Should My Hands Be Behind the Ball With A Driver?

Put a driver in a golfer’s hands and the ball position moves forward. The grip usually stays somewhere near the middle of the body. That is enough to make the hands look as though they are behind the ball.

Problems start when a golfer sees that look and tries to create more of it. The handle gets pulled toward the trail pocket, the lead wrist cups and the clubface changes. What began as a ball-position question is now a clubface problem.

So, yes, your hands may appear behind the ball with a driver. They do not need to be pushed there. The arms should hang comfortably and the handle should sit in a sensible place relative to your body. The forward ball position takes care of the rest.

Check the grip against your body

The ball is a poor reference for judging the hands because its position changes with the club. A short iron may be near the middle of the stance. A driver commonly is played near the lead heel. The grip does not travel that same distance toward the target.

Look instead at where the grip end sits compared with your zipper or belt buckle. For many golfers, it will be close to center or a little toward the lead side. It should not feel jammed against either thigh.

There is room for individual variation here. Arm length, posture, grip style and driver length all affect the picture. That is why address hand position looks different with every club. A useful setup checkpoint should leave space for the golfer in front of you.

I have seen plenty of solid drives from setups that would never win a screenshot comparison. The ball did not care.

Be careful about twisting or leaning the club until the sole looks perfect on the ground. Modern driver heads do not all present the same way at address. MyGolfSpy has covered how the driver should sit before the swing and the important point here is that changing the way the head rests can also change face aim and hand height.

Once the face, ball and stance are organized, look at the handle. If it is near the middle of your body and your arms have some softness, leave it alone even if it appears behind the teed ball.

Try the setup once without a ball

This is an easy check to make at home or on the range. Take your driver address without a ball. Allow the grip end to settle near the center of your body and make sure neither arm feels pinned to your chest.

Now place a ball opposite the lead heel without moving the handle. From face-on, the hands will probably look behind it. You have created the correct picture by putting the ball where a driver belongs, not by adding a backward press.

Take the trail hand off for a moment and allow that arm to hang. It should fall reasonably close to the handle. If it drops well behind the grip or gets trapped against your side, check how far you are standing from the ball and whether you pulled the handle inward.

Do not turn this into a hunt for an exact line on a photograph. The purpose is to find a repeatable place from which your arms can move. Once you have that, put the trail hand back on and hit the shot.

I want to see a normal drive next

After the address check, I dust the face and ask the golfer to hit drives at a target. I do not slow him down or hand him a new swing thought. The adjustment has to hold up during his normal motion or it is not much help.

Three drives starting right will tempt you to blame the hands. I still look at the spray first. Marks piled on the heel have not earned a handle change yet. Center those marks and see what survives. A low bullet from the bottom of the face is different. That one makes me ask whether the player brought his 7-iron press to the tee.

Those ball flights can have other causes so change only the address piece you can verify. Driver and iron impact requirements are not identical, as this explanation of why one club can behave while the other does not makes clear. A low, spinning drive may also require a broader look at strike location, delivered loft and spin.

“Hands behind the ball at address” do not mean you should try to leave the handle behind through impact. Address is simply where the motion begins. If the grip is comfortable near the center of your body, the face is aimed and contact is predictable, you have enough information. Tee the ball, choose the target and play.