I'm tired of playing out of the woods

[Addicted2Golf]

As you can all see, my handicap isn't very good. I've been working on my short game and ball striking with my irons for quite a while and feel like things are going well, but I still can't shoot a consistent score when I get out and play. Since I started keeping my stats, I realized that when I hit fairways I score much better (seems obvious, right?). I decided to test my theory today and played a 9 hole par 3 course with holes ranging from 105 to 200 yards. I shot a 29 playing what I feel is average golf for me (when I play from the short grass).

The problem is I don't get much opportunity to play out of the fairway. My driver has become a sticking point to the improvements I'd like to make in my golf game/handicap. On one or two holes for every 9 I don't even have a shot into the green because I've put myself into such a precarious position. Lately I average about 2 fairways hit for every 9 holes of golf. That's an improvement from last year when I literally went 6 rounds without hitting a fairway with my driver (no joke).

I know the short game is important, but do you guys think high handicappers should focus more on getting off the tee? I'm not suggesting a range session where all you do is hit dozens of balls with the driver, but rather time spent grooving a consistent swing with the driver/fairway woods. I think so, what about you?

[zeg]

Why not take an iron off the tee and forget the driver for a while. If you're in the woods a lot, the lost distance won't hurt much.

I'm not there by any means, but the usual advice seems to be to hold off on the driver until the short stuff is there. The logical conclusion is then that once the short stuff IS there, it's time to work on the driver. You've gotta work on it some time......

[lhshurdl3r]

To the OP, I know the exact feeling you have... I was able to get my handicap down last year to a 13 (it then went back up b/c of my driving). I'm please with the way my ball striking with irons and and my short game has come along but the one thing killing all of my rounds is of course, having to play my 2nd shot from the trees. I do get quality practice with punch shots.. but I'd rather not have to work on that while I'm in the middle of a round. I'm gonna spend the majority of my range time working with my driver to straighten it out and just keep my iron play where its at b/c I'm pleased with it. Once I get that balance where my putting, short game, irons, and driver are decent... then I'll spend some more time focusing on the smaller details.

A little side note of how bad my driver is... I haven't been playing with the correct setup for the past year, and I've been getting around 210-215 carry with my driver (way too low of a launch angle).. and I get about 225 carry with my hybrid lol.

[juanrjackson]

OP..my goal off the tee is keep the ball in play. I agree with Zeg...you a iron or 3 wood off the tee until you can work out the kinks in your driver. I shot one of my best rounds ever...& never took the headcover off my driver.

[msd3075]

1) When you swing your driver, you need to make sure youre only swinging at 85% max if you are hving consistency problems. Too many double-digit handicappers will swing at 85%ish on all their other shots, but when you put a driver in their hand they'll swing 105% every single time. If you want to try a good drill at the driving range to help you out, start by swinging 50% with your driver and hit 5 shots in a row that would be in the fairway. Once you do that, move up to 60% and so on. Keep trying it until you get up to where you'd swing out on the course. It hlps you understand the idea behind swing tempo and control instead of all-out power and distance.

2) Every golfer ends up in the woods at one point. One thing that will save you in the meantime is to learn a proper punch shot and to just accept a bogey on the hole is a good score. Just punch the ball into the fairway and accept the bogey. Unless you do have a very good chance at going after the green, DO NOT GO FOR IT.

[WUTiger]

... I know the short game is important, but do you guys think high handicappers should focus more on getting off the tee? I'm not suggesting a range session where all you do is hit dozens of balls with the driver, but rather time spent grooving a consistent swing with the driver/fairway woods. ...

For the short run, go with a 3W off the tee. I notice that your fairway woods and driver are different brands. You're right, putting tee shots in the fairway is #2 behind short game, as far as I'm concerned.

You might take a lesson to see what the driver problem is. You don't say if you are overall wild, or miss mostly left or right. I remember the first time I ever broke 80. I was warming up, and broke the head of my driver right down the middle. I had the set's No. 2 wood - a Brassie - in my car trunk: Shorter than driver, 12* loft. Took the Brassie, had one of my best driving days ever, and shot a 77.

[Gebus]

I agree with everybody saying use a 3 wood or hybrid/iron off the tee but that gets boring fast like the saying goes "you drive for the show and putt for the dough" well show is fun too. My suggestion is go see a golf pro, I know that some can be annoying and want to change everything but if your comfortable with the rest of your game just tell the pro that you just want to fix your driver.
One possible Problem is your driver is not matched up for you as well. If you have a 120 mph swing speed and are using a senior shaft then you could be the best player in the world and still struggle to keep it in the fairway. Go see a club fitter with your driver and ask if the shaft is right for you.

[Lefty-Golfer]

my thoughts...stop hitting it into the trees!!

[Addicted2Golf]

my thoughts...stop hitting it into the trees!!

That is the best advice I have ever received! Thank you all for your replies. I played a round a couple of weeks ago, and used my 3 wood off of most tees. There were 2 long par 5's on that course, and I couldn't seem to humble myself enough to keep the driver in the bag on those holes. The results showed that I should have. I just don't want to give up on the driver, but I hate not being confident enough to know where the ball will end up when I use it.

My typical miss is too the right. I had a good friend come and watch me swing at the range today, and his assessment is that my swing plane is good (no OTT) but I'm just not getting into a good position by impact. He had me hit 5 balls with my feet together and the results were promising. He then had me hit a couple with my feet apart, but just trying to replicate that feeling I had with the feet together. The results were very promising to say the least. All in all, my average was within 15-20 yards of my target as opposed to my typical 40-50. I was also able to hit a repeatable draw. I hit about 30 balls switching between feet together and feet apart, and I was very encouraged by the end. I know this isn't the fix all for my driver, but I saw some promise, and hope to be able to get things straightened out. I don't know if anybody else has used this drill, but for me it really seemed to help.

[Frito]

I agree with everybody saying use a 3 wood or hybrid/iron off the tee but that gets boring fast like the saying goes "you drive for the show and putt for the dough" well show is fun too. My suggestion is go see a golf pro, I know that some can be annoying and want to change everything but if your comfortable with the rest of your game just tell the pro that you just want to fix your driver.

^^- do this

[Gareth]

As you can all see, my handicap isn't very good. I've been working on my short game and ball striking with my irons for quite a while and feel like things are going well, but I still can't shoot a consistent score when I get out and play. Since I started keeping my stats, I realized that when I hit fairways I score much better (seems obvious, right?). I decided to test my theory today and played a 9 hole par 3 course with holes ranging from 105 to 200 yards. I shot a 29 playing what I feel is average golf for me (when I play from the short grass).

With the greatest of respect, you have a 14-15 handicap. Tee to green is hugely important.

I always think back to Leadbetters advice. Swing the club three times a day. Go into your back garden, swing the club. Repetition is key. Disclaimer: Leadbetter, in my opinion destroyed Faldo's swing. He would have had far more victories if it wasn't for leadbetter. Disclaimer: Faldo wanted him to deconstruct his swing.

[ks8829]

You have to learn to control your driver or 3 wood off the tee. One way to hit more fairways is to sacrifice distance for accuracy by choking up on the driver so that you have more control. You also have to understand what you need to do to hit a straight shot. This all begins will the correct set up and backswing. One trick that help me to understand the club and ball direction is by practicing with my wedges. yes wedges, what I did was learn to hit the solid wedge shot and focused on my backswing take away. I focused on my club position and how far away from my body that I started the backswing lift.

With some practice you can learn to control the ball direction and more important know what you need to correct certain ball flights. For example I tend to draw the ball with all my clubs. I have discovered that if I open the club face slightly before I set up that I can learn to control my ball direction. I also learned how I take my club in a certain back swing path will influence the ball direction. I also make sure that I do not let my club face close at impact and keep it square at impact and after for as long as I can.

These are some tips that might help you but the overall suggestion is to not be afraid to try different things while you are practicing and playing around of golf. watch, read and experiement with your golf swing to understand what causes certain ball direction and flights.

good luck

[senorchipotle]

i'm about to give you the best advice for hitting a driver you've ever had. square the back of your lead hand at impact. focus on hitting the ball on the inside-back hemisphere, and don't turn your hips too fast.

[Upchuck]

I have the same problem. I will score low 90's, high 80's while hitting 6-10 out of the woods. I tried hiiting 3 wood off the tee & even stopped carrying woods in the bag for 2 years. Nothing worked. Luckily I have gotten real good at punching out with 5 iron or 2 hybrid but that doesn't always help when you have no shot.

I started hitting the woods again a few years ago. My main problem is that when hitting approach shot I take a nice swing knowing 8 iron is 150+/- and so forth. When I get on the tee my first few drives are decent but as the round goes on I tend to take the club back more & more looking for more distance. It's the one thing I can't stop doing.

Best advice I ever got was to find a course without trees.

[Scott_K]

I am streaky with my driver as well. I turn my hips way to fast as mentioned above and end up blocking them out to the right (woods). Also, while doing some indoor drills, I noticed that my shoulders get a little out of line at address when I try to put the ball forward. The TM shafts are ridiculously long, so take a look at your alignment. I will admit that I had the black eye'd peas song "boom boom boom" in my head at the top of my backswing last year, so that didn't help.

Someone posted this here last year. I found this article pretty interesting, since the majority (if not all) of my lost balls were off the tee.
http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-instr...sanders_gd0809

I think it's time for me to look into a 3 wood.

[Meddle]

I've had similar problems off the tee, and some of my best rounds have come with using a 5 wood or 7 wood off the tee instead of the Driver. If you miss with those clubs, you don't miss as far as with the Driver, and as long as you have a strong long iron game, you can still score well.

I'll also add that mentally, it's really tough hitting a club well when you don't have confidence in it. For your score's sake, leave the Driver in the trunk during your rounds until you start hitting it well again, otherwise you will keep putting it in the trees.

[B-Con]

i'm about to give you the best advice for hitting a driver you've ever had. square the back of your lead hand at impact.

Had to figure that out the hard way for myself last summer. I had the slice to end all slices. I eventually focused on ensuring the back of my left hand middle knuckle was pointed at my target (basically, back of my left hand was square) at impact, which really helped. It seems obvious, but I hadn't thought to focus on it. Once I focused on it, I realized I wasn't doing it very well.

focus on hitting the ball on the inside-back hemisphere

What is the "inside-back" hemisphere?

[sean_miller]

What is the "inside-back" hemisphere?

I think what he meant was . . . looking down at your ball - feet parallel with the target line (target line going right to left) - imagine it's a clock face and hit the ball at about 4:30.