Just can't learn to hit a driver

[panulovac1]

Chrt, completely agree with you. Not many people like to share that...
I am working on the same thing after not being able to hit the driver which magnified my swing problems. Irons and 5 w are good, 3 w were straight slice but driver was approx 45 m high and going right. Main thing for me was to understand connection of the right elbow and the right hip and proper transition at the top. WSG - Like marinemike wrote watch on rear shoulder (I would say during backswing and downswing...especially). Start the swing down with weight transition but at the same time allow your hands/right elbow to drop down (which will flatter your swing, put your right elbow and hip in a proper position and should keep your wrists in a proper cocked position as well). Now you can rotate your forearms; give with your right hand what you got (Hogan) and release your wrists DOWN. Just one important thing. Avoid in any case left hand chicken wing (or you might slice anyhow)...If so you have a good chance to naturally re-cock wrists on the other side…
Not to be too long read this carefully (and all on this page for a long game) http://www.golftoday.co.uk/proshop/f...read_this.html .

Gents, please let me know if I am "working on a proper things" in a proper way or???
Thanks for advices for all of us which are still searching for smoothness in our swings...

[imtomtomim]

funny, I just started lessons and I was definitely having trouble with the driver at the time. Whatever I learned from my lesson, I tried practicing for a long time after that and I could never seem to get it consistent, but then, 30 min, got to a different course to play with my buddies and I was beaming them down the middle with full control.

The easiest way to figure out what you need to fix is to figure out why you're pulling your shots. you most likely have your face pointed that way at impact, but what makes it pointed that way? Is it your right hand?, is the clubhead infront of your hands at impact? is your swing plane facing that direction with an outside in path? Figure out the reason you're hitting it dead left, everything in golf is logical and symmetrical in the respect that you have action/reaction. Once you have that answer, you can ask a quick question to your pro and he'll probably have some drills to engrain and groove a different swing habit.

[McGolf-Doggie]

Has anyone here gone from not being able to do anything with a driver to becoming really consistent?

Short answer yes.

I've been playing 4 years. The first three years with the driver were pretty ugly. Breakthrough has come in the last few months, and has been even better on the course than on the range. I'm having to pinch myself a bunch, just to make sure it's not a dream, because, I really wasn't sure the improvement would come it took so long. Although there were some rare good shots in there, the consistency used to be horrible. The first flaw was the slice. My instructor worked on grip, balance, swingpath, finish, using exclusively irons to help improve my swingpath and make the slice mostly go away at least. Then the next problems to fix were pushes, pulls and hooks. And that was a lot harder to sort out. Anyway Long answer: But, I say in retrospect it's not so surprising; a lot of changes went into it: I made tweaks and routines to just about every aspect of what I was doing to some extent or another. Really it started with lessons last year, and a lot of practice indoors over the winter WITHOUT the ball. Mostly with a PW. These were some of the things I changed. Grip -- more consistent grip and a method incorporated into the routine, instead of haphazard. Balance -- took a lot of time to build greater sensitivity to swaying fore / aft. Routine, -- I worked one out; what I was doing before was too random. Better Weight shift -- that was one of the final pieces -- the balance had to get better first. More of an impact position at address. Club head a little off the ground helps me not hit so many pop-ups off the crown. Tee high, a little off the left toe, club makes contact as the swing just starts upward. Shortened backswing Backswing> to Left arm straight, Right elbow L-shape, with the wrist cock all gradually taking place together Worked on getting relaxed in coiling back to that position Torque into inside of right leg/sole of shoe during backswing Downswing I cut this back to about 75-80% of top speed, it's now going back up gradually in practice. Slide hips left toward flag, on initiating downswing -- more routine with this now. Swingpath a little inside out -- 6:30 pm to 12:30 am on the clock where 12:00 is pointing toward the flag. Expect to hit inside quadrant of ball as I swing through Left elbow tucked in even more than I could ever have imagined on the downswing (more than my irons I think) Extend left arm through impact but allow rotation to happen Full finish held. [Smoothed out the swing over time] Plenty of swings not involving a ball. Videos watched most useful pgatour swingplex from behind views Brian Manzella And as you asked for inspiring stories, I'm not sure that'll do it. I only had to break out the driver once today for a 300 yard par 4. The tee box is 20 feet below the fairway. You can't see the fairway it's so uphill and curving to the left where it plateaus off. The ball better rise quick and not slice, or else. So I hit a nice controlled draw (wow, very gratifying). Can't see where it goes cos it's over a hill/hump. I get there and it's 225 yards out in the left side of the fairway on another upslope. Disappointing distance? until I realize the fairway is 20 feet up from the tee, not the otherway round. Just shows, it can happen where your driver goes from nightmare to happytown. (Meanwhile my short putting has gone in the opposite direction. Dog, move over, the carpet is now a temporary putting green!)

[Chas]

A most inspiring post McGolf, thanks for taking the time. I don't see you shooting in the 90s much longer .....

[deafheaven]

I went from having to tee off with a 3 iron to now having my driver being one of the more accurate clubs in my bag. I had a bad slice. I got rid of the slice by learning to hit a draw. So now, 4 years into this game, I can draw, hit straight, or fade with my driver. I'm not long, but am generally pretty accurate hitting at least 75% fairways.

[umpiremark]

I went from having to tee off with a 3 iron to now having my driver being one of the more accurate clubs in my bag. I had a bad slice. I got rid of the slice by learning to hit a draw. So now, 4 years into this game, I can draw, hit straight, or fade with my driver. I'm not long, but am generally pretty accurate hitting at least 75% fairways.

How do you hit a draw? Can you lay out the steps you took to go from slice (open face) to the draw hit? How consistently do you hit that draw? I'm very interested in learning the steps you took and the drills you practiced. Thanks!

[deafheaven]

Pretty simple really. I turn my club face in, just slightly, and then concentrate on an inside to outside swing path. Really, it took all of one day at the practice range.

As the result of this, I corrected my big outside to inside golf swing that had me slicing the ball horribly.

Can't hit a draw off the turn yet though and I'd really like to do so.

There are 2 holes where I generally play where a draw really comes in handy. One is a dogleg left. The other has fairway trees over to the right, and I found myself hitting those stupid trees far too often (right in my range). So now, I actually aim for those trees with my draw swing.

[deafheaven]

Forgot to answer your consistency part of the question.

I prefer, for the most part, to hit my drives straight. Like I said, there are 2 holes where I almost always try to hit a draw as well as 2 holes where I'll purposely hit a fade.

I can miss my draw shot one of three ways. From most likely to least likely they are...

1. Turn my clubhead in too much and end up with a hook rather than a draw.

2. Get the inside portion of the swing correct but don't finish outside resulting in, usually, a really straight shot (into the bush). lol

3. If I hit off the toe I'll get a short, low, duck hook left (doesn't happen too often).

Right now I'd say I'm about 60-70 percent effective with my draw shot. If I used it more I'm sure I'd be more consistent with it.

Just yesterday I was driving the ball nice and straight down the middle every time and when I got to the hole with the trees I tried my draw shot and toed it. My buddy asked me why I didn't just hit the ball straight like I'd been doing all day but my response was that I want that shot in my bag. I look forward to those 2 holes to practice that shot.

[Chas]

I agree with taking a risk in a situation like you describe, it's the only way you're going to get that draw (or fade) shot going for you when you need it out there on the course. Practice all you like on the range, you still have to take it to the track sometime. Maybe not so smart in a competitive situation of course, that would be a different story.

I have a similar "favorite" draw hole on a course I sometimes play. Dogleg left, big tree hanging out at the inside of the elbow at about 150 yds, if I hit it 200 yds straight it's into some trees on the other side. So I try to shape the shot. Sometimes it doesn't work so well (either overcook it and hook or compensate somehow with the hands and hit it straight into the trees), but sometimes I get it right and leave myself a nice little PW into the green - ahhhh. The trend is in the right direction shall we say.

[deafheaven]

Is there a prettier shot than a nice little draw around a dogleg into the middle of the fairway? The dogleg you describe is much like the one I play although I suspect mine is shorter. A perfect draw shot has gotten me onto the green 2 or 3 times (par 4). Hitting it straight however is well into the bush.

[shortstop20]

Here are the things that have helped me immensely with my driver. I have went from hitting the driver like a newbie golfer to hitting anywhere from 220-280 yard drives. Usually a laser straight shot or a slight draw, with the odd fade/small slice when I get into a bad position at the top or don't finish my swing how I need to.

1. Stance(I hate to state the obvious). Besides your stance you must check your distance from the ball. The average pro stands 32 inches from the ball with the driver. Believe me(I've been there) you need to stand the correct distance from the ball in order to hit the driver well, irons are more forgiving with this, the driver is not. If you are too close or too far away from the ball the club and clubface will do goofy things on the downswing, basically you will be subconsciously trying to make room for the club on the downswing or reaching for the ball if you are not standing the correct distance away.

2. Your backswing should never go past parallel. This is a death move for 98% of people. It causes the whole swing to get out of sync for most people. Despite popular belief, there is nothing wrong with stopping your swing short of parallel, whatever length of backswing works for you is what you should use. My hands barely get above my head on my backswing and my distance is fine.

3. On the backswing your weight must stay on the inside portion of your right foot, your weight must never get on the outside portion of your right foot. I use this as my trigger to start the swing. I address the ball, and then I get the feeling of "screwing" the inside of my right foot into the ground then I'm ready to go. This gives me a sold feeling on the backswing so that I stay in a good position.

4. Start the downswing no faster than you ended the backswing, you do not need to start the downswing quickly in order to hit the ball far. It is just wasted energy. Don't even start accelerating on the downswing until your left arm is level to the ground. Until you get to that point your downswing should be no faster than your backswing was. As said before, swinging before that is wasted energy, I believe this is the reason I do not have to take a long backswing to get good distance, it's all about what you do in the impact zone that counts as far as distance goes. Fred Couples has said the same things many times, watch his downswing, it is amazing, his action is the reason he still hits it 300 yards at his age.

5. You must not manipulate the clubface at all on the downswing, we are humans and are not near smart enough to consistently correctly manipulate the clubface on the way down before impact. Trust your swing and let the club do the work.

6. Check your grip and stance every time you line up to the ball. It does not take much for to produce a slice/hook with the driver. The driver creates alot of sidespin if the clubface is open/closed. You must make sure your clubface is perpendicular to the target line(or square to the ball)and that your feet, hips and shoulders are aligned parallel to the target.

7. Finish high, full and in balance. For me if I do not bring the club all the way around my neck and have the club pointing back down at least somewhat towards the target line I have not finished my swing. For my swing I also need to have the feeling that I have rotated my body as much as possible. If I finish my swing and I do not feel a large amount of torque in my body from my body rotating through the shot I have not finished correctly. If I do not get into this finish position(I rotate even more than Tiger and Adam do in these pictures) I often hit a shot that is not as good as I'm capable of. My avatar picture is an old one, I rotate way more than that now. It is my belief that when we do not finish our swing we slow down before impact which can also cause the club to twist or cause our body to move around, reducing our chances of making a good swing. It is amazing how good of a shot a golfer can hit when all they think about is a good finish position and staying in balance, the ball will just rocket off the clubface.




If I do not finish in balance I have done somthing during my swing that has caused me to be off balance, no excuses. Swing as hard as you want, as long as you can still stay in balance during the WHOLE swing. It is very difficult to hit a good shot if you are not in balance. Bad balance effects the clubface angle at impact, shaft lean angle, angle of attack, everything, balance is everything.

I hope this helps.

I was contemplating giving up the game about a month or two ago just because of my performance with my driver(and other longer clubs off the tee). However since I have become much better with them I have never loved golf more.

If you can, dedicate yourself for the next week or two to practice with your driver as much as you can. Practice is the only way you can engrain good swing habits. And make sure it's GOOD practice, don't just go out there and mindlessly whack balls. When I was working on my driver I would only hit 10 balls or so and then take a break for a couple minutes. I would always approach every shot, like a tee shot on the course, go through my routine and everything. The more you can make your practice like a real round the better you will play in a real round. After every shot you must analyze the shot, "What did I do good there?", "What did I do that was bad?". Remember those things and fix the bad things on the next shot. At the end of the day you must write down your progress, what you have been doing that is working, what isn't working, what problems are you having, where have you improved, etc. Detailed notes are a golfer's friend when working on your swing.

[retexan599]

Very good advice SS20...I am now taking a notebook to the range and logging what has worked and what does not. And then summarizing my learnings for the next time and also to review before I leave the house for an actual round. Distance stance away from the ball: I am using a guide that suggests the proper distance is to have the bottom of the grip to be just at my instep for all clubs. This gets me a good distance for most of my shots. It may look awkward to lay the club on the ground before the shot, but it helps me. You are right: too close or too far, both are bad. Thanks for sharing.

[McGolf-Doggie]

A most inspiring post McGolf, thanks for taking the time. I don't see you shooting in the 90s much longer .....

My pleasure.

When I read a person going through that same experience, where the driver is one club that he or she feels is never going to come around ... but eventually it can and did. And it still being fresh in my mind, I thought I'd post up. Just didn't realize, when I started typing, just how many steps it took me to get there.