Popping up my drives...

[lollavid]

I am about a 15-20 handicap and hit my irons quite well. However, I have become totally inconsistent off the tee. I have ditched my driver for the time being and am using a Taylor Made Draw 3-Wood. However, its always been the same problem with me- popping up my drives off the tee. I know I am not supposed to swing down like an iron, but use more of a sweeping motion, and sometimes this visualization helps. But honestly, of 10 drives I pop up almost half.

Any help?

[geezer]

How high do you tee the ball up? I wouldn't go any higher than half a ball above the top of the club (frequently lower than that).

[golfdad]

more often than not, it is less about tee height, imo, and more about set-up. geezer has a good point in that if you tee up way up, and if you hit the tee, almost completely miss the ball,the ball may pop, but i doubt you can do that 5 out of 10 without realizing that.

as you said, your irons are decent but driver is inconsistent. that statement makes me wonder if your set-up for driver is "similar" to setup with irons.

with irons, essentially it is a downward strike into the ball and then sod. whatever you are doing now probably works.

with driver, essentially it is an upward swing. couple things you can try to enhance this upward motion:

1. the ball should be teed more forward, instead of more center during address. some prefer inside the left foot, some, under the armpit, etc. looking down at your grip/hands, that combo should be behind the ball (with irons, the opposite: ahead of the ball).

2. you can also try to maintain a lateral hip/spine tilt, away from the target. very little though.

3. during take off of the backswing, keep the clubhead low and slow, so that on the way down, you can retrack this low motion right before impact so that at impact, the swing is actually going upward from the low point.

4. most iron plays require more weight distribution on the left foot, enhancing the downward strike. think opposite here with driver. at least start with equal weight on both feet.

good luck

[lollavid]

yeah, i've tried teeing it up at varying heights to no avail. I have also tried moving the ball forward and it does help some, but it hasn't served as a cure-all. I will try the slow and low backswing and spine tilt.

[Armonster20]

For what it's worth, I was having this issue. The problem was not transferring enough weight to my left foot on the downswing.

[jambalaya]

Popping up off the tee box with the driver or the three wood usually indicates an overly steep swing with those clubs. This kind of swing is well suited to your irons but not with a driver or three wood off the tee. Take a look at this tip from Golflink. Let me know if it doesn't work for you. Don't know if you have to be a member to look at it. If so, I can try to link it another way. golfdad was on the right track. This is another view of the problem.

http://www.golflink.com/tipsvideos/viewtip.asp?t=50734

[zeg]

For what it's worth, I was having this issue. The problem was not transferring enough weight to my left foot on the downswing.

I definitely have that problem. I can't always fix it, but I can always tell after the shot that I didn't transfer forward on my pop-ups. If I concentrate on the shift, I don't pop-up.

[grantc79]

I am about a 15-20 handicap and hit my irons quite well. However, I have become totally inconsistent off the tee. I have ditched my driver for the time being and am using a Taylor Made Draw 3-Wood. However, its always been the same problem with me- popping up my drives off the tee. I know I am not supposed to swing down like an iron, but use more of a sweeping motion, and sometimes this visualization helps. But honestly, of 10 drives I pop up almost half.

Actually, you can make the same swing you make with an iron basically.

Just don't take a divot. You still should be swinging pretty much down and outward onto the ball though. There are different ways of hitting your clubs though and the driver is no different. Like for example I hit a 11.5 degree lower than many here would hit an 8.5 degree simply because I have a downward stroke while as they stated some of them are swinging up through the ball. My teacher Rob Noel is another example, he was on the long drive tour and he uses a 13 degree driver but he lags the club so much that he turns it into a 9 or 10 degree club face. Those that are swinging up at the ball are turning their 8.5's and 9.5's into 11's or more.

[Dub]

When I do this....I find that I was getting "ball oriented"....in other words, I was simply focused on the ball and swinging down like I do with my irons.


When using fairway woods on tee shots I try to tee the ball down fairly low and play it 1/3 back from center.....put a little forward press on it....swing the clubhead back slow and low....and focus on swing through to a balanced finish with the club making a full follow through behind my neck.

I try to do the same thing with my driver...the only difference being that it's teed up to point where the equator of the ball is equal to the top of the clubface.


Good luck.