Help with Driving

[johnclark12]

Hey guys, so I have been golfing for about 3 years now, and have constantly been inconsistent in my driving. My iron & putting game is good, but I have been having problems with the first shot. Some things I have been noticing: 1.) There is always a big rut in the ground about 2 inches past where the tee is. 2.) The ball never seems to leave the ground, and only ever advances about 25-50 yards. 3.) I seem to be able to get 2-3 good drives each round. 4.) The last time I was out (last week) I noticed that when I bent the club at an upward angle facing the ball, I had an extremely good drive. Could it be that I am holding the club head downward? I average about 20-30 over par each round, so I am by no means an experienced golfer, although I constantly get 1-2 putts and thats it per hole. As I am just joining a country club for the first time, I will be competing in tournaments this summer, and do not want to look like a complete fool when driving from the tee. Any questions for me or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[SavvySwede]

  johnclark12 said:

Hey guys,

so I have been golfing for about 3 years now, and have constantly been inconsistent in my driving. My iron & putting game is good, but I have been having problems with the first shot.

Some things I have been noticing:

1.) There is always a big rut in the ground about 2 inches past where the tee is.

2.) The ball never seems to leave the ground, and only ever advances about 25-50 yards.

3.) I seem to be able to get 2-3 good drives each round.

4.) The last time I was out (last week) I noticed that when I bent the club at an upward angle facing the ball, I had an extremely good drive. Could it be that I am holding the club head downward?

I average about 20-30 over par each round, so I am by no means an experienced golfer, although I constantly get 1-2 putts and thats it per hole. As I am just joining a country club for the first time, I will be competing in tournaments this summer, and do not want to look like a complete fool when driving from the tee.

Any questions for me or advice would be greatly appreciated.

If you hit down on the driver and hit it very low on the face it is possible for the ball to take off very low and skip it off the turf just in front of the tee. You need to tee the ball so it's equator is very much above the crown of your driver and play it off of your left heel. It will encourage you to hit the ball on the upswing so you're maximizing height and carry distance.

[mvmac]

  johnclark12 said:

Any questions for me or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the site, would recommend this thread, good luck!

[joshbryan2189]

Ok so what it sounds like to me is, you mentioned the mark in front of your tee in the ground and it only goes 25-30 yards. That to me just sounds like your topping the ball. Is that what your doing? Topping it and there is a consistent looking mark in front off your tee every time? Because that sounds about right for a top is 25-30 yards with a rut like mark in front of the tee.

[johnclark12]

  joshbryan2189 said:

Ok so what it sounds like to me is, you mentioned the mark in front of your tee in the ground and it only goes 25-30 yards. That to me just sounds like your topping the ball. Is that what your doing? Topping it and there is a consistent looking mark in front off your tee every time? Because that sounds about right for a top is 25-30 yards with a rut like mark in front of the tee.

Yes, I also catch myself doing this alot. Although I will purposely set my tee higher, and it just doesn't seem to help any.

[joshbryan2189]

Hmm... If it were me I would probably switch up my ball position and just really focus on hitting the ball in the middle of the face first not really caring about where the ball goes and not trying to swing very hard and just get the feel of squaring up that ball in the middle of the face then once you start squaring the ball up then make adjustments to your ball flight or where the ball is going. But start nice and slow at first just hitting the ball in the middle of the face then work your way up to a full swing. Hope this helps you brother.

[Tat14]

Something that helped me awhile ago with driving - float the club head before starting your backswing. In other words, don't ground it like you would an iron.

This, combined with a tee height that puts the ball's equator at or above the crown of the driver, gave me a feeling that I was hitting something without the ground being a factor. It helped with contact, which led to distance, etc.

Myriad tips mixed in with the pro advice on this site. Give it a try next time you hit the range.

Good luck!

[5ironkid]

I would suggest recording your swing and investigating if you are hitting down on the ball. with irons hitting down is what you want, but in a driver you really need to hit upwards when trying to launch the ball. tee the ball a little higher up, start with your right shoulder (if you are a righty) leaning more towards the ground so your shoulders point slightly upward towards the sky. you can also try to put more weight on your back foot, try 40% on your front foot 60% on your back foot. also place the ball off your right heel. i replicate this by setting the driver head by the ball, with my feet together even to the ball. then i move my left foot out a couple of inches and set up my stance with my right foot taking most of the width of the distance between the feet. then move the club head back an inch or two so your swing plane is moving upwards instead of downwards. you want to catch the ball on the upswing