In golf, you cannot take things for granted. I have said the width of the stance should be the same as the width of the shoulders. It can be slightly wider, it should never be narrower. Of course, I am referring to the woods and driving shots. As these photographs show, the stance becomes narrower as the shots become shorter.
Many things contribute to a good golf swing and the feet are by no means the least important, for they are the only part of the body attached to the ground. The position of the feet contributes to a very large degree to a correct pivot and, of course, to the correct transference of the weight as the club is taken back and brought down.
Let us watch a first-class player for a minute and compare your methods with his.
He strolls up to the ball, looks at the lie, judges the distance, and decides upon the club to use. This club he takes from the bag, grips, and gives it a shake or two to make quite certain that his hold is not too tight. All this, I particularly want you to notice, is done behind the ball and not at the side of it. He is looking along the line of flight and making a mental picture of the shot he means to play.
Satisfied with his grip and understanding of where he wants to play his next shot, he walks to the ball parallel with the line of flight, unhurried, with nothing in his mind but the destination of the shot.
From the moment he starts that walk the stroke has actually started. Until he is poised at the end of his follow-through he will be relaxed and mobile, with every movement contributing to the stroke. He works himself easily into a position of address, his right foot going down square to the line of flight to be followed by the left foot falling naturally into the position that the mental picture of the shot demands, and as his right foot went down the clubface came square to the ball.
One or two little swings follow – “waggles’ – anyone of which fits naturally into the hitting movement; his club rests lightly behind the ball and he sends the ball away.