Giving up on the driver

[Doctorfro]

I hit my irons well. I hit my hybrid well. I can even hit the three wood relatively well. But I am fighting my driver constantly. Can't figure out why I can hit the others but not it. When I do it soars. I just can't do it consistently. Tired

[Wisco-Kid]

There is nothing wrong with keeping your driver in the bag. You probably should keep your driver in your bag until you figure it out. My suggestion would be to go and take a lesson, preferrably a video lesson so that you can see what it is you are doing.

[Shindig]

I hit my irons well. I hit my hybrid well. I can even hit the three wood relatively well. But I am fighting my driver constantly. Can't figure out why I can hit the others but not it. When I do it soars. I just can't do it consistently. Tired

I once had trouble with my driver. I gave it a new name. It's now the "play club," as in, "get the ball into play with this club." I still call it the driver to other people, but it knows its name!

Are you fit for it? Are you fit for the other clubs? What is the shaft flex? What is the kick point? If you are equally fit for all your clubs and only one is giving you trouble, I suspect it's psychological. (Full disclosure: I'm an engineer not a psychologist) Psychological driver problems are fine: they affected Brad Faxon for a while too. There's a serious temptation to try to use your own strength (instead of the club's strength) to gain every last inch of length with each drive. This leads to inaccurate and short (relative to potential) shots. If you commit to swinging within yourself with a properly fit driver, you'll find you do OK. Practice on the range. Tee it up, pick a target, go through your entire routine, and hit it. Don't just hit ball after ball thinking about mechanics. Your mechanics are fine - look at the results with other clubs. In the meantime, 3-Wood, Hybrid, or even traditional iron off the tee is fine. But you don't want to spot your friends 20 yards a hole indefinitely! When my driver gave me trouble, the new name only removed the temptation to swing out of my shoes. There were some drills I did at the range that helped. 1. Alternate: 3 smooth 7-iron shots, one driver shot. Try to maintain tempo for all shots. 2. Chip shots with the driver. Tee it up, but try to hit it to the 75 yard marker. Next up, 125 yards. Then 175. I think you'll find 175 hard to hit, unless that was your driver distance. The line will be fine, but you'll probably boom it past there. That's fine, that's what this drill teaches you: you don't have to swing hard to hit driver far. Finally, be certain to use the same tee height for all driver shots of the same type (draw, fade, straight). I even know which grooves on the driver face should line up with the top of the tee when the tee is in the ground, and I use this to confirm my tee height every driver hole.

[joseywales]

Try choking down a little. Shortening your backswing a little and slowing down your swing a little until you find your tempo. Eventually, you will work out the winter time bugs and summertime feel will come back.

[Big_M]

As a 6 capper it is definately something you need to get worked out. The driver is too important of a club to ALWAYS leave in the bag.

I agree with the suggestion about video lessons or other instruction.

recent article in GD dealing with tempo and driver... basically said when practicing try to hit driver 150, then 200, then 250... it will help smooth out tempo... I know one of my biggest problems is getting too quick/short with swing.

[barrycuda]

ive stopped using my driver at this stage. i can tee off with the 3wood and hit upto 280 yards, but the chance of me hitting that same shot with the driver is less likely.

[golf_junkie27]

As BigM wrote, you need to work on tempo. I use my buddies "speed stik", the item that Vijay endorses. You will be surprised as how fast you actually swing the club when you're not trying. Three things that I learned that may help you.

1) Go slow on your back swing. You'll be surprised to see how fast you become with your backswing when you're struggling with your driver.

2) Tee up a ball. Now, take a pitching wedge and hit about four or five balls, to get loose. (Don't hit the ball that is teed up) Now, grab your driver and take the same exact swing. It should be just as smooth, same tempo, examine your results.

3) Take a look at the grip on your driver. Can you see where your fingers have been? If so, loosen up your grip. This will loosen up your forearms and elbows. The result will be a smoother swing and easier tempo.

[barrycuda]

but how much more distance should the driver get you over the 3wood? if i get 280yards incl roll with 3wood, what should i be getting with the driver? if its like 20-25 yards more its just not worth it to sacrifice it for accuracy.

[tm22721]

I wish I had your 6 handicap problem !

Most of my driver and iron inconsistencies disappeared when I discovered the culprit was muscle tension. Arms and hands must be passive. Now I trust my body pivot to whip the club through.

One of Ringer's videos covers muscle tension. He says to treat the arms as a simple pendulum, no manipulation required.

[Doctorfro]

Just went out my back door a few minutes ago and teed a couple up (I live on the tee box of a par 5) and hit one straight albeit a little right and the second one I absolute pured down the middle with a little draw. My swing thoughts were to set up square, tall and very relaxed (arms, hands). I think it's a matter of not just taking those thoughts to the course but trusting myself. Fact is, I can hit three wood more often and be fine. I shot 80 last weekend and only hit driver 7 times. One of those was a slice into the woods. So I would say that this is mostly a psychological thing. Going to the range and hitting balls just doesn't help because I hit the first few fairly decent and then it seems to get worse and I keep hitting, thinking I can work it out and I don't. One thing that does bother me is that the driver I have doesn't set up square at address. My son has a Callaway Big Bertha 460 that sets up so nice at address. I wish my FT set up that nicely because when I do hit it, it usually goes very deep.

Thanks everyone for your input.