Slicing like crazy with Burner Driver..

[nutsnbolts]

Any advice on correcting this? From strong grip, swing plane, I can't figure it out! Aside from the advice that it's a long club I'm about to try another driver.

[Teedub7]

imo, u are probably struggling with your PGA

Posture
Grip
Alignment

without these three components, your swing will be terrible, guarenteed.


fyi: the burner has a 2 degree closed face, to promote a draw, your face has to be wide open at impact to be slicing this driver

[wrx_junki]

I doubt its the club. Try both your Burner and another driver.

[nutsnbolts]

I doubt its the club. Try both your Burner and another driver.

Someone mentioned to me that...being 5'10" and having this driver is a bit long for me. Advice given to me was to choke up/down. I did that and I was able to control it better, however, kinda awkward to hit this way but if I have to control it on tight fairways, it's my best bet.

What sucks is that I feel like I'm not using the full potential of the driver. So I rather practice practice practice and figure out what I'm doing wrong. Another advice that someone gave me is to use the Burner draw, same theory here, I rather not. Ironically, if I were to not choke up/down and align myself towards the left treeline, from standing all the way to the right of the tee box, the ball will (usually) land on the fairway because of the slice. I definitely don't think it's the driver but I wanted to find out other opinions here on what I need to check.

[kfowler]

What kind of slice? Push, Straight, or Pull? My guess is that you're coming over the top.

[kfowler]

Someone mentioned to me that...being 5'10" and having this driver is a bit long for me.

BS. I'm 5'9" and have no issue hitting a driver.

The draw feature can help if you're on plane but have trouble squaring the head at impact. If you're coming way over the top, it won't matter at all.

[nutsnbolts]

oh one more thing.. i have also tee'd the ball at my left toe versus the middle inside of my left foot...to let the longer club a little more time to get squared on impact.

[Borf]

Without a doubt in my mind its your grip.

Heres what I would say - Go to the range, start with the strongest grip you can manage, hit a few, then from there weaken the grip til you get a ball flight you want

Once you hit a few you will naturally align yourself correctly.

[nutsnbolts]

What kind of slice? Push, Straight, or Pull? My guess is that you're coming over the top.

I can say that it's probably more of a push. It doesn't slice right away but on a straight fairway with treelines on both side, let's just say, that's a nightmare for me.

Tee'ng up on the right side of the box, if aligned straight, it will go straight about 150 yards and then it will start pushing to the right. So I usually align myself towards the left treeline and hope that it pushes to the right as it flies towards the left tree line and pushes itself on the fairway.

[nutsnbolts]

Without a doubt in my mind its your grip.

The grip was the first thing I looked at. I strengthen the grip as much as I can bear but I will work on it a bit more. Hmm...perhaps it's how I'm addressing the ball...considering that the driver is closed naturally by "x" degrees, do I address the ball square still forcing the "closed driver" to open to square the club to my target? It may be how I'm addressing the ball?

[nutsnbolts]

BS. I'm 5'9" and have no issue hitting a driver.

Yeah, I thought it was BS too..

[headspeed]

The grip was the first thing I looked at. I strengthen the grip as much as I can bear but I will work on it a bit more. Hmm...perhaps it's how I'm addressing the ball...considering that the driver is closed naturally by "x" degrees, do I address the ball square still forcing the "closed driver" to open to square the club to my target? It may be how I'm addressing the ball?

Try rolling your bottom hand slightly forward. I stress slightly until you start to see the ball correct.

[jambalaya]

I have a burner driver and am 5'-10". I just bought it about a month ago to replace my Taylor Made R5. If you are teeing the ball up really high, then tee it lower. The burner's sweet spot is a bit lower on the club face than a lot of drivers due to it's shape and weight distribution. Don't know if that will solve your slice problem though. What driver did you use before? Did you have trouble with slicing that one? One tip that seems to help a lot with a driver shot is "keep your head behind the ball". Don't let your upper body and therefore your head slide forward. Easy to do with a driver.

[drewdown]

Releasing your hands? Videotape yourself and see if your right hand (assuming you are right handed) is below your left before impact and above your left after impact. its called the Release and it brings the club face sqaure at impact.

You got to roll your hands or you will end up at impact with the club face open will slice the ball.

[kc8kir]

Can't believe no-one mentioned this.

If you progressively hit slices with longer clubs it may be that your shoulders and / or hips are too open at impact. In other words, you are out of sequence. The body is moving faster than the hands and arms can keep up. If you have the strength, and flip your hands, you might recover, or might hook it. For many people though, it still results in a slice. The club is square to the target, but your body is too far ahead, so you cut across the ball and there goes the slice.

If this is your problem, practice your downswing transition. The arms must stay in front of the chest, not get trapped behind. The right elbow comes into the body, but does not stick into the side so much that you trap the club behind your hands. The trapped alternative is not an over the top move, it's just an uncontrollable approach angle into the ball. Makes hitting long clubs very difficult and throws your balance and timing way off.

Tiger Woods used to get away with a variation on this action. He called it the "O-lay!" swing. Basically you trap the club behind the hips, then flip it through impact. Very difficult to time correctly. Tiger had the advantage as a junior of learning to keep his shoulders square (for the most part) up to the hit. Look at top down images of him when he was younger. The hips have turned almost fully facing the target, but the shoulders have barely cleared. The club is way behind his body, creating massive power, but very little control. You have to be very flexible and have very fast hands to pull it off consistently.

This has been a big issue for me lately. Still working on correcting it. My hips get too fast, and I get the club stuck behind me. I can't catch up with the hands and so my contact with long clubs is horrible. The large head drivers are the worst. The high MOI, high volume head is so difficult to "flip" that it is just slice slice slice. If I don't flip the hands at all, sometimes it just cuts through as a complete shank .

Took a long while for me to figure this out. Video analysis probably would have shown it right away.

Hope this helps you.

[nutsnbolts]

Releasing your hands? Videotape yourself and see if your right hand (assuming you are right handed) is below your left before impact and above your left after impact. its called the Release and it brings the club face sqaure at impact.

As far as the release is concerned... yes, this is something I have looked into as well. I think I'm releasing fine. Then again, I really have to put an emphasis on the release a bit more.

Another thing to add to be conscious of.

[drewdown]

As far as the release is concerned... yes, this is something I have looked into as well. I think I'm releasing fine. Then again, I really have to put an emphasis on the release a bit more.

Setup a video camera and take a look at your swing.

I struggled with a slice as well, until I made myself turn my hands over and square up the club at impact. There may be other things wrong with your swing as well, but for me personally, that was my problem. As well as little out-to-in swing. But those things you can't see without help, enlist a friend or watch a video. Good luck man!

[nutsnbolts]

Setup a video camera and take a look at your swing.

Yes, I need to get a video and/or friend. So far with all the friends advise and other golfers in general, the following is what has been told to me.

1. Burner is not a good driver for me. Too long. 2. Grip is weak. 3. In-out swing. 4. Release issues. 5. Face too open. 6. Tee issues (low/high). 7. Hip/Shoulder not sync (fast/slow). 8. Downswing not fast enough. Yeah, I think I have some things to work on? lol