why hit driver off front foot ?

[inthehole]

whats the thinking ?     I've heard its to hit the ball on the upswing of the arc, so you can get the ball in the air.     I've never seen anybody have a problem getting the ball up in the air, the problem is more often that the ball is too high which sacrifices distance.    In my case, no matter what the loft, I hit it too high off the tee - just seems positioning the ball too far forward would have to make this worse.

I'm tempted to put the ball in the center or maybe a bit back like the rest of my clubs.      But I'm afraid the golf police will escort me from the tee box for consciously defrauding the game of golf by breaking one of its most sacred rules.     Just curious if anyone has had any luck hitting their driver anywhere other than off the inside of the front foot ??      Thx

[uttexas]

Drivers have a long shaft. If you push your hips forward enough and extend maximally with your legs and arms with a flat leading wrist at impact the launch conditions will be optimized with the ball forward in your stance. If you aren't maximizing lever arms you might have to compensate with the ball further back until swing improves

[JetFan1983]

Originally Posted by inthehole

whats the thinking ?

We move the ball forward with the driver to help shallow the descent of the clubhead into the ball.

The likely reason most high handicappers don't like the forward ball position is because you become more inclined to swing out-to-in and cutting across it. They don't get their weight forward well, nor enough spine tilt, and as a result, all sorts of chaos ensues.

Better players have figured out how to keep swinging from out-to-in with the driver with a more aggressive weight shift than with the shorter clubs i.e. hip slide. This creates more secondary axis tilt and the golfer can shallow his angle of approach and continue to swing out-to-in and produce a draw.

High handicappers don't slide their hips or shift their weight very well, and as a result, they get too steep with their longer clubs and can't swing out-to-in with them.

The amount of hip slide you produce has to match the club you are using: More for the longer clubs, less for the shorter clubs.

Some teachers will prescribe setting the hips slightly more forward at address with the driver to assist in the hip slide.

Originally Posted by inthehole

I've heard its to hit the ball on the upswing of the arc, so you can get the ball in the air.

You can hit either up or down with the driver and still get great results. Some better players catch it on the upswing. Some better players catch it on the downswing.

Originally Posted by inthehole

I've never seen anybody have a problem getting the ball up in the air, the problem is more often that the ball is too high which sacrifices distance.    In my case, no matter what the loft, I hit it too high off the tee - just seems positioning the ball too far forward would have to make this worse.

I've never seen your swing, but what's likely here is that you're adding way too much loft to the club by flipping your hands through impact.

Originally Posted by inthehole

I'm tempted to put the ball in the center or maybe a bit back like the rest of my clubs.      But I'm afraid the golf police will escort me from the tee box for consciously defrauding the game of golf by breaking one of its most sacred rules.     Just curious if anyone has had any luck hitting their driver anywhere other than off the inside of the front foot ??      Thx

Allen Doyle played his driver from around the center of his stance, but I highly doubt you'll get the same good results that he did since he was a unique guy. You'll likely come into the ball too steep and maybe start hitting some pop ups.

Changing your ball position in your case is likely a "quick fix" that may help in the short term but likely won't help in the long term. You're better off just improving your swing so you can get a shallower angle of approach into the ball.

That said, don't worry about "the golf police." At the range, experiment all you want. Try it out and see what happens. I never worry about what random golfers I get paired with on the course have to say about my swing.

[mvmac]

Lots of good advice already, I'll just share this Thread about hitting "up" on the driver

And like Jetfan said, you're probably not getting the hips forward enough, check out that video he shared

[k14]

Originally Posted by JetFan1983

I've never seen your swing, but what's likely here is that you're adding way too much loft to the club by flipping your hands through impact.

Yeah I'd agree with this. I used to be on 20 like the OP and hit my driver really high (even though it was 9.5 degree and had a stiff shaft with a 90mph swing speed). I looked around on forums trying to work things out for about 2 years and in the end gave up and went and got lessons. Best decision ever. Not sure how he did it but now I don't flip and correspondingly hit really nice flighted drives now. Along with all the rest of my clubs. My handicap has also come down 6-7 shots.

Go get some lessons, that's the only advice I can give you!