What do you do when your driver fails you?

[Fat Slice]

You go a couple of holes and realize for whatever reason your driver is not working at all - you are losing balls OB, muffing shots, etc.

[jermzkill]

I move to my woods then just use my woods again on the fairway

[Shanks-a-lot]

I normally switch to my hybrid. Normally if my driver is off the 3-wood tends to follow suit.

[bIGwIRE]

I would say fix the driver on the range, not the course.

Also, if you hit a bucket of balls before you play you will have a good idea of what your driver is going to do to you. Likely if your missing it right, you will be missing right all day, so aim left a little, untill you have some time on range to fix it.

I wouldn't go as far down as an iron off the tee, though. I would rather be in the rough 300 yards out than the fairway at 200 yards, generally speaking.

[Fat Slice]

I hit a 4H barely teed up. I'd like to get to the point where I have a back-up easy driver swing that always goes straight....if that's even possible.

[PiKapp23]

In those cases I usually switch to the 3W or 2H. If even that's not working I would switch to my 5H. I seldom have driver issues, but I went through that at the first of this year and had to hit a lot of 3W. Fortunately my short game was great so I was not really scoring any worse.

[Doctorfro]

The 3-wood is your friend. Bank on it.

[klaymon]

If my driver is off, my 3W is usually on. I can slice my driver on 3 straight holes, then pipe my 3W for the rest of the round.

[RocketSauce]

honestly it doesnt happen to me. i am more confident with my driver than any other club in my bag.

[Fraser]

I'd be inclined to go with 3 iron.

I was playing with a guy today who just couldn't hit his driver for toffee. He had a strong swing and when he hit it well it was long and good...but that was about 10% of the time. He was just blocking it OB with pretty much every shot and wouldn't give up!

[ks8829]

If I hit a few drives out of bounds my score will not matter to me anymore, so I will try to make any adjustments on the course, that's just me. I usually hook the ball and will start to check my swing mechanics and will start with the following adjustments:

1) check my grip
2) swing path on my backswing
3) full back swing
4) my tempo
5) try punch drivers
6) start taking the club more outside to compensate for the hook
7) open the club face more
8) tee from the left and aim right to anticipate the hook
9) arm distance from my body


I usually can figure out the problem within a hole or two, I will usually start with a draw and will quickly make the necessary adjustment before I get into too much trouble. I like the challenge of trying to make the adjustment on the course, so I will always try to correct the driver swing.

[RocktimusPryme]

I still hit my driver on the holes that are clearly driver holes, I just gamble a little less. So holes where Can hit the driver, or can hit a hybrid and still get there in 2, i use the 2nd option.

[imtomtomim]

Am I the only one who keeps at the driver? Usually, if my driver isn't working, neither is any of my other swings. The extra forgiveness of my 2H doesn't really help, I'll just end up shorter, out of bounds. I like to do what I can to fix my swing before I hit again and usually it evens itself out.

[Fourputt]

I don't get into long bad streaks with the driver. I may hit poorly one or 2 holes, but I can always analyze it and get if fixed. There are a few things that I tend to do as a round goes on, and about midway I'll start trying to swing too hard, hit from the top, and aim too far right. 95% of my bad drives are caused by one of these 3 things. Since I know my tendencies, I usually know exactly what I did, and with a few practice swings, I can get it back on track again.

I do use my 3W and 4W regularly, but just on holes when it's right club choice, not as a band aid for a swing fault.

[Spackler-esque]

If I'm swinging poorly with my driver, I usually will be doing the same thing only a good bit shorter with my 3w. And as many people've said already, I usually know what my swing flaw is that's causing the problem so either I aim to compensate or I step back, take a minute to try and recenter my swing, and then damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

[flopdarock]

damn the torpedos baby... usually it works itself out... hopefully not too late in the round

[MO_Hacker]

I always stick with my driver, if I'm slice/pushing everything I will compensate with aim/stance/grip. I don't usually have a problem with pull/hooking although the last round I played I was pulling everything left. I never did figure it out.
Oh well, damn the torpedos. The driver is the most fun to hit of all the clubs in my bag.

[myk]

When my driver fails, I used to leave it in the bag and go to my 3 iron. Now I try to work it out on the course. I've gotten better at working it out on the course.


Mike