Driver help

I can never hit my driver in the sweet spot. Most of my drive are either worm-burners, topped, hooked, or sliced. Even when I do hit the sweet spot I can only drive 140-160 yards. When I try using more power to make the ball go farther I end up hitting it badly. How can I improve my consistency and yardage? Also, would a better club help (currently I am just using a driver I got in a $50 set from Target.)

i used to have the same problem, i used to always hit the ball 200-220 yds and always slightly sliced the ball so that all of my second shots i was hitting out of rough or inside of trees. i wont say that i just changed a few things to get better, there was actually a lot i had to change.

make sure your ball position is good, make sure your not standing to far away from the ball or to close to the ball. really focus on turning your wrists and keeping the club face closed on your follow thru so that your not slicing the ball, BUT dont close it to much because then your gunna be dealing with a hook/shot to the left. make sure the ball is tee'd up high enough or else you wont be able to get under it enough and thats mostly where your low line drive shots come from. make sure your follow thru isnt too fast because your trying to kill the ball. keep your head down and dont lift up as you swing thru....and the list goes on and on lol

my advice, and probably the best thing you can do, simply just go out to the range with your driver and really work/focus on it. dont just go out there to try and bomb balls down the range. go slow and steady. you cant hit the ball long and straight until you can hit it straight. so if all you can do is hit a the ball straight down the fairway 180 yds, its better then hitting the ball 220 yds into trouble. im still not very consistent because im a beginner like you are, but the more you play/practice the better you'll get. and if you see that you arent really improving that much, dont be ashamed to go get a lesson somewhere.

Thanks for the tips. I will try to go to the range more often than I have.

Work on your complete swing.

1) don't hit any more driver on the driving range
2) work on your short game only to improve your complete swing
3) work on good fundamentals
a) grip
b) posture
c) take away
d) rotation
e) etc.
4) start by practicing chipping and then pitching
5) your pitch shots are a mini version of your complete golf swing
6) after making solid contact with your pitch shot then try your irons and finally the driver at the driving range to check your progress.

just my 2 cents

Go to golf galaxy/Golfsmith and get a used driver. At minimum it will give you a mental boost. I got an TM R5 in good shape for 99$. Other than that, just slow yourself down. Better to make solid contact than kill some worms.

I am not anywhere near pga tour but I just atrted had the same issue. 100 to 150 yd drives. I teed up with larger tees and used more trunk rotation, no im hitting 200+yds just by rotating my torso. But I am just learning now there are so many things to a good swing, and there are an infinite amount of things that go into the "perfect" swing

As a newer golfer I spent 4 years being fusterated and taking random tips from other weekend warriors and never developed any sort of repeatable swing.

This year I got lucky and a I was out with a friend and his buddy at the driving range and things changed. Fortunately his buddy was a good golfer and a swing geek. He was able to both correctly identify and offer some drills to get me on a good path for building a consistant and repeatable golf swing.

I walked away from that session with a much better understanding of the golf swing and a lot more confidence in my swing. More importantly I walked away with a better understanding of all the things I read about.

Next year I plan to take a few lessons with a few different pro's to make sure that I find someone that I click with and then go for a consistant lesson with that pro to work drills that will help improve both my swing and scoring.

yeah it might help if we could see a vid. to see wat ur swing is like

I can try to take a video, but how would I post it? On Youtube?

When I set up for my driver I found that I am hitting near the toe, so I set up with the ball near the heel of the driver and I can hit the ball solid. Try checking the contact point of your driver with masking tape or with the stripes on the driving range ball and make the proper adjustments at your set up.

If you place masking tape on the driver's face will it show marks where you hit the ball?

I can usually see the tee mark on my driver face and also feel that I did not hit a solid drive, masking tape is just an example of trying to find where on the driver face you are actually hitting the ball then you can see if you need to make a set up adjustment.