Ball in the middle of my stance, teed down with a driver?

[whatwoodtigerdo]

So I am sitting at work thinking about my golf game and wanted to post this because I am trying to figure this game out and wanted to see if anybody could help me with this. I know I need to post a video and will do that in a couple of weeks or so but I am going through yet another retooling of my swing so I want to work that out before I do.

So anyway back to the topic. I have been fooling around with different positions with my driver and I find that if I use typical wisdom of teed up and inside the instep of my front foot I basically pull the ball. Usually a playable pull but somewhere in the left rough. No slice. Maybe a little hook action sometimes. However if I put the ball near the middle of my stance and only tee it up to where the top of the ball is at the top of the driver head, maybe slightly higher, than I hit it square. I have slightly lost my drive lately as 3 weeks ago I would hit it about 240-260 yards with a tight draw and really consistent and now I am around 225 and I cannot draw it anymore. However even when I was hitting it well I had to set up with the ball the same way.

So is it a must to have the ball just inside the left instep to hit the driver the best I possibly can? If so, what could possibly be causing the pull when I set up that way and how can I fix it?

[Mr. Desmond]

Have fun:

http://thesandtrap.com/t/44307/hitting-up-or-down-with-the-driver-in-an-inline-pattern

[GaijinGolfer]

Id be worried about hitting down with the driver and creating too much spin, which is only going to rob you of distance.  Maybe you need to figure out why you are pulling it.  OTT perhaps?

[whatwoodtigerdo]

Originally Posted by Mr. Desmond

Have fun:

http://thesandtrap.com/t/44307/hitting-up-or-down-with-the-driver-in-an-inline-pattern

Thanks. I guess that answers that I probably should try to hit it in the front of my stance, now just have to figure out how lol.

[whatwoodtigerdo]

Originally Posted by GaijinGolfer

Id be worried about hitting down with the driver and creating too much spin, which is only going to rob you of distance.  Maybe you need to figure out why you are pulling it.  OTT perhaps?

Thanks for the reply. I definitely have a lot of backspin with my driver. It's been about a year since I was on a launch monitor and I don't know the exact numbers but I remember I was about 1000 rotations, or whatever it was called, higher than what he said I should have been at. At that time I was carrying around 230-240 and stopping right where I hit but I lowered my loft and got a couple lessons since and it was better. I don't think I am coming OTT but it is always possibly that is creeping back in. I will try to hit the range later today and focus on coming inside to make sure.

I definitely need to try to get a video up soon and work it out.

[boogielicious]

Double check to make sure your shoulders and hips aren't open with respect to your feet at address (i.e., aligned left of the target line your feet are aligned to).  I found I was doing this a bit when I played the ball forward with the driver.  The result was always left.  It causes your swing to be out to in instead of the desired in to out.

[Mr. Desmond]

Originally Posted by whatwoodtigerdo

Thanks. I guess that answers that I probably should try to hit it in the front of my stance, now just have to figure out how lol.

Think about using the lead shoulder socket as a way to figure it out - that may be around the big toe of your lead foot (flare both feet out slightly - look at vids).

If you look at the last part of the thread, you will see that you are asked to set up slightly closed so you do not pull or fade - but hit a push-draw.

Come in shallow for a positive angle of attack.

[RadarNinja]

Double check to make sure your shoulders and hips aren't open with respect to your feet at address (i.e., aligned left of the target line your feet are aligned to).  I found I was doing this a bit when I played the ball forward with the driver.  The result was always left.  It causes your swing to be out to in instead of the desired in to out.

I agree... When the ball gets moved forward many players get the right shoulder too far away from the body. Make sure you right shoulder is slightly lower than left, in line with your stance, and left hip slightly forward at set up. Ball further back in your stance is getting your angle of attack steeper and getting your path neutral or to the right and also, most likely, getting your shoulders into a better position.

[Mr. Desmond]

Originally Posted by RadarNinja

I agree... When the ball gets moved forward many players get the right shoulder too far away from the body. Make sure you right shoulder is slightly lower than left, in line with your stance, and left hip slightly forward at set up. Ball further back in your stance is getting your angle of attack steeper and getting your path neutral or to the right and also, most likely, getting your shoulders into a better position.

Ball further back creates more issues - like a downward angle of attack and more spin, less launch.

Why not close the stance a bit, as suggested in the thread linked above?

[airguard]

Same sort of problem. I find my swing gets to flat I will pull across the ball, also I have weakened my left hand grip and put my right hand in a nutural position. I'm right handed and that helped a lot.

Just my 2 cents tho.

[RadarNinja]

OP's issue is fairly common when people start making tweaks in their swing to change AoA (angle of attack). There could be many different reasons why the path is over the top and the face square to the path. This goes back to the argument about if carry distance outweighs control and consistency. Playing the ball up and setting up to 'attempt' to create an upward AoA often has other consequences that affect the 2 most important factors to controlling the shot and getting distance: center face contact and the face to path relationship.

IF the OP is looking for long term solutions to increase distance and lower spin than he/she will have to commit to the process of making set up/swing changes through proper instruction, otherwise I would suggest swinging normally and accepting the results as is. I've seen this happen before with Trackman data to back it up. There are successful drivers of the ball who don't hit up and, unless committed, can mess up your swing.  From how I read the post, it sounds like the OP was happy until changing set up and ball position and that's when the problems began.

[whatwoodtigerdo]

Thanks for the ideas. Update from the range I think I had an open stance with my left foot back. I am not sure if this is what was meant here but that's how I took it so I paid attention to that first. I moved it up to what looks like even or even slightly forward of my back foot. I also fooled around with adding what I guess would be called a "starter move" by subtly pushing my lead hip forward at the start of my swing. And of course the ball teed up more and in front of my stance and I was crushing it. I don't want to say yardage until I get on the course this weekend but it was going far and I even got my draw going again. I couldn't hit an iron too well but that's for another thread lol. Again thanks for everyone throwing out ideas especially with no video and I hope it sticks for a while.