New driver? Dilemma...

Hi - and apologies in advance for the essay that follows! I'm thinking about a new driver for the new season - but at a loss where to start!

I currently use a Dymo2 Str8 Fit, 11.5 degree, regular flex. I have a little offset on it as I find I can play a controlled fade (when it's going well) whereas with a neutral setting it can be quite wayward. I struggled all winter off the tee, in fact went through a horrible 2 month period of the shanks, but only with the driver! I had one round in particular where I took driver on 7 of the front 9 (the other 2 are par 3's) and flat-out shanked or duffed the ball barely off the tee with every single shot. Needless to say it stayed in the bag for the back 9! What is most frustrating is whilst I've stunk the place out off the tee, I've honed my iron and wedge play a lot over the winter, and feel like I'm hitting them better than I ever have - if I could hit even 5, but preferably back to 6 or 7 fairways out of 10, I feel like I could slash my handicap (currently unofficially 26) really quickly.

The problem may now have become less a mechanical thing, more of a mental block, as I now have no idea when I step on the tee whether I'm going to hook, slice, duff it into the ground, just literally anything can happen off the club. It also feels very light and whippy to me - I'm at a loss whether to put it down to low confidence and poor touch, or whether it isn't right for me and maybe I could do with a change. I have thought about a stiffer shaft - although I am a high-handicapper I am quite tall and so create a good lag, and have a noticeably quicker swing than any of my golf buddies. I am trying to talk myself out of this though, as I am convinced this is something that would benefit a better player than me.

There isn't a custom-fitting service anywhere near me per se - no flight tracker or anything anyhow, just a pro shop with a couple of different heads and flex shafts on the assumption if you're buying, you know what you're looking for. I asked for some advice in the pro shop and they said the 11.5 degree loft might be too high and reducing the loft would help make my drives a little straighter. I had always been led to believe though, for beginners such as myself, HL drivers were ideal as lower degree clubs would not be forgiving to a less than consistent swing.

To put all this in context, last summer (using GPS and stat tracking for my lessons) I was averaging 247 with my driver with 59% FIR accuracy, which was passable for the standard I play to. But over the winter, even considering the wetter fairways, I have dropped to 231 and 32% FIR.

I have looked at other drivers and I do like the Cobra S3, but I have grown used to the square head of the Dymo2 and since the square drivers are also (to my knowledge) generally easier to hit straight, I'm at a loss as to what to do. As a higher handicapper I don't know whether custom fitting will help as clearly my swing is not consistent or technically good enough (although visually it has improved considerably with lessons) to be able to provide reliable data as to what I need. Similarly I'm unsure whether to just stick at it on the range to try and get myself out of this rut, or invest in another club that might help. And if I do splash some cash on a new driver, would a lower loft or stiffer shaft even be likely to help me? If HL & square drivers are the most forgiving, surely its telling me it's my swing, and not the club, that is the problem? I don't want to spend £200+ on a driver if it's really more likely to be down to my inconsistency.

What is weird is everything else in my game seems to be coming together. I'm shaping shots, controlling spin, getting my yardages right, and sinking putts. Discounting driver I feel as if I'm playing to 10 shots better than my handicap. But as soon as I need to take the big stick I can see the 8s and 9s writing themselves on my scorecard before I've teed it up.

Does anyone have any advice???

Sounds like a swing issue, so no new driver is going to be much of an improvement, maybe book a few lessons and tell the pro what you problems are and what you want to work on.

I am pretty sure, that you will know what the problem is and how to fix that, within a 30 minutes, work on these and book another lesson to know your progress.

Where I live there are a couple of golf superstores with 90 day return policies. The result are barrels of slightly used  drivers. Drivers....not 3 woods, not 5, barrels of drivers. Somethings wrong here!

I notice you did not mention the length of your drivers shaft.  It's not easy for the average golfer to handle a driver with the long shafts they are now forcing on us when the pros don't play them this long.

There is no rule that says you have to use a driver. Tiger Woods is now hitting a longer shafted driver and driving the ball 130 yards!  I can do that.

Yeah, I've been having lessons for a while but I seem to have hit a bit of a block with them as my last two lessons have been on this and despite some pretty consistent practice I've seen no change for about 8 weeks. I am going to stick with it though - I think in a way as I said it's become a mental thing now - it probably is a swing issue, but I'm probably over-thinking it - the doubt in my mind is because whilst other areas of my game have improved with practice and coaching, driving seems to have gone backward! Oh well.

I've been hitting hybrids or a 5 iron off the tee recently which does mean I'm striking the ball more consistently and has certainly taught me how many holes you actually need to take driver on - far less than you think. I can hit 2 hybrids/long irons at most short or average length par 4's (within reason) and even with a bit of strategy remove the risk element of the driver on some par 5's. But there seems to be a couple of holes on any course I play where you just have to take driver, and all the time this is a problem for me I'm at a major disadvantage. It also means there's no margin for error on the shots I do play - I'm further from the hole so any slice, duff, top or fat and I can kiss par goodbye - if I put a drive within 160 of the hole and duff it 30 yards at least I still have a chance of getting it on the green with my next shot!

Tbh I'm not sure of the length of my driver - I experimented on the range, choking down the grip a little to shorten it up, there was a (very) slight improvement, but not enough to confirm one way or the other if it was anything more than flukily hitting a couple better. As I say I'm quite tall (6'3") so I had sort of assumed a longer shaft was more suited to my posture.

I'll give it some more work on the range, another lesson or two, and hold fire on another club just yet - I think I was sort of hoping for a magic fix that put me back to where I was so I could actually start to feel happy about my golf again!

The best $30 you can spend in golf is for a roll of impact stickers. That's how to determine if your hitting the same spot consistantly (swing/fit)  or all over the place (control). www.longshotgolf.com or on Amazon. (Possibly a local shop will give you some?)

As far as a magic fix goes - The UK is famous for its Fairy Mounds.   However, from what I read you can come back after a round with these guys and find a 100 years has gone by.

Playing without a driver in your bag is not the end of the world, it helped my swing a lot when I left my driver in the garage for a whole summer, mostly used my 4-iron of the tee.  I was finding more fairways and also faults with my swing this way than with the driver.  With the faults I could go and visit my pro. I think it was one of the reasons i went from 20 something to under 10 in 2 summers.  To me it was a giant leap.