Driving Woes

[trackbikes]

I've been playing seriously since the beginning of Summer, 3 years ago I started off on par 3's  and a month ago moved onto "Real Courses"

Because of the hundreds of par 3's I've played From 150 yards out I am accurate. The problem i get is with my driving.

I'll start off on the first with a very slight fade but as the round goes on the fades start to turn into a slice. By the end of the round i am usually taking 6 irons of the tees. My first 9 usually score me 18-21 points on the back 9 I am usually lucky to make double figures! On the course I play the front 9 are the hardest.

Over the past few days i've hit about 300 drives on the range, and tried diffferent things 2 seems to have worked well.

Using my normal grip before I tee off bring my right foot back a few inches and move my left forward.... this resulted in a much straighter drive with occasional fade

Using my normal stance strengthen my grip so the club face is closed this straightened the drives out as well and even allowed a slight draw to appear.

Using this stronger grip my hybrids flew long and straight as well  with the occasional sexy little draw.

Does any of this make sense to anyone?

I am playing tomorrow and I want to score well on the back 9 short of starting on the 10th any idea what might be wrong?

[Mr. Desmond]

Could be many things -- let's go for the typical.

Assumption - you've got a slight over the top issue that gets worse with the driver as the round wears on because of fatigue; and/or you're not closing the driver face (fatigue).

Quick fix - you've done some of it - strengthening the grip, moving the right foot a few inches away from/behind the aim line. Gripping down on the club also makes the grip smaller and easier to close.

Most of the time -- the fade/banana is a sequencing issue and face closing issue -- sequencing means power comes from the ground up (not the arms) - begin the downswing by sliding the hips forward (one way of doing this is kind of stomping on your front foot to get the weight more forward, before turning the hips - the arms will follow. If you keep your back to the ball as long as possible - voila - that should help.

[saevel25]

Its hard to keep the same tempo when you first start out. I find i tend to get quick as the round goes along because i get looser and warmed up. Especially in the heat, its easy to get your body running really warm.

If your hitting alot of Push-cuts, a stronger grip would help. If your hitting pull cuts, then its a swing path issue. So i would make sure your aligned right. I like to aim over the 100 yard stick, flag, at the driving range. so what i do is put down a club paralellel, so if i hit a ball perfectly straight it will go right over that flag. Then what i do is watch the flight and make sure the ball is first starting right of that flag. That tells me my swing path is good for me. I recently was hitting big push cuts, so i strengthened my grip, and lightened the pressure on my right hand. Now i am hitting push draws, my cofidence just got a big shot in the arm right there.

So make sure you know what your dealing with first, then assess what you need to change. Oh, it took me about 2 years to get rid of a pull cut, and turn it into a push fade, then into a push draw. So, be patient, there is never a miracle cure for golf.

[trackbikes]

Thanks guys...

I am off out for a round and I'll let you know how it goes later...  I think i'll go with the stronger grip today and see if i can keep the same tempo.

[trackbikes]

That went better than I hoped...

Using the stronger grip I hit all but 2 fairways.  Even the 2 I didn't hit resulted in only a bogey. I also managed to par 2 of the 3 par 5's on the course

I really only stopped hitting straight on the last hole but by that time i was very tired as we'd been playing in very high temperatures.

Going out my hope was to actually break 100 for the first time (on a proper course)... I did it.  I also broke 90 woo hoo  finished with 89  ( 44points)

For now I'll keep using the stronger grip, but eventually I'll have to get my swing sorted out properly.

Playing a society competition on Saturday on the same course... I fear a handicap cut coming on.