Someone explain this please

[kyle92]

When you hit your driver you are supposed to tee it up so half the ball is over the driver right? Well when I place a ball on the ground, not teed up, and hit it with my 3-wood, why does it still manage to get alot of height+distance?

[Rexx]

Loft of club + backspin of ball --> height

[kennay92]

its the way the club is engineered. the lie and loft make up for the angle of attack.

[ks8829]

The ball position on the driver is about a ball back of your front heel this ball postion will encourage you to hit the ball on the upswing of your driver, so when you tee it up the ball above the club face you make solid contact because the driver swing path is on the upswing when you make ball contact.

The fairway wood ball position is anywhere from 2 - 3 balls back of the front heel and you are making contact with the ball on the fairway at or near the bottom of your swing arc depending on the type of shot your are trying to play, low or high ball flight.

[Zeph]

Try teeing it lower and hit down on the ball with the driver, perhaps moving the ball a bit back in your stance. The old "hit up with the driver" is not valid anymore. On the PGA Tour, players do it, but it yields not gain in distance. They also got such a good swing that they can do it without having the risk of hanging back with the body. The average angle of descent at impact for the driver on the PGA Tour is minus one degree, that is one degree on the way down, not up. Trying to hit up on the ball also make people hang back with the body and weight, which cause all sorts of trouble.

The 3 wood has got 13-15 degrees of loft, the driver 7-12 degrees of loft. The ball will, and should, fly lower with the driver than the 3 wood.

[jamo]

The three wood has a low profile face and low center of hravity that lets it gain height without being teed up. The driver is different becuase the face is much deeper.

[saevel25]

I tee up the ball lower than most people, about 3/4ths the ball is below the ball, because my upward motion into the balll isn't that much. For my 3-wood, it has to be teed up like an iron for a par 3, close to the ground.

[soloredd]

I tee up with my driver about 1/2 a ball higher than the club face and I also position it just off the front of my left foot. I've tried moving the ball back to my left heel or even more and just end up with crazy results. I look at Tiger and he doesn't have the ball super far forward like I do but then I see Fred Couples and he does play it off his front foot.

[saevel25]

Well i think its because Fred plays a cut, so putting it up farther might help him from slicing, since it gives more time for the club face to close down and it probably helps him start it to the left more. Also, Fred might play it normally, but he opens his stance which might throw off how the ball looks..

Sometimes its fun to tee it low and hit the control stinger. Nothing like getting 80 yards of roll on a ball ;b

[soloredd]

Well i think its because Fred plays a cut, so putting it up farther might help him from slicing, since it gives more time for the club face to close down and it probably helps him start it to the left more. Also, Fred might play it normally, but he opens his stance which might throw off how the ball looks..

That's a good observation. At the range today, I tried moving the ball back to my left big toe and teed it down a touch. Was able to hit the ball with good swings but they were stingers. I think it's actually the loft of my driver, being a 9.0 it's not enough for my swing style. When I went back to teeing it higher and played off the end of my left foot I got great height on the ball. I'll keep trying some different things and I'm about set to shop for a new driver.