I'm tired of playing out of the woods

[Randy4h]

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.

I heard somewhere, and it certainly rings true, that most golfers have a yardage for each club in their bag

except driver . They try to hit their 8 iron 150 yards (to use your example), their 7 iron 160, etc.,but they try to hit their driver infinity yards. And they swing accordingly. Out of sync, off balance, you name it. The players you see on TV have the same tempo on their driver swing as they do their short irons. They know exactly how far they can carry their driver, and very rarely try for anything more. Leave that to the long drive contestants.

[mdl]

I've had this problem at points in the past. For a while I was just playing the middle tees and hitting my 2 hybrid off the tee. I'm fairly long off the tee and none of course I play are generally super long, so there would only be a couple holes where I had to hit 2H off the tee and then 2H on the second shot to reach a par 4 in two shots. Worked with the driver at the range and got that back into gear without the frustration of playing lots of rounds never getting a 2nd shot where I could go for the green.

[senorchipotle]

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.

actually more like 3:45, at least that's where i concentrate. but yeah, good analogy.

[iacas]

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.

So long as you realize that it's impossible to hit the ball there with anything but a 45° open face. The 4:30 thing perplexes me - why not just think of hitting the ball solidly? Maybe enough people have trouble getting on the back of the ball and come from the outside. A square clubface contacts the ball at 3:00. Your swing path can be 89° outside in or inside out and it'll still hit the ball there.

Anyway, perhaps this works as a visual trick for some people...

[Addicted2Golf]

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.

I've never seen that before. In general I think I am below average on that scale.

I heard somewhere, and it certainly rings true, that most golfers have a yardage for each club in their bag

That pretty well describes me. Until recently I didn't even have a yardage for my fairway woods. I try to step up and carry the ball 300 yards each time, when I really should have the mentality of an iron. I could see that thought alone making a big difference in my accuracy. Thanks!

[zeg]

So long as you realize that it's impossible to hit the ball there with anything but a 45° open face. The 4:30 thing perplexes me - why not just think of hitting the ball solidly? Maybe enough people have trouble getting on the back of the ball and come from the outside. A square clubface contacts the ball at 3:00. Your swing path can be 89° outside in or inside out and it'll still hit the ball there.

It works for me, at least, it works as well as anything does. It's certainly a trick, but no more than a lot of the other swing thoughts. The problem it corrects is that "trying" to hit the ball squarely leads me away from a circular swing. My brain tells me that the way to hit square is to get the club out to the vertical plane that the ball is in and then swing straight forward. Thinking about hitting the ball on the inside helps me feel ok with a proper swing path.

[burnabao]

I heard somewhere, and it certainly rings true, that most golfers have a yardage for each club in their bag

This is so true - last year I decided to put my pride on the shelf and stopped hitting driver altogether. I would take 5-wood off the tee and I think psychologically, because I knew that I couldn't hit it "infinity" yards, I just picked my landing point on the fairway and swung the club naturally. The reality was that I would actually end up closer to the green with 5-wood because I was hitting in a straight line and not unleashing a massive banana-shot into the trouble.

I've started to reintroduce the driver this year and I'm trying to use the same mentality (i.e. pick a landing spot and hit to it, no further). So far it seems to be working better.

[Aceboympk]

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).

You're doing something wrong and you have to fix it. Either find a friend who can coach your swing, find a pro, or video tape it and review the fundamentals yourself. You know what you need to do.

[kevinbomb123]

practice practice practice

[Fat Slice]

Choke up a little, slow down your backswing, keep your left hand square at impact. Get a repeatable swing. Now, figure out how far you hit it when you swing really hard and nail the sweet spot. Then figure how to get a tempo to produce 85% of your distance. Make sure your spikes are holding you in the ground firmly. Sacrifice a chicken. Swing away and good luck.