Experiment: Driverless round.

[clubhousehero]

The more i hit driver, the higher my score. Yesterday i played 36 holes. First round i shot an 89 and second i shot an 84. Best round before that was a 90. I hit driver only on par 5s and a few long but open par 4's. My new approach is to make no worse than bogey but give myself as many chances at par as possible. For example. if i play a long par 4 with a 3h and leave myself a 200 yard 5i, i'll most likely miss the green a little short, which is fine. I can get up and down from there or at worse bogey. Thats ok with me. If i hit a good 5 iron i might have a birdie putt and should make no worse than par, (or bogey if its a hard lag putt).

Im just playing for bogey but giving myself good chances at par.

I think if you leave driver at home once, you'll see the advantages of it and then you wont be tempted to use it on anything but par 5s after that.

PS. this has also really helped my tempo and now i feel like im hitting all my clubs better...or it could be because im hitting from the fairway more often...

[Teamanglerx]

Even though I have not played a lot in the last couple of years I have not used a driver for the last 7 years. I tee off with a 4 iron and go from there. When I bought my new irons I purposely bought the Adams A3 with graphite shafts because the 3-5 irons are hybrids. I feel I can get better control off the tee and I have more confidence in hitting them than a driver. Hopefully I can someday move back to a driver (or at least a 3 wood) but until then I am okay with the hybrids.

[cody west]

I broke my foot at some point last year and I didn't go to the doctor because I was stupid and was like oh it's only one of the smaller bones. The bone healed wrong and now when I hit my driver I can't push my hips through the swing because it hurts so much. My hcp has come up from a 0.7 to a 1.9 since this happened and it's just terrible to physically not be able to hit a driver. I have faired well with my 4 wood and my hcp has finally stopped coming up

[AceDunk]

If you really want to learn how to work your big stick I propose an alternate experiment: driver only round. No irons or wedges or putter. Just driver.

[wrx_junki]

If you really want to learn how to work your big stick I propose an alternate experiment: driver only round. No irons or wedges or putter. Just driver.

Wouldn't want to pay for my round to play only with a driver. Hitting a ball thats sitting down in the rough won't be so fun. Hitting sand shots will severely rough up the sole.

I'd prefer to play an entire round with a fairway wood or hybrid.

[James_Black]

If you really want to learn how to work your big stick I propose an alternate experiment: driver only round. No irons or wedges or putter. Just driver.

I did that with a friend before!!!

Really fun! I even made a par! I learned I could hit my driver off the fairway because of that. I was going to suggest this but i didn't want to be the only one. Btw, the driver is my favourite club in the bag.

[Grahaman]

Last season I took my driver out of my bag and played with only a 3 wood off the tee in place of the driver. I dropped my handicap from a 17.6 to a 9.4. I didnt want to fight my driver all season and only wanted to work on grooving my swing. This season it is back in my bag along with new irons and a new swing path. So far pretty good results. My handicap has gone down from a 9.4 to a 9.0. Best decision I ever made was to let go of my ego and the big drive mentality.

[slide13]

I always carry my driver but rarely pull it these days. I've spent the last month or more playing without my driver, teeing off with my 3 wood or my 4 iron both of which I'm very comfortable with. It has definitely helped my game. Went out Monday night and shot my best 9 hole round all year, a +6 42 for 9 holes (yeah...I'm not very good). I hit driver twice...once got me in a little trouble but I recovered for a birdie and the second hit was great. All other holes I used my 3 wood or my 4 iron and it served me well instead (except for the par 3's of course). Besides, distance has never been what was holding me back...control is my problem.

[Where's the Cart Girl?]

In college I took golf to satisfy all my extra PE credits and the advanced course was called "Golf on Tour" where, if you were good enough, you got to just go to different courses every week around Central Pa. and play. The instructor would lay out a set of stipulations every week (no drivers, no even numbered clubs, only 7 clubs total..etc..) that we had to play under and we would report our scores and what we learned about our game.

The week we played without our drivers was the worst scoring week I had. I was so uncomfortable not being able to pull driver at any teebox I wanted that it screwed my whole game up.

That week I learned a few things..
1) I can shank a 3-wood just as bad and as often as a driver and not be as far down.
2.) My mental game needed some work.
3.) IMO fixing your driver swing is a much better solution than just not hitting it.

[Fat Slice]

OK, I went out but did use the driver. I wanted to get some stats before I went driverless. Here's what I found out:

I hit the fairway on 6 drives. For those holes I was 3 over (3 par, 3 bogey).

Next round I will go driverless and take some more stats.

[James_Black]

you should then play an all driver round to see how you do lol

[NickDarius]

recently I attempted an experiment of playing with only 4 clubs, 5,7 iron PW and putter.

Shot a 49 and 51. didn't affect my score at all, and brought to light the benefits of hitting fairways, versus in the woods.

Since then I've gone back to a full bag including a driver and I've been playing much better, because I've been concentrating on playing accurately not long balls. I really don't care how long I hit my driver, I do care if I hit the spot on the fairway I was aiming for, usually around 200-235 yards out.

Now if I could 2 putt max on every hole...i'd be scoring!

[Elsfan]

The other day I went out and was hitting the driver everywhere. I was playing 9 holes and had three left. The first two were par 4 measuring 340 and 320 respectively and the last was a 515 par 5. On 7 I hit 7 iron off the tee and then 8 to the green. On 8 I hit 8 and then 8 to the green. On 9 I hit 7, 7 , 7. Was interesting to say the least.