Take Your Driver Out of the Bag

[The Recreational Golfer]

Originally Posted by The Recreational Golfer

Here's a guideline that I think isn't too far off -- don't play with a club that has less loft than you average score over par.

Response Posted by saevel25

A golfer is giving up a huge advantage. You can improve your swing and game with out taking the driver out of the bag. To me that notion is just admitting defeat.

What I mean is that you shouldn't have a drive in your bag until you know how to hit it. This is admitting that less-lofted clubs are harder to hit and that you will score better if you don't use them until you get a better swing.

Like I say, it's a guideline. But I rarely play with someone who can't break 90 whose driver is doing them any favors. They're not that good with a 3W, either.

[saevel25]

What I mean is that you shouldn't have a drive in your bag until you know how to hit it. This is admitting that less-lofted clubs are harder to hit and that you will score better if you don't use them until you get a better swing.

Like I say, it's a guideline. But I rarely play with someone who can't break 90 whose driver is doing them any favors. They're not that good with a 3W, either.

They are not good with their irons either as well. A bad golfer is a bad golfer.

[Dave2512]

It is a perception thing. Bad ball striking is a problem for lesser skilled golfers with all clubs. It seems like a bigger problem with longer less lofted clubs because that mishit tends to be more severe. So while they won't slice a 9 iron 60 yards the degree their miss travels off line is probably similar to that of their driver given the difference in length and loft.

[tomvk77]

I didn't have a driver nor 3 wood in the first 5 years. reached hdc 14 doing so.

But if you need pars on your scorecard and want to go to single digit hdc

well you just can't afford to hit 5 irons in all the time.

But if i could hit my 3wood 277 than i would dump my driver

[arturo28mx]

For the last year I decided to leave my driver at home and only use my 3 wood off the tee. My rationale was a bit less distance but a lot more control.

I lost about 15 yards but gained only SLIGHTLY more control. The cost benefit analysis did not turn out as I expected.

I will be going back to using my driver on most holes and 3 wood only on very risky holes (especially narrow fairways).

[pecos24]

What I mean is that you shouldn't have a drive in your bag until you know how to hit it. This is admitting that less-lofted clubs are harder to hit and that you will score better if you don't use them until you get a better swing.

Like I say, it's a guideline. But I rarely play with someone who can't break 90 whose driver is doing them any favors. They're not that good with a 3W, either.

@The Recreational Golfer I read your original post and disregarded it.  But the more I think about it I wonder how much better my scores would be if I teed off with my 6I. My scores certainly couldn't be much worse.

Yesterday at the range I worked on my driver some and by choking up about an inch and taking a shorter back swing I was able to get it under control.  I'll see how it goes at league tomorrow.

When I have a chance I think I will play 9 and just tee off with my 6I and see how it goes.

[dkolo]

@The Recreational Golfer I read your original post and disregarded it.  But the more I think about it I wonder how much better my scores would be if I teed off with my 6I. My scores certainly couldn't be much worse.

Yesterday at the range I worked on my driver some and by choking up about an inch and taking a shorter back swing I was able to get it under control.  I'll see how it goes at league tomorrow.

When I have a chance I think I will play 9 and just tee off with my 6I and see how it goes.

If you struggle with all your longer clubs to such an extent, I doubt you're as good with your 6i as you would have to be to make this work. And I think, best case scenario, you'd plateau one or two handicap points better than where you are, if you improved at all.

And just to be clear, I think it's fine to practice with irons-only or one club or something to that effect. If I played way more often than I do, I'd experiment with it. But in terms of it being a long term strategy as @The Recreational Golfer suggested, I think it's Looney Tunes.

[Shindig]

Yesterday at the range I worked on my driver some and by choking up about an inch and taking a shorter back swing I was able to get it under control.  I'll see how it goes at league tomorrow.

The last thought you need to have in your mind is the word "choke" when hitting a driver. Please call it "gripping down" :-)

[Fourputt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Recreational Golfer

What I mean is that you shouldn't have a drive in your bag until you know how to hit it. This is admitting that less-lofted clubs are harder to hit and that you will score better if you don't use them until you get a better swing.

Like I say, it's a guideline. But I rarely play with someone who can't break 90 whose driver is doing them any favors. They're not that good with a 3W, either.

@The Recreational Golfer I read your original post and disregarded it.  But the more I think about it I wonder how much better my scores would be if I teed off with my 6I. My scores certainly couldn't be much worse.

Yesterday at the range I worked on my driver some and by choking up about an inch and taking a shorter back swing I was able to get it under control.  I'll see how it goes at league tomorrow.

When I have a chance I think I will play 9 and just tee off with my 6I and see how it goes.

I do the same.  Not only do I control direction better, but I'm longer when I use a shorter swing, because I actually hit closer to the sweet spot more often.

I've never made what most would call a full turn, yet until age started to creep into my swing I was always a little more than average length with my driver.  Guy would ask how I hit so far with a 3/4 swing, and I'd just say that it felt like a full swing to me.  I never did it on a conscious level, I just took the club back to what it was comfortable.  For me, that was a bit short of parallel.  Now it's a bit farther short of parallel, but it works most of the time.

[RFKFREAK]

And just to be clear, I think it's fine to practice with irons-only or one club or something to that effect. If I played way more often than I do, I'd experiment with it. But in terms of it being a long term strategy as @The Recreational Golfer suggested, I think it's Looney Tunes.

+1.

You might be able to lower your scores in the short term but I suspect you'd find yourself hitting a ceiling as to how well you'll score soon thereafter.

[pecos24]

Well, like I said, I found some success "gripping down", @Shindig , and taking a shorter back swing with my driver at the range yesterday.  I will continue with that strategy when I play on Wednesday night.

But in all honesty when I playing my worst it is when my driver is out of control. Last week out of the 4 holes(round was cut short due to weather) I used my driver on, I hit one fairway.  One was just in the first cut of rough but not a bad lie, the other two were crappy lies that directly affected my next shots.

+1.

You might be able to lower your scores in the short term but I suspect you'd find yourself hitting a ceiling as to how well you'll score soon thereafter.

And I guess I should make myself clear, I wasn't thinking about this as a long term solution, just something to try and to see how I do.

[RFKFREAK]

And I guess I should make myself clear, I wasn't thinking about this as a long term solution, just something to try and to see how I do.

I have no idea what your end goal is so if your goal is to lower your HC to 25 and stay there, then I would say it's not a bad plan.  What I meant by my statement was that if you're looking to continually improve and become the best player your abilities allow you to become, using that method, you're going to hit a ceiling and not be the best player you can become.

I know that this season I have a goal of lowering my HC to 20 by the end of the season.  Presuming I get there, I'll set another goal, but I feel that I can't reach my initial goal or any thereafter that relate to my HC without the driver being in bag and using it regularly.

[pecos24]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RFKFREAK

I have no idea what your end goal is so if your goal is to lower your HC to 25 and stay there, then I would say it's not a bad plan.  What I meant by my statement was that if you're looking to continually improve and become the best player your abilities allow you to become, using that method, you're going to hit a ceiling and not be the best player you can become.

I know that this season I have a goal of lowering my HC to 20 by the end of the season.  Presuming I get there, I'll set another goal, but I feel that I can't reach my initial goal or any thereafter that relate to my HC without the driver being in bag and using it regularly.

My modest, short term goal is to get my HI below 30 and keep it there.  I have had my HI below 30 one season about 3 or 4 years ago and that was due to a few rounds where I played some of my best golf.  Soon after is when my game went way south, and the last two seasons I have been slowly digging myself out of that hole.

[BEF081056]

Well, like I said, I found some success "gripping down", @Shindig ,  ;-) and taking a shorter back swing with my driver at the range yesterday.  I will continue with that strategy when I play on Wednesday night. But in all honesty when I playing my worst it is when my driver is out of control. Last week out of the 4 holes(round was cut short due to weather) I used my driver on, I hit one fairway.  One was just in the first cut of rough but not a bad lie, the other two were crappy lies that directly affected my next shots.   And I guess I should make myself clear, I wasn't thinking about this as a long term solution, just something to try and to see how I do.

Shot my best round today (94) since starting back playing late last summer. Based on this thread I tried "gripping down" my driver. Hit 8 Fairways and my only OOB shots were irons on the par 3s. And I didn't notice any real loss of distance. My partner is 25 years younger than me and looong. On the first hole I teed of with a dead center 250 drive. He hit it 290-300 but in the next fairway. Easy iron, up and down for par. And he had a double. Boy did that feel good...

[Gunther]

Nice job!! Keep on grippin (down) and rippin!

[RFKFREAK]

My modest, short term goal is to get my HI below 30 and keep it there.  I

I'm not expert and we seem to have a similar HC but I would say if that's your goal, then, yes, you likely don't need to have your driver in the bag.

[Shindig]

My modest, short term goal is to get my HI below 30 and keep it there.  I have had my HI below 30 one season about 3 or 4 years ago and that was due to a few rounds where I played some of my best golf.  Soon after is when my game went way south, and the last two seasons I have been slowly digging myself out of that hole.

If you haven't already set up a "my swing" thread, consider doing so. When I wanted to get under 19, I started with that and then used evolvr. In about a year, including a four month not-playing-or-practicing-or-anything period, I'm down to a 14.x. I'm sure there will be some improvements to shave a shot or two from your handicap. (LSW is also an obvious thing to buy -- your strategy might be as much a culprit as your swing)

[pecos24]

If you haven't already set up a "my swing" thread, consider doing so. When I wanted to get under 19, I started with that and then used evolvr. In about a year, including a four month not-playing-or-practicing-or-anything period, I'm down to a 14.x. I'm sure there will be some improvements to shave a shot or two from your handicap.

(LSW is also an obvious thing to buy -- your strategy might be as much a culprit as your swing)

I do have a My Swing thread started.  I have not uploaded a swing video since last summer though, I need to get it updated.

And I have not purchased LSW yet...