Thinking of ditching the driver for a strong 3.

[st0wgolf08]

I don't even know how driver off the deck is possible, unless a divot is taken, which is definately something I don't wanna do with my driver. The sweet spot is halfway up the face, but off the ground the best you can get is 1/4 the way up, so how do you hit it good?

[Nick88]

The reason you hit your 3 wood straighter is more to do with loft, a 3 wood is harder to shape than the driver because the 3 wood has more loft so more difficult to put side spin on the ball!

I would say change your driver to a more lofted option, 10.5-11 degree, ive just bought a 909 D2 10.5 deg, always had a 9.5 degree driver all my life but that extra loft has let me hit more fairways and i have actually gain 5 yds!

[ks8829]

The method I use when I off on my driver and need to learn to make solid contact is:

Its all about my backswing, how do I take my backswing on the driver.

If I am hooking or drawing the ball too much, I focus on the mechanics of my take away.

A) are my hands too close to my body
B) is my grip too strong
C) what line do I take my back swing, too much inside
D) I make sure that I take the club back more on a straight line and sometimes I purposely take it slightly outside
E) If its because I am not making solid contact, I practice my take away with my wedges. I will try different take aways, a one piece, pick the club right up, aim the club shaft towards the target with the toe up in the air and pick the club up into my backswing, I will try different backswing and see what produces the solid contact with my wedges. Once I can repeat a backswing and consistently make solid contact (sound and feel of the wedge making contact with the ball) I test out the backswing with my driver and I am usually pleasantly surprise that it works on my driver. (irons too)
F) Another thing you can do is too mark the ball with a sharpie and aim the ball mark so that the club with contact the driver club face and you will see where on the club you are hitting the ball and make any adjustment. After this test, I have found that if I address the ball closer to the heel and somewhere in my swing I adjust it and I end up making center and slight above center contact, you can feel the difference in contact.
G) In summary do not be afraid to try diffferent things to adjust for your swing. The ball will tell you what your swing is doing, Input = output or result of your swing.

[RocketSauce]

I don't even know how driver off the deck is possible, unless a divot is taken, which is definately something I don't wanna do with my driver. The sweet spot is halfway up the face, but off the ground the best you can get is 1/4 the way up, so how do you hit it good?

i used my driver (FT-i) off the deck 3 or 4 times over the years with fantastic results. the last time being when i was about 250 yards away from the green on a par 5 in the middle of the fairway. i hit it perfect, it never went more than 10-15 feet in the air, and carried all the way to the green and just rolled off the back onto the fringe.

ive also used it to punch out from under trees for REALLY long shots that i had to keep low.