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Perfect your body and club positions to generate ball-first contact
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Approach Shots

Perfect your body and club positions to generate ball-first contact

By: Martin Chuck, Top 100 Teacher
April 19, 2025
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dustin johnson swings wedge during 2025 masters tournament

Finding the perfect position with your body and club is the key to generating ball-first contact. Top 100 Teacher Martin Chick explains how.

Getty Images

If you watch a lot of pro swings online, either face-on or down-the-line like I’m pictured, you’ll realize — or at least I have — that they all reach the same delivery position, or the moment just before the club accelerates into the ball. It’s something you should practice.

Make a slow-motion swing, then stop right about where you see me here. Three things to look for: 1) Your hands are slightly in front of your trail leg, 2) the shaft is parallel to the ground and 3) the face of the club is slightly closed. 

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collin morikawa hits an iron during the 2025 masters
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Nailing these three pro-proven delivery elements are what allow you to unwind freely and produce shaft lean at impact, which is the secret to compressing the ball. If you stop your downswing and notice that any of these elements are missing, work your way into them, even if it means adjusting how you’re holding the handle.

Once you can copy what you see here, go back to address without moving your hands. This is your new setup, one that may feel a little uncomfortable at first, but will produce that crisp, ball-first contact previously reserved for Tour pros.

Martin Chuck is a GOLF Top 100 Teacher who runs the Tour Striker Golf Academy at Raven GC in Phoenix.

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