should i ditch the driver for now?

[buckeyekid1996]

for 9 holes i shoot a 67. but i slice it very badly.... like in the next fairway with my 3 wood and driver. on par 3s i tee up with a 5 hybrid and hit it pretty straight. should i tee up with that for all my holes until i learn to hit my driver straight at the range? im also going to golf for the High School this august. i will be a sophmore

[darkhunter139]

I think the driver and 3 wood are important clubs to learn how to hit but there is no reason you should be hitting them during your round if you know its not going to end well.

Tee it up with the hybrid until you get things figured out on the range but don't stop practicing with them.

[Paradox]

have you tried gripping down with the driver or 3 wood?  Effectively shortening the club will give you a little more control over the face and swing plane.

I would definitely spend time at the range hitting the two clubs.  How would you ever be able to use them if you never swing them?  Playing a practice round...pull out the driver for one ball, hit the hybrid with the next.  You could also try making easier swings with the driver and see what results that produces.  Sometimes people overswing without knowing it and end up gripping way too tight and being way too tense in their bodies which is a great recipe for an open face at impact.

[buckeyekid1996]

yeah ive tried it. i have to face away from the fairway to get the ball straight and i dont want to keep doing that because what if i hit the ball pretty good and it wouldnt be a slice?

[mtsalmela80]

I used to have a driver that I cut down and could control nicely, but for some reason felt the need to buy a new driver this season. In order to hit it straight, I play the ball almost on the outside of my left foot, and take a fairly strong grip.

One more thing that's important, as much as I want to try to KILL it, if I want to hit it straight, I have to hold back. I may hit it good and have it draw nicely out to 275, or I may push it into the next fairway, or the woods.

Hell, on tight holes surrounded by woods I will play my 3 wood.

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong swing-wise to cause an open face on impact, but I have not figured it out yet.

[buckeyekid1996]

yeah i read another thread where everyone was saying go with 5 off tee and practice with driver at the range

[mdl]

Similar to what others have said.  Get some lessons and figure out the driver and woods at the range.  I think whether you should only ever hit hybrids off the tee depends a little.  If you hit driver off the tee on 10 holes, can you hit 1 or 2 or 3 good ones that go generally where you want, or at least only fade slightly off the the fairway but with a good look at the approach?  Or do you consistently hit every single one way off into the trees or the next fairway to the right?  I ask because hitting a nice smooth drive that goes a solid distance and ends in the fairway is super fun, and I don't think there's a need to totally take away the chance of the fun of doing that once or twice in a round.

If you can hit 20% of your drives decent, I'd say alternate with hybrid and driver.  Maybe start the round hitting hybrid off the tee the first 3-4 holes, then mix it up, alternating hybrid and driver/3w every other non-par 3 or something (assuming you don't have the length where there are holes where you can hit hybrid off the tee and still have 7i or shorter into the green anyway, in which case that's the smart play anyway, especially for a beginner).

If you hit like 95-100% of your drives with huge banana slices, then yeah, I'd say on the course just hit hybrid off the tee and accept that, depending on your distance, there will be some par 4s that you have to play for bogey, hoping to 1-putt some pars here and there.  If you accept that some par 4s will play as par 5s for you for a while, it can still be really gratifying to hit 5h into the fairway, 6i onto the fairway, and wedge onto the green.

Either way, play the forward-most tees.  It might feel weak, especially if they're labeled women's tees, but believe me, it's way more fun when you play tees that allow you, given where your game is, to feel like you're improving and have a chance to shoot your best round each day.  And from the forward tees if you are alternating in the long clubs off the tee and you hit some well, then you get a couple chances to hit a really short approach and hit a few pars.

Also, you say you hit your 5h decent.  If you also struggle with the 3h and 4h, maybe alternate hitting 3h and 5h off the tee, letting 3h be your tough tee club for a while until you feel you're hitting the driver and 3w decent enough to hit a few tee shots with those on the course.

[HeadGolfool]

I would definitely put your driver back in the bag.  The big question do you have the time and money for lessons to fix your swing that is causing the problem?  If not you are going to have to give up your desire for distance in favor of learning how to keep the ball in play, out of trouble and learn to score.  You will gain some confidence start learning how to hit it straighter  and eventually start being able to hit longer clubs.

That's a big challenge as most high handicapped golfers are only interested in hitting it long, never learning how to get the ball in the hole with the least amount of strokes and pretty much stay at the same level forever.

[buckeyekid1996]

wow.... i just shot a 59 today. im so proud of myself

[tshapiro]

I believe it is only worth hitting a club you can hit with good form. Since your swing is developing, hitting the driver using your current bad form will not benefit you much in the long run. I would rather see you learn good form on a club that you can actually control and make measured progress with like your hybrid. By swinging a driver wit bad form you will simply enforce bad habits like muscling the club with your arms because you cant swing it yet. You will have a much better chance of learning to swing while maintaining good balance with a club that is not requiring you to use strong compensating methods. In other words, you will learn to have a free swing on something that's easier to control. Once you've developed the feel for that than you can move up to a 7wood, that 5wood, and then the driver. Going straight to the driver might be fun but really will not be a progressive method to success.