Who Hits Their Driver Straight?

[mdl]

Originally Posted by Jason M Henley

I don't ever step up and think, "hit it straight". Every shot I hit I have a plan on which way I want it to move. It may not always do what I tell it to but at least I have a plan and more often than not your body will work to execute that plan. If you are just thinking "oh man I  hope I hit it at the target" then you are doomed from the get go.

For the longest time I tried to hit every single shot straight.  That's always made me very reactive on the course, fixing whatever problem most recently not hit the ball with minimal side to side movement and reasonably close to the target line.  My natural shape trying to do that was always a push fade.  I've finally tried to eliminate that problem shot by forcing myself to learn to hit a draw (I could never reliably move the ball right to left except with a little punch draw/hook).  That's allowed me to become proactive instead of reactive, having a plan for what to do, instead of fixing what I did do and shouldn't have on some recent swing.

That, and a good quote from Bubba Watson I read recently.  Even as a pro, but especially as an amateur where only a tiny minority can really hope to go out and shoot par or better on any given round, one of the things that makes golf fun is making good shots that you planned.  If you're just trying to hit it straight and down the target line, you have to do everything exactly perfectly to hit the shot you planned, and that'll happen rarely. If you instead choose a shape for each shot, then even if you don't hit it perfectly, if you successfully shape the ball the direction you were trying to, you've at least made the shot you were attempting.

Maybe you had a middle pin with trouble front and right, and you decided to draw your approach shot.  Maybe you close the club face a little too much and hit a hard draw that starts straight and lands pin high just off the green to the left, instead of the slight push baby draw you were setting up for.  You at least hit the right shape and succeeded in having your miss avoid the big trouble right.  As an amateur who's not going to be shooting for par realistically and isn't going to hit many shots close to perfectly in a random round, this lets you at least feel like you're more in control and have succeeded in getting the shape you want and avoiding trouble on one side, even if you miss the fairway or green.

[Tuflehundon]

I hit my 3 wood dead straight. My driver shots fly fairly straight, but have a slight draw towards the end. Had a horrible slice when I first started playing.

Was lucky enough to play with a friend who was an Instructor for a few months. Slowly but surely, we corrected things I was doing wrong one at a time. He helped me with my game more than anything else I have done since.

I'm just getting back into playing after several years out due to injury, broke my foot. I find that if I rush things now, I will still slice the ball, just not as bad as I used to.