🏌How Ball Position Affects Your Swing

Good Morning! Max Homa is not taking any crap.

This past weekend at the BMW Championship, Homa needed a rules official for clarification on an issue during his first round. But a fan took a video of Homa’s playing partner, Si Woo Kim, checking his phone during the round, and used it as an opportunity to criticize his demeanor and his pace of play.

Homa didn’t hold back with his response - check out what he had to say.

Today’s Trivia: When did Team US last win the Solheim Cup? Answer at the end of the email.

⛳ This day in history: Having won three straight US Junior titles, Tiger Woods, on this date in 1994, won his first of three straight US Amateur titles.

ALBATROSS
Scheffler Aims To Win Maiden FedEx Cup Title

Scottie Scheffler will be gunning for his first FedEx Cup title this week in Atlanta, where he begins the Tour Championship with a two-stroke advantage on the field. The World No. 1 won six tournaments this year, including the Masters and the Players Championship, and added an Olympic gold medal to his kitty.

Scheffler starts at 10 under par Thursday and Xander Schauffele at 8 under, even though Scheffler garnered more than 1,000 more FedEx Cup points than Schauffele. Since the format changed in 2019, nobody to start the Tour Championship atop the leaderboard went on to win the cup.

Scheffler is coming off a tough week where he tied for 33rd at the BMW Championship, just his second finish outside the top 10 since January. He'll try to reset at East Lake Golf Club and treat it like a normal golf tournament.

💰Scheffler's Hat Sells For $2.3K: Scottie Scheffler donated a Nike-branded cap which will be auctioned off to benefit the Kids Cancer Alliance. Not just any cap, it is the one he was wearing on May 17 when he was arrested outside the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.

The cap was sold for $2,375 as part of a group of items auctioned off by Kids For Alliance as a fundraiser. The buyer also received three golf balls signed by the World No 1.

Hats are not just any part of Scottie Scheffler's outfit. For many years, they have been an important part of his preparation rituals, so much so that he keeps many of them in his gym.

But this one is particularly popular - Scheffler's arrest on his way to Valhalla Golf Club, to play in the second round of the PGA Championship, has been one of the most notorious events of the entire 2024 season.

The player spent several hours in custody at the Louisville police station. He was later released and was able to arrive in time for his tee time.

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Worth Mentioning

EAGLE
How Does Ball Position Affect Your Swing?

One element of your swing setup that is incredibly important is ball position. And while you might think this positioning is mundane, it can drastically impact your swing numbers.

📌 Ball Forward: When you put the ball more forward in the stance, it achieves a couple things immediately - it helps shallow out the angle of attack, and it helps add more dynamic loft to the clubface. This will typically help you hit the ball higher — perfect for someone who struggles to increase the apex of the shot.

Moving the ball position forward also affects the club path as it comes into the ball. Typically when you put the ball more forward in the stance, your club path will be more to the left.

📌 Ball Back: With the ball further back in your stance, you will see the opposite effects of those listed above. You’ll get a steeper angle of attack and lower dynamic loft, resulting in a lower ball flight.

Additionally, with the ball position at the back of the stance you will also have a club path that is more out to the right.

📌 Which Is Better? There’s no hard-and-fast rule when it comes to optimal ball position. It all depends on your swing and what you’re trying to do with any given shot.

It’s normally recommended that you put wedges just behind the middle of your stance and then move the ball forward a bit for every longer club.

LOCKER ROOM
What else is making news

Ryder Cup: Team Europe's Ryder Cup qualification rules will not be changed to accommodate LIV golfers Jon Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton for next year's match against the United States.

Solheim Cup: Lexi Thompson, Jennifer Kupcho and Sarah Schmelzel were named Tuesday as captain's picks for the United States' 2024 Solheim Cup team.

PGA Tour Studios: As a signal of its investment and commitment to international fans, the PGA TOUR announced the launch of a PGA TOUR World Feed in 2025, starting with THE PLAYERS Championship. The feed, which will originate from the TOUR’s new content facility – PGA TOUR Studios, opening in January.

Curtis Cup: The Curtis Cup, which sees two teams of eight amateur women golfers representing the US and Great Britain & Ireland compete biennially, begins at Sunningdale Golf Club in England on 30 August.

BIRDIE
Tour Championship: Everything You Need To Know

The PGA Tour’s postseason, the FedEx Cup Playoffs, wrap up with the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club. The top 70 finishers in the FedEx Cup standings qualified for the St. Jude Championship, won by Hideki Matsuyama.

The top 50 after that event progressed to the BMW Championship. Keegan Bradley, the last person in the field, vaulted to 4th in the race with his upset. After all that, the top 30 in points will vie for a FedEx Cup crown this weekend in Atlanta — and with it a $25 million bonus and five-year PGA Tour exemption.

East Lake utilizes what the PGA Tour has dubbed the “FedEx Cup Starting Stroke” scoring format, intended to reward golfers for their points accumulation.

First place in points — Scheffler, for the third straight year — starts at 10-under par. No 2 (Xander Schauffele) will begin two strokes back, at 8-under par. Hideki Matsuyama (-7), Bradley (-6) and Ludvig Aberg (-5) come next.

The next five golfers in the standings — Rory McIlroy (the only three-time FedEx Cup champion), Collin Morikawa, Wyndham Clark, Sam Burns, and Patrick Cantlay — will start 4-under par.

US Presidents Cup team member Sahith Theegala, Sungjae Im, Shane Lowry and Adam Scott will start at 3-under.

Defending FedEx Cup and Tour champion Viktor Hovland headlines the group at 2-under, also featuring Tony Finau, Byeong Hun Han, Russell Henley, Robert MacIntyre, and Akshay Bhatia.

Billy Horschel, Tommy Fleetwood, Sepp Straka, Matthieu Pavon, and Taylor Pendrith will start 1-under par. Chris Kirk, Tom Hoge, Aaron Rai, Christian Bezuidenhout, and, Justin Thomas, start even par.

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DRIVING RANGE
Fix Your Takeaway

In today's video, we share simple tips to fix your golf swing takeaway.

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