be a result of compensating for a poor swingpath, and so simply changing it might not do the trick. Everyone is different, but generally speaking a good player doesn’t want the ball positioned too far back in his stance, and a high-handicapper shouldn’t play it too far forward.

Let’s take the example of the good player who is swinging the club excessively from in-to-out through impact (ie creating a very shallow angle of attack). Tired of repeatedly hitting hooks and/or pushed shots or thinned shots he will instinctively move the ball back in his stance to accommodate his faulty swingpath.

A similar solution is usually sought by the player who swings steeply across the ball from out-to-in. The itinerant slicer generally feels more comfortable with the ball moved forwards in his stance; it’s the only way he can get by with his fundamental swing flaw.

But simply changing the ball position depending on how you are hitting the it will not cure the problem. You will also have to work on the swing plane so that if you slice the ball it comes from a more in-to-out shape and vice versa if you hook the ball.

Chris focuses on Charlotte's short putting

This week we are looking at putting alignment and keeping the face square through the ball.
Charlotte Hatch demonstrates here a very useful putting aid to help you roll the ball better.
A piece of coloured string is placed between two pegs through the middle of the hole.
The putter shaft is then placed up against the string and depending upon the style of your putter you may have to put the shaft over or under the string.

The putting stance should be slightly open as illustrated with the feet aiming slightly left of the hole with the putter blade square to the target.

The stroke should be a stroke a pendulum action – back and through, the same length and pace. The string will encourage the player to keep the blade square through the stroke.

This aid can be used for putts of up to four to five feet long.

If you are a wristy putter – rather than using the arms and shoulders to stroke the ball – the string will distort from the straight line. Continue this short distance aid with the long clock putting aid from two weeks ago and your three putts will disappear.

Next week we will finish off our shortgame academy Feature with the trap shot.

Chris focuses on Charlotte's putting

This week we look at the short game with our Summer Academy.

This is an area of the game that our talented youngsters can compete with adults where physical strength is far less of an issue.

We are looking at putting with Charlotte Hatch who is a good putter. The practice drill we recommend is called Clock Putting.

The idea is to put six balls in a circle surrounding a flag which is located in the middle.

The distance the balls are away from the flag is determined by your ability, starting at say five to six yards away, and then work your way around the circle trying not to three putt.

The idea is that you concentrate on trying to get the ball close rather than in from say 15-18 feet.

Yes, you would love to hole this putt but more realistically from this distance your first objective is not to three putt.