Beginner mistakes when using the driver

Just curious what are some of the common mistakes from beginners or high handicappers when driving. I am having a problem off the tee box and I may try to record a video tommorow. I think some of my problems are swinging too hard and not keeping my eye on the ball. I know I have some technical problems also. Thanks for any input.

Yes, swinging too hard is a MAJOR tendency as a beginner. You want to hit one really far, so you think swinging hard is going to accomplish that, which in result you hit a bad shot because you don't hit it solid on the club face - yep, been there, done that. It took me about a year to get past that stage, lol.

I had the problem of swinging too hard as well. I have slowed my swing, which has resulted in MAYBE 10 yards of TOTAL distance. As you know, the distance you slive it doesn't exactly help your driving distance. Because of straightening out my slice, I have actually broken even on distance more or less.

I'm not sure if that made any sense, but I hope it did

I recently had some problems with back spasms which put me out a couple weeks. When I returned I found I was swinging more smoothly so as not to blow a gasket. To my suprise (not really) I picked up about 10-15 yards off the tee on average. This was because a smooth swing hit on the screws smashes the ball at a higher ball speed than a violent whip off the toe or heel. Try it on a launch monitor sometime. Also the shaft on your driver should be the right length so you hit the center of the face as much as possible, and try some different loft drivers to get your best launch angle.

PING: G5 12deg. UST proforce V2
CALLAWAY: 2004 BB 5 wood
COBRA: DWS Baffler 23
CLEVELAND: CG2 4-PW
TITLEIST: 250-08, spin-milled 56-14, 60-04
PING: Craze-E putter

I recently had some problems with back spasms which put me out a couple weeks.

Me and a friend started back playing last week. We hit a bucket balls each and played 9 holes. I watched him and he was swinging so hard it looked like he would hit 500 yards if he would connect. He had several wiffs and once missed the ball by about a foot. He told me the next day his back was killing him and coudnt hardly get out of bed. "yes that is dumb golf"

Ditto on swinging too hard.

"Effortless power, not powerless effort."

Problem 1: Calling it the driver before you can control it.

I renamed mine the "play club" (after reading that online somewhere) until I could control it. Why? "Driver" denotes "bomb this out there as far as you can." Play club denotes "put this in play." And you know what? I put it in play... out there. You know how you know the distance for your 7-iron and your PW, and you (hopefully) don't try to make your PW go your 7-iron distance? Know your actual, expected driver distance, and play your driver to that distance. You'd be amazed at how much easier of a club it is when you do that.

The beginner mistake when using the driver is actually the act of using the driver.

Driver at the range - 3 wood on the course.

I know this is a common tip, but I'm beginning to disagree with it. Today's drivers are so huge and so forgiving that they impart a lot of confidence at setup. 3 woods are puny in comparison. The real problem is beginners playing with 10 degree stiff shaft drivers instead of 12 degree regulars.

Any tips on how to slow down?
I try to think that I want to swing to hit the 100 yrd flag or like a pitching wedge
For some reason my brain takes over and..............WHHAAAMM!

Hah! I still do that sometimes too when my mind wanders.

I'm not sure how to describe it, but you just swing a lot slower than you think you should. So slow that you think the ball isn't even going to make a noise when you hit it. But because you are technically sound, it goes. Have you ever seen video of Annika's swing? It looks like she's not even using any muscles. Even more revealing than Freddie or Ernie Els. Try to visualize her tempo. (But there's probably someone here who can give a more articulate drill.)

Try taking estrogen before the round.

Hah!

Except the last woman I dated who played golf took the club past parallel and drove the snot out of the ball. She routinely out-drove men. So there may be a flaw in your theory. I miss her...

Take a deep breath and exhale before you begin your backswing, that will help calm your nerves and give you a better chance to make a smoother swing.

I also noticed that once I stopped overswinging and just took a nice, smooth swing that my drives went a lot straighter (with a slight draw on them usually), whereas previously I'd slice about 20-30 yards to the right of my target.

I need to condition myself to take a slower back swing, my problem is I want to kill the ball. When i slow down I hit a pretty decent drive. My golf partners say they never seen a ball hit before with my pumping up and just about levitating with both feet in the air, they call it the dance lol. Jeez at 50 I should know better.

I think the first mistake is to actually use a Driver at all.
Any flaws you have with your swing will be exasipated.
Use a 3 wood, get comfortable with it on the range and on the course.
Than look into using the driver on the range.
Take it step by step, learn to walk before running.

I've been reading here for about a month and I just started playing. I've read and read and have hit a ton of range balls before EVER stepping out onto a course. So far, I played 9 terrible holes and then an 18 hole work tourney with a score of 133 (true score). I'm going again today in about an hour. I expect to do much better today based on what was suggested above.

For the last 6 weeks I have been forcing the driver on myself. I took a couple of lessons after about 2 weeks on the range, but the club pro had me working on the 7I to get a swing down. Definately helped. I could hit my irons straight, but I could not for the life of me hit my driver straight. I could make decent contact, but it would slice like crazy or I'd top it. So in our tourney, I'm on the 18th. I hit close to a hazard and had to take two strokes to put it back on the fairway. It was a par 5 and I'm only about 100 yards into the hole. So I'm just frustrated and ready to go - so I pull out my 3W and just take a relaxed "I don't care swing" and I bombed it. Very pretty shot that got up and over this ridge. So I'm excited...I get to my ball and I'm still a good ways from the flag. So I take my 3W and hit the exact same shot - same trajectory, straight as an arrow, and was just great. I figured out what I was doing wrong. My hands were lagging behind my body. So my body cleared, but my hands were behind opening my club face and pushing everything right. So I worked all week on teeing off w/ my 3W and I'll be darn if I can't hit that thing off the tee pretty straight. Out of 10 shots, 8-9 were on the fairway (using range markers as ref). I took my driver back out and I still can't get the tempo right - my driver has a lot of "play" in the shaft. With my driver, on a clean hit, I can get about 210-220 - but maybe 2-3 out of 10 are clean hits straight. With my 3W, I can get straight 200yd pretty consistently. So today will be my second complete round - first using my 3W as my driver. Will post how I do (better or worse than my 133 basline). Just getting my balls on the fairway should shave some off for me.

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