Stance Question

[Cooker]

I was once told to keep both feet parallel with each other and turn the left foot out towards the target a bit. I read Hogan's 5 Lessons and he wants you to open your stance with the larger clubs. I seem to hit straight either way but was wondering what you guys use or what is the benefit of each?

[supercow]

Benefit of closed stance is that it gives more room for your torso to turn to allow you to gain more speed. Potential problem is that you could end up attacking from too far inside and hooking/pushing shots. Opposite is true when opening stance. Changing angle of feet can often resrict/free movement of hips. Hogan opened his front foot primarily to give him freedom of movement of hips on the downswing and squared the backfoot to resrict hip rotation on the way back.

[$2 Nassau]

I've been toying with this lately, with my driver setup anyway. I like to close my stance just slightly. Helps with my turn and swing path. For me, if I get a good coil on the backswing, my follow through takes care of itself.

[allin]

I was once told to keep both feet parallel with each other and turn the left foot out towards the target a bit. I read Hogan's 5 Lessons and he wants you to open your stance with the larger clubs. I seem to hit straight either way but was wondering what you guys use or what is the benefit of each?

Hogan was trying to fade the ball, easier to do with an open stance. Nicklaus popularized the idea of one basic swing with open stance for small fades and closed for draws. Just don't get carried away, for extreme shots you need to preset the face open or closed or manipulate your grip or release. Different ways work best for different individuals.

[Cooker]

Thanks for the input guys, at the range today I tried open, closed and square. Seemed like a little open, closer to square is right for me to hit a nice straight ball with a slight fade. Definitely fun experimenting with different ideas.

[Finn07]

I was once told to keep both feet parallel with each other and turn the left foot out towards the target a bit. I read Hogan's 5 Lessons and he wants you to open your stance with the larger clubs. I seem to hit straight either way but was wondering what you guys use or what is the benefit of each?

Hogan wanted you to open your stance with the shorter clubs, not longer. Read his book and do what he says in it, you'll benefit greatly from it. I did and Im a single digit handicapper. Its a great instructional book, however I was having having a problem with the hooks also like Hogan did so maybe that is why I benefitted so much. Either way it will tell you a ton about the swing in a simple manner.