Putting the driver away

[golfaddiction]

Last round, I hit 3 horrible drives that cost me 6 strokes. The ironic thing was I probably didn't need to use a driver since two of the holes were under 400 yards. I can go 220+ with my hybrid or 240+ with my 3-wood, and I would only be a mid iron away.

I usually hit the driver well, but it is a high-risk club. Do any of you use a lesser club on shorter holes, even if ostensibly there is enough room for a driver?

[RC]

It depends on the amount of danger for the driver. It a hole is truly designed well, the risk-reward issue (in my opinion) should be about 50/50. If you are swinging well and flushing it, the odds shift in your favor, if you are not quite solid, the odds shift against you. I like that equation. I am more accurate with a driver than my 3 wood, but if the risk is a distance problem, then I will hit a three wood. Example: water out there at your 20 percent chance of reaching it distance -- why even take the risk, hit the three wood and accept a longer approach.

As a general rule of thumb, I personally do not like par fours and fives that take the driver out of your hands for the tee shot. I used to play a course that had a par four that was an eight iron off the tee and an eight iron into the green -- a 320 yard par four that you could not cut off the dogleg. I don't like such designs.

Your question is really one of can you hit a reliable approach shot from where a safe tee shot lands. If you can, then by all means hit the tee shot that eliminates the most danger if your driver is biting you.

[drglew]

absolutley. For shorter par-4's (my home course has several of them) Driver is a high-risk/little reward play; i.e. running out of fairway or bringing unnecessary bunkers/hazards into play (and many short par 4's are designed this way, i.e. a series of fairway bunkers 50 yards from the green on a 330-yd par 4). And for some of those holes, even if you do stripe driver down the middle you might be left with an awkward distance like 50 yards -- i'd much rather lay up to a comfortable distance that's a full swing of one of my wedges, as I stink at half-wedges.

[Philip9210]

Today, I was very sporadic with my driver, so I wasn't very confident with it. It ended up costing me like 8 strokes by the end of my round. However when I took my 3 iron off the tee I was able to use about a 7 into the green and if I missed wedge it up for a chance at putting for par. Thinking my next trip to the course I'm taking out the woods and just using my irons and the putter.

[Rolf Harris]

This issue has been the major revelation in my game this year so far.

Up until February I'd always considered my driver to be my favourite and most reliable club. However, I've recently done some club by club stat analysis and it seems that I've been finding the fairways only 60% of the time with my driver and for the remaining 40% (which consitutes 3-6 shots) I've been getting penalised at least a shot per hole sometimes two.

So, recently on holes under 420y I've been taking 5 wood off the tee which is far more forgiving and has become my 'go to' club. I'm hitting fairways with 80-90% accuracy meaning that it's costing me just 1-3 shots per round rather than 3-6.

I've broken 80 twice in my last four rounds, whereas last year I broke 80 just 4 times all year. So it's making a big difference.

[saevel25]

For me i like to use my driver when possible, i like that style of play. There was this one course, were there was a tree that biscected two target lines, one was a easy 5 wood to the left of the tree away from a water hazard, the other was to the right were you try to cut the corner of the dogleg over the water. I got to try to cut the dogleg, just my style. I find everytime i try to hit an iron of the tee on a par 4, i miss hit it and now i am further back and in trouble. I rather be in trouble closer to the green, alot more options.

[blackxpress]

I used to hit driver on every hole except the par 3's. That was what Johnny Miller refers to as "slop golf." These days I'm learning to calculate the holes a lot better. I'm not so much interested in distance off the tee as I am in accuracy to the green. My goal on a par 4 is to hit the fairway and leave myself a 7 iron or less to the green. I hit a 7i 140-150 with pretty good accuracy and a fair amount of backspin, which gives me a very good chance of sticking it on the green in 2. My 5W is my most consistent club off the tee, so if I can hit the 5W and get the ball inside 140 and in the fairway I'm a whole lot better off than if I hit the driver and put it inside 100 in the rough and behind a tree.

[In-com-plete]

I play in a my plants 9 hole match play golf league every week.

I'm about the same player I was 5 years ago when I started the league. Shoot practically the same score every weekend now as I did 5 years ago. But for some reason, on this short course we play in the golf league, I wasn't putting up good scores.

In '05 & '06 I was averaging 45-46. In '07 I decided to keep the D in the bag and start hitting my 3 wood. That year, I averaged a 42.5. In '08, only pulling out the driver on #4, I averaged a 40.67. Last year I averaged 40.75.

Like I said earlier, this course is short. It's not really tight, just has a lot of strategically placed OB and heavy brush everywhere. I just got tired of penalty strokes making my score look bad. So keeping the D in the bag and using my 3W didn't really make me a better golfer. It just made me a smarter golfer.

[chilly]

As I play more and more, I notice the better players hit driver less frequently. This is partly because, generally, they're a little longer off the tee anyway and 3wd is plenty, and they're better with their irons so they don't need to hit it to wedge distance. However, more importantly, a good 6hcp rarely gets in trouble off the tee...their consistency off the tee hitting fwy woods gives them a chance at par almost every hole.

I've been hitting more fairway woods off the tee, and I'm definitely seeing the advantage on shorter holes. Along with that, I've become more consistent with my irons so I don't feel the need to get it up there in wedge distance every time.

[dbuck]

I am not a long hitter, but I frequently use something less than driver even on holes that are fairly open. I do like to hit driver though, and hit it whenever I feel it is the best shot for me. A couple holes on my usual course seem really open, but a well hit miss can cause problems and the shorter club helps me focus on the shot.

[Gioguy21]

I use driver whenever possible. I average just over 54% of drives in the fairway and average .45 penalties per round (in the last 50 rounds) I rarely miss the fairway by much, for me if I'm in trouble on holes it's not off the tee, its almost always on my second shots...usually not relating to the lie. Now, this doesn't mean I don't use the 3W, I just prefer the driver...

[sean_miller]

I'm glad I found a driver I can bomb on long par 4s and 5s, but I only hit it a few times a round depending on the course (only 2 times last Sunday). It's nice to have a good driver in the bag, but 7-irons from the middle of the fairway are nice too (a punch 7-iron from ~ 155 is my new favourite iron shot)

[Deryck Griffith]

I almost exclusively only play my driver on par 5's and only hit it on longer par 4's. This stragety is one of the reasons why my handicap has gone to where it is now. I think you are on to something. Especailly if you accurately hit your 3 wood 240+ ...

[doctork]

Like others here, I only pull the driver on a short hole if the risk-reward equation is in my favor, and I'm hitting driver reasonably well. If a hole is tight or has a death zone on either side of the fairway, I leave the 1-wood in the bag unless an especially long tee shot is required or it's playing into the wind.

I've had experiences similar to golfaddictions's where I played well except for a few wayward drives that cost me dearly. A few of those rounds will make you realize that a longer shot from the fairway beats OB any day.

Cheers,
DoctorK

[plugged]

As I play more and more, I notice the better players hit driver less frequently.

The better players, yes. High HC'ers are better off adding some yardage to their drives since they most likely will be hiting a poor shot no matter what club they use.

I have typically struggled with my driver, but finally getting about 50% in the fairway at pretty good distances, so I will stick with that until my swing improves enough that I can improve my accuracy with a 5W by at least 20%.

[Chief Broom]

It all depends on the hole. If there is room on the right for me to miss it then I'll go with driver if I need maximum distance. If missing it right means I won't have a shot or a penalty, then I leave the driver in the bag.

[chilly]

The better players, yes. High HC'ers are better off adding some yardage to their drives since they most likely will be hiting a poor shot no matter what club they use.

Guess it depends on the individual. I'm just barely out of "high hcp" range, so I just went through this. I was much better off hitting a 5w off the tee. Even if I pushed it right, it'd be in the rough, versus the driver which would be a lost ball or OOB. That said, high hcp guys can have a huge range of ability with woods, some hit them pretty well and have iron/short game issues, some can't hit a wood to save their life.

[DocWu1948]

Played a course today where 12 of 18 holes have water in play. I put the driver away except for two holes. It cost me two strokes on one hole, but I got it back with a good drive on the other one. End result, I shot 11 under my average.