Need help with my driver

[John Kyle]

Well i just started playing a few months ago and so far i have everything down except my driver. All of my clubs (except my driver) i hit a nice draw with great distance. Now when i try to take the same swing to my driver i hit a very low hook. What i did to try and counteract that was open my stance up as well as the club head and try not rolling my hands over quite as much. What that produces is a very high fade and most of the time it fades all the way in the woods. If im lucky it wont fade to much and it will stay in the fairway but everytime i get the ball to go right to left (draw) it always goes really really low and never makes it to the fairway. i have been getting by with the fade on my driver and draw on everything else but now i want to get the draw in my driver. anyone have any suggestions?

[c4m]

i was struggling with the low hook with my driver also.. i was told to stand closer to the ball, now im hitting big fades, so if somebody has the answer, im in the same boat as this guy

[ks8829]

its terrific that you are trying different things to work out your driver.

I would also try the following:

1) check your grip and pressure
2) check your hand distance from your body
3) check the swing path of your backswing
4) check ball position
5) check your tee height

good luck

[John Kyle]

thanks for the tips.
what should my grip pressure be?
and hand distance from my body?

[smitty911]

Check ball position.
Move ball up in stance or back in stance.
Whichever way works for you.
I keep the ball up in my stance more than normal but i can hit it that way.

[John Kyle]

i keep it pretty far up in my stance because i need as much loft that i can get because it goes so low when i try to draw it. i have tried the opposite though to, i put it back in my stance and tried to hit down and it did exactly that im getting some lessons from the local pro soon so maybe he can help me.

[mcfc_nick]

my tip would be to use 3-wood :)

[John Kyle]

my tip would be to use 3-wood :)

yeah thats what everyone tells me because i can hit my 3 wood 240 without much trouble.. i just wanna be able to hit my driver

[pmorelli]

John, i think the challenge is to hit it correctly with all the clubs. Keep on trying.
I am also fighting with the driver and found that "the" problem could be a dozen of different things, it is not so easy to find the mistake. Also, I arrived to the conclusion that the reason for a bad hit could be a matter of just centimiters or milimiters in the position of hands, ball, feet, etc.

[PiKapp23]

I would also highly recommend choking up on driver or having it shortened. The modern driver has a shaft that is much longer than they used to be, which in theory can result in more distance. In reality this makes the driver much harder to control. By choking it you increase your chance of hitting the sweet spot and effectively stiffen the shaft which makes controlling it much easier. Many people have even gone so far as to have the shaft cut down to less than 45" and most of them will tell you they have not lost distance because they are hitting the sweet spot more often and finding lots more fairways. The vast majority of pros do not play shafts as long as what we purchase off the racks at golf/sporting good stores and they do it because it's easier to control the shorter club.

[John Kyle]

John, i think the challenge is to hit it correctly with all the clubs. Keep on trying.

i know what you mean. my dad tells me that all the time about it being such a small difference between a good shot and a bad shot. thanks for the tips though.

I would also highly recommend choking up on driver or having it shortened. The modern driver has a shaft that is much longer than they used to be, which in theory can result in more distance. In reality this makes the driver much harder to control. By choking it you increase your chance of hitting the sweet spot and effectively stiffen the shaft which makes controlling it much easier. Many people have even gone so far as to have the shaft cut down to less than 45" and most of them will tell you they have not lost distance because they are hitting the sweet spot more often and finding lots more fairways. The vast majority of pros do not play shafts as long as what we purchase off the racks at golf/sporting good stores and they do it because it's easier to control the shorter club.

my dad has also told me this also. i normally do choke it up a little bit because i feel like i have more control but i have tried holding it all the way out which makes it even harder to hit it where i want to. thanks for the tip though

[Saint]

Play the ball about an inch off your left behing your left foot, not at your foot. Swing Flat, swing flat, swing flat. Then try to push the ball to right field. Thats what michael breed has said from the golf fix, and it works. If you try hitting down on the ball, you will never get a draw, because of the swing path you have to have hit down, which is an out to in.

[John Kyle]

Play the ball about an inch off your left behing your left foot, not at your foot. Swing Flat, swing flat, swing flat. Then try to push the ball to right field. Thats what michael breed has said from the golf fix, and it works. If you try hitting down on the ball, you will never get a draw, because of the swing path you have to have hit down, which is an out to in.

thanks for the tip. i have been watching that guy on the golf fix for awhile now and i really like him. today i was messing around on 18 because it was late and no one was behind me and i hit 5 drives. first one i tried to hit down on it because everyone says golf is the game of opposites so if i want it to go up i hit down on it.... well that didnt work... it just went right into the ground. second one i tried hitting up on it and it worked out okay but still not great. the last three i decided to put the ball way out in front of my stance.. a good inch or 2 past my left foot so it was ridiculously far out and i just took my normal swing and it had the perfect trajectory and it felt really solid. didnt figure out how far i hit em but i hit 2 of them to the 150 right in the center of the fairway and one to about 180 also right in the center of the fairway. i was very pleased but i dont know if i will be able to reproduce it tomorrow

i ended up paring 2/3 and birdieing the other one