Help with driver roll!!

[Augusta Hacker]

My driver (10.5 degree) and 3 wood are Ping G5s with stiff Aldila shafts....

My 3 wood will carry about 210-220 and then get a good roll out to about 250 or so....my driver will carry about 240-250 with very little roll. The 3W flight is low while my driver is very high. I tee the ball pretty high with my driver (bottom of 1/3 of ball at top of club) and the ball is middle of my clubface with my 3W.

I would like to be able to hit my driver lower and get some of that roll out of it like I do with my 3 wood.

Any suggestions? Should I just tee it down further? Put the ball further up in my stance (right now both setups are inside left foot)?

[goblue107501]

From my experience, it is probably a shaft issue. My guess is that your driver is producing too much spin so when the ball lands it won't roll. It could be that you may have too much loft also. The ball will have a good flight, but when it starts to fall, it will come down at a more vertical angle thus reducing the roll. The force of the impact when it hits will be more into the ground rather than skipping forward. Try to tee the ball a little lower and move it a little more to the middle of your stance and see if that works. Sometimes just tinkering with you set up can reduce some of these issues. Some head/shaft combinations require a different set up than others. If you have access to the same club with a different loft or shaft, you could see if that solves the problem. Although with the G5 being a couple of years old that might be hard to come by.

I had a similar problem last year. I got a new driver (with the same shaft and loft as my old driver) and every ball I hit would plug into the ground. I even had a few back up in the fairway. Turns out, the shaft/head combination was such that my swing produced too much spin and flew too high so when the ball hit it would just stick in the ground. I have since sold it and went back to my old one. A different shaft would have corrected this for me, but I had someone willing to buy it so I sold. The area that I play gets really hard during the summer so I like having the roll out.

[Zeph]

I like to tee it lower, but you'll have to figure out that yourself. If the driver is launched significantly higher that the 3w I guess that is the answer. Tee it lower will give you a lower trajectory and longer roll, but if it give you more distance I don't know. Try and see what the results give you. The higher trajectory, the less roll you get. It's impossible to get forward spin, so other than trajectory and speed I don't see what should affect the roll.

The shaft issue, like goblue adressed, could also be a matter here. Different shafts will produce different trajectories and speed.

[colin007]

if you hit the 3 wood 240-250 like you say you do, i would just leave the driver in the bag.

[Augusta Hacker]

if you hit the 3 wood 240-250 like you say you do, i would just leave the driver in the bag.

But it sure would be nice to get the 280 out of the driver if I could!

[HytrewQasdfg]

I would like to be able to hit my driver lower and get some of that roll out of it like I do with my 3 wood.

1. Put some impact tape on your driver and see where you are impacting the ball. Because the face isn't flat, the loft on drivers essentially increases as you go up the club face (according to Golfsmith, the loft on their drivers is measured at 1/3 above the center of the clubface.) Imho, the sweet-spot on most drivers is just above the center, but the point is if you are hitting it high on the face you are essentially increasing the loft of the club.

2. Is this a head with adjustable weights? Shifting weight to the back of the head will cause a higher ball flight (due to more backspin which will kill your roll.) Shifting it to the front will cause a lower ball flight. 3. You can tee the ball farther back in your stance. The point of teeing it forward in your stance is so you can catch the ball on the upswing (which also increases the effective loft of your club.) Those long hitters that use an ultra-low lofted club do so becuase they tee the ball really far forward in their stance. They need the lower lofted clubhead to counter the added loft caused by teeing the ball forward in their stance. Of course, you will lose distance if you tee it back in your stance, because your swing arc won't be as long (which is the real reason long drivers tee the ball so far forward in their stance, they are lengthening their swing arc.) 4. Check the kick point on your shaft. A low kick point produces a high ball flight, a high kick point a low ball flight. I hate to tell you to change your shaft, but as a last resort getting a high kick point shaft will help.

[Dub]

But it sure would be nice to get the 280 out of the driver if I could!

Exactly.......250 of pure carry right now....I'll bet with some tweaking you'll get that 280. Those would be huge drives.

1.

I was at Wedges & Woods driving range on Wrightsboro Road with my son yesterday. If you go inside over by the sofa near the front door...look on the wall to your left. You'll see they have the precut stick-on impact tape for 460cc drivers. I thought of trying some myself when using different tee heights at the practice range.

Good luck...you're gonna love it once you get the trajectory you want. Hope you had a chance to play today....it was over 80 degrees and breezy where I played!!!!

[Kcas77]

It may be a shaft issue but you could try your driver with a lower loft of 9.5 or even 8.5 could probably find one cheap on ebay

[Clambake]

Not mentioned by other here, but it sounds to me like your 3W carry/roll is a bit out of the norm in the opposite direction. Normally I wouldn't expect that much roll out off a 3 wood; this would certainly making holding a green much harder. It sounds like both clubs could use some shaft optimization.

[jcrob902]

My driver (10.5 degree) and 3 wood are Ping G5s with stiff Aldila shafts....

I know that the G5 and G10 are different drivers but I had a similar problem with a G10 10.5* with a pro launch red stiff shaft, no matter what I did I could not get my ball flight down, I would leave pitch marks in the fairway,I tried the 9* with same shaft and the 9* and 10.5* in both the pfc and the ust pro force and had pretty much the same problem just a little less severe, Any way I just switched drivers back to my SQ 460 and had it reshafted, in my only experience with ping it seemed to me that if you'r a high spin player you may need to drop all the way down to the 7.5* or spend $300 to get a really good shaft or just go some where else for your driver.

[Augusta Hacker]

I don't know much about shafts but my 3W is a NV 75-S 350 and my driver is a NV 65-S 350 both by Aldila. I will definately try out some impact to see where I am striking the ball.

Dub, how is Wedges and Woods looking these days? Last time I was there, it wasn't looking too good.

[HytrewQasdfg]

I don't know much about shafts but my 3W is a NV 75-S 350 and my driver is a NV 65-S 350 both by Aldila. I will definately try out some impact to see where I am striking the ball.

According to the Golfsmith site, both of these shafts have a high bend point (which is supposed to promote a low ball flight.)

[Stacey_E]

I'd come down with the guys that say try a lower loft. If you have a solid consistant swing, why mess with that? G5s are almost a dime for a dozen. They are great drivers, but you could find another one really cheap in a lower loft. I wouldn't bother changing one degree though. If you want to see a real difference try a couple degrees lower. It sounds like you hit up on the ball really well. FWIW I had a V2 65 stiff in a G5 12* that made it take a wicked first bounce and run like hell. It always ran out 30 yards and sometimes up to 50 in the summer, unless the hole was way uphill.

[KwSipp]

1. Ive been told from two great club fitters that woods shafts only play a role in traj by a few degrees, honestly I wouldnt worry about getting a new shaft for this instance.
2. I can put money your ball is played from your lead big toe or around that area.
3. if it is then instead of worrying about changing all your equipment just mess with ball placement and your swing. For about a month I struggled with the same thing you are and I just stuck with it as of now my average distance with no wind is 285ish and Im no more than 155lbs. whatever your doing just stick with it and change where you place the ball little by little and on your downswing really get that weight on to your lead side, one of the causes of why your getting alot of spin off the tee is that you could be "hanging back" and adding loft at impact, these to together will spell alot of spin and no release

[TMO]

Put the ball further up in my stance (right now both setups are inside left foot)?

Do not move the ball back in your stance. There are tons of reasons for this but the most basic answer I can give you is that playing the ball off of your left shoulder, left hip, and inside of your left heel with your stance shoulder width apart for your driver gives you the best chance of hitting a long and accurate drive. As soon as you start moving the ball backwards you are going to have to force yourself to do something that will either leak power, lose accuracy or both.

If you want to hit it lower, I would recommend checking where you are making impact on the face of the club since you are concerned about tee height but lag is probably the direction you need to go. Video tape your swing and check to see if you are releasing the club early or if you are maintaining your lag. With a driver, you should have between 2 and 4 degrees of lag and the clubhead shouldn't pass your hands until your left arm is pointing straight out at the target. Hope that helps.

[Dub]

I don't know much about shafts but my 3W is a NV 75-S 350 and my driver is a NV 65-S 350 both by Aldila. I will definately try out some impact to see where I am striking the ball.

Sunday was my first trip there in about a year.

They were surprisingly busy....everyone getting tuned up. Most of the covered mats were full. Mainly hackers....we only had to duck once or twice.... My son was hitting balls for the fist time since December....so we kept it on a mat with a rubber tee and let him swing away. The little putting green was brown and dormant....but had several folks enjoying it. I have no clue how it rolled for them, but I suspect fairly slow and bumpy. Range ball prices sure have gone up....no surprises there, I guess.

[Augusta Hacker]

Sunday was my first trip there in about a year.

Yea, range prices are pretty ridiculous....I would rather just go pay the green fees to play 9 holes than sit out on a range with a bunch of goofballs. LOL. I am going to set up a tee box in my back yard with a big net and then I can sit out there all night long practicing.

[Augusta Hacker]

Thanks for everyone's input....I am going to try some impact tape to see where I am hitting the ball. Then mess around with where the ball is in my stance and go from there. I will keep everyone updated to my progress and maybe it will help others!