Help with my driver distance

Hey everyone, hope you can help.

I can hit my pitching wedge 140-145 yards. My 4 iron can get up to 210-215 yards. I went to a demo day a few weeks back and my driver carry is only 230-233. I use the cobra ZL driver with stock shaft and grip, 9.5 degree head in the closed position and my irons are fitted Cobra S3 Max stiff graphite shafts. I assume that I should be hitting and carrying the ball further than I am, right? What sucks is that we had to drive 2 hours to go to the demo day and I wasn't able to go to the other tents and try out other drivers (I went to the Cobra tent and tried the amp with the same results). I unfortunately live in a small town and don't have the luxury of going to try different clubs. I rely on internet reviews and stuff to decide what would be good for me. I have no objections to trying out or going to another company to get a driver that gives me the proper distance. I usually have a slight fade or straight trajectory and never draw with the driver.

All opinions are appreciate!!

How high do you hit the driver? It could be your launch angle and/or spin rates are not allowing you to get the most out of your driver.

I'm not sure about the spin or the launch angle, to be honest. I have started teeing the ball higher and "seem" to be getting better results. I hope to go down to sportscheck at the end of the month and jump on the monitor and find all that out. I was so concerned about the carry that (like an idiot) I didn't pay attention to the other factors. I do understand that 9 times out of 10 it is technique but now I'm not too sure....

Questions that immediately comes to mind:

How did they measure your driver distance at the demo day?  Do you think it was accurate?

How do you measure your iron distances? Are you SURE you hit your irons that far?

If you do hit it that far, why the heck are you using graphite iron shafts?

they used a launch monitor and that's what it said. I hit 3-4 times with my ZL and the amp and they went 225 to 233 at the most. I assume that the launch monitor is right. As for my irons, I'm going by the pin markers on the course. Played a round today. Here's an example. I was not driving the ball well and I came up to a par 4 - 385 yards. I decided to use my 4 iron (off the tee) and it stopped about 10 yards to the 150 yard marker. I then proceeded to take a 9 iron from approx. 160 yards and the ball landed in the rough on the other side of the green. I estimate my 4 iron at around 225 yards (downhill) and a 9 iron 165-170 yards.

As to why I chose stiff graphite. Simple. When I went to get fitted, I tried steel and found it too heavy. I was also getting more distance and control with graphite.

I can't hit my 3 wood as far as my 4 iron. My driver, 3 wood and 5 wood are not getting the results. My 3 and 5 woods are Cobra baffer rail (last year's model)

I think you're just not hitting the ball solid enough with 'em. For me, right now, I'm seeing that even when I feel like I'm hitting the ball solid my smash factor is only about 1.44-1.46 (smash factor = ball speed / club head speed). I think tomorrow what I'm going to do is look into getting a driver shaft that is 44-44.5" that way I can maybe hit it on the sweet spot more consistently and get the smash factor up. Perhaps you should look into it as well. It could also be you're coming in too steep on the ball but too hard to tell without seeing you swing.

ETA: Highest possible smash factor is 1.5

Don't know, man. I was hitting my drives top center to heel center with my driver today. I hit a couple of bad ones of course. Does a launch monitor give you the smash factor number? I'm going to test some drivers at sportcheck in a few weeks and I'm definitely going to pay more attention to all the numbers. I'm using prov1x and nxt tour golf balls. I do try to make a sweeping motion with my driver as much as possible but sometimes I do come on top of it. I almost always have a slight fade, maybe 65% of the time, another 25% it's straight and the rest is just mishits.

It should. Even if it doesn't actually give you the smash factor as long as it tells you club head speed and ball speed you can figure it out yourself.

Well then I will get those numbers in a few weeks - than will figure something out!!

You could be too steep as someone else commented, that would make sense based on what your saying.

A big factor is also the shaft, I heard Cobra's rep say that the shaft determines the distance, not the club head, he said a tour pro could use there own shaft with a 10 year old driver head and not lose any distance.

Again though, steep makes sense.  I hit my 3 hybrid 240 consistently, but when I get steep with my driver, I'll feel like I crushed it but only get 270-280 which is obviuosly not in line with my iron and hybrid distances and for me is a dissapointment.

This forum should have "video upload" section, so then we could all disect each others swings and argue over who is right and wrong lol.  Really though alot of this stuff would be simple for people to dissect if we had a video of your swing.

Hey Noob!  There is a section called "member swings" where you post videos of your swing, you noob!

This post fixed my problem!! I was coming in too steep like you guys posted. I keep my elbow against me now and I'm hitting it at least 30 yards farther (mainly because she's going straight with a hint of fade).

http://thesandtrap.com/t/54238/elbow-position-and-its-effects-on-the-downswing

To the guys that posted having the same problem, please read this and thanks to all for your input!!

So I'm in Fredricton, NB and I went to sportcheck today to see what was going on. I ended up trying all sorts of drivers, fairway woods and hybrids. My best clubs were the RBZ driver (carrying20-25 yards further than my ZL), the 3 wood was the callaway razr x (was hitting it with carry at around 235 to 248) and  the 3 hybrid was the adams A12 (hitting with carry around 215-220) My highest smash factor was between 1.38 and 1.41 on average with a few swings hitting 1.48 to 1.5. Swing speed was at my lowest 96.9 to 101 mph. My 3 wood and 3 hybrid were not as fast. Will be saving up my money for these clubs. Very satisfied with today. I learned quite a bit and the guys working there really knew their stuff.

What did they use to track these numbers. And based on your smash factor I'd say that's why you don't hit your driver well (basically not making solid contact with the ball).

They had a launch monitor there. I was hitting into a net. So what do I do to get that smash factor up?

You mentioned you hit your 4i 200-215 and your driver carries 230.

For one, you're including roll out with one club and not the other. And two, I don't trust those launch monitors after the one at Golfsmith said I was hitting the ball 290+ every time.

The problem with places that use an indoor launch monitor is they tend not to be very accurate and they can boost the distance on them for when you hit their clubs. To increase smash factor you need to start hitting the center of the club face. I'd suggest lessons or possibly cutting down your driver.