How to hit driver off the deck... wthout flubbing it 40 yards in front of you...

[onthehunt526]

A very common question I get when playing certain courses with monster par-fives on them (600+ yards) is how to hit the driver off the deck. Its actually not any harder than hitting a 3-wood off the deck, if you use it in the right situation... but wth today's 460cc (and slightly bigger) club heads it may seem improbable to get the thing off the ground... but its a fun shot when executed properly...

I know I'm gonna take flak for this... (maybe I need a flak jacket) but even a higher handicapper can hit this shot...

I make 2 slight adjustments when I hit this shot... I move the ball back in my stance a little by widening my stance slighly, (which in turn lowers your center of gravity)... and then I grip down on my driver maybe an inch...

The swing is essentially the same as it is with a driver off a tee but with one slight difference... when you hit a driver off a tee... you want to hit it slightly on the upswing... from the fairway you can't... so keep your swing level (flatter plane) and catch it at the bottom of your swing...

I do not recommend this from the rough or if the ball is sitting down in the fairway... if it is sitting up in light rough you can give it a shot... but most of the time it needs to be sitting up in fairway...

Lastly when you first start hitting this shot... the tendency is to pull or push it slightly... so practice this one on the range a lot... If it is tight around the green, its not a shot I recommend... If you have hazards to carry I don't recommend it... if it is fairly open and wide go for it, but remember if its not sitting up 3-wood or a lay-up might be a better choice....

[bogeyhitter25]

I've always wanted to try this but I never felt as if I coud manage it. Thanks.

[23Rounder]

Thanks for the advice. Unless I have a very open par5 and will not be able to get my 3 wood to within 130m then I will probably stick to the 3wood though

[davy4862]

Thanks a lot for taking this on Hunter.

Sorry, Im not sure should whether you meant this shot should be played with a slightly wider stance than is normal for driver off the tee or whether you were referring to playing 3 wood off the fairway when you mentioned taking the wider stance. Could you please tidy this up?



Thanks again and keep the jacket off for now

awrabest

[Petden]

I would assume, since you wont hit the sweet spot exactly the distance wont be as good as off a tee. What kind of distance do you get off deck relative to off a tee.

[GolferDot]

You can hit the sweetspot if it's sitting up a bit, but you lose carry distance as it flys alot lower, so depending on conditions you can lose a fair amount of distance. I use Driver from alot of positions. Another use I have is from a reasonable lie in the rough if I need to keep it low and get alot of cut (slice).

[Dub]

This is a shot that I've not been able to pull off since I quit playing with my original Callaway S2H2 driver. That Warbird would play nicely off the fairway.

I can't do it with the deeper faced clubs I've owned since...certainly not my current stick.

My father routinely uses his G5 driver off the deck, though. I'm hoping to get some golf in with him this week and see this very shot. That one and his amazing lob wedge work around the greens.

[PiKapp23]

Driver off the deck is a shot I use with some regularity for different reasons. On days where the fairways are running and there's not trouble I will use this shot on par 5's and even off tee box if it's really windy. I also use driver a lot to hit 'punch' type shots when I am back a ways and need to keep ball low (to get under tree limbs, etc.). I also find it helpful when ball is above my feet by a foot or so in a good lie because the low loft helps the ball fly straighter than with wood or hybrid (although be sure to align the ball with heel of clubface or lower depending how far above your feet to compensate for gravity). Smaller clubheads are much easier to use for driver off deck shots than the newer 460 clubs. A friend actually carries a 12* old TaylorMade Burner driver instead of a 3 wood (it's about 290cc or so, I think).

[Fourputt]

I find that I don't usually hit the driver much farther than the 3W off the deck. Modern drivers are designed to hit the ball fairly high on the face, and there is no way to do that from a fairway lie. Thus you don't really hit the sweet spot, the ball won't fly as high or carry as far, but it will roll forever.... good if the fairway is pretty level, bad if it slopes right or left.

I play the ball back a bit too like the OP, and hit just slightly down on the ball... that imparts a bit more spin and gets the ball up a bit easier. But I still really only use this shot in a headwind or when I need to keep the ball low. It's not high percentage shot, and the trouble you get into when you miss generally outweighs the advantages gained when you pull it off. Thus I will only use it when I really need it.

There are a couple of tees on my home course where I'll pull out an old ball and drop it on the tee box and nail it across the next fairway (when nobody is in the way ) and into a lake. I get some good reactions from the guys I'm playing with who have never even considered it as a possibility.

[Stacey_E]

Due to the roll of a driver face (the verticle radius) wouldn't hitting lower on the face keep it extremely low? I was always told the top of the face had about 3 more degrees of loft than the middle. If that is true, wouldn't the bottom have 3 less? That would turn a 9.5* driver into a 6.5*. But that's just a side note anyway.

I have used the driver to punch out of trees. My course has a lot of evergreens. Some of them are so wide at the base (as much as 15-20 feet) that taking an unplayable lie and 2 club lengths help none in the way of getting a good lie or shot. And going back behind them keeping in line with the pin is useless as these trees are often 25 or more feet high. It is then that I sometimes punch out with a driver. I can only use my wrist in this situation, because there is no room for even a 1/2 swing. And the ball never gets more than 1 or 2 feet off the ground.

One time I made birdie from a lie like this. On my second shot, I chip/punched the driver (using the slope of the fairway) 100 yards to within 20 yards of the fringe and 44 yards of the hole. Then I used a sand wedge and the slope of the green to hit a running pitch that went in from 44 yards. My longest hole out to date.

[ks8829]

I hit my driver off the deck at least once or twice during a round and its great! I can also rely on a low fade if I need to go around a tree. I like to open the club face slightly and aim left of the target and take the club outside and get great results.

[golfman43]

hmm. interesting, ive wanted to try this for sometime now and now i think i will. haha thanks

[onthehunt526]

Due to the roll of a driver face (the verticle radius) wouldn't hitting lower on the face keep it extremely low? I was always told the top of the face had about 3 more degrees of loft than the middle. If that is true, wouldn't the bottom have 3 less? That would turn a 9.5* driver into a 6.5*. But that's just a side note anyway.

With the newer drivers it does travel lower... and the loft is less but... even with the deeper faced drivers you can get it up in the air... that's why you wanna try hit the ball on the very bottom of the swing...

I have a 5-degree driver and I can get it up in the air off the deck... I actually learned this shot with a 7.5 degree Orlimar TriMetal... by just swinging it like a 3-wood... but had to make slight adjustments with the newer drivers... I don't play many 600-yard par-5s, because there just aren't very many around here... And about the widening of the stance... its really not that much... its about maybe a couple inches... but the gripping down is like an inch... you need to do because you need to make it more like a 3-wood than a driver... other than that its the same swing...

[Petden]

This shot does seem interesting however I dont need to add any more shots to my handicap.