Compression on the Irons has ruined my driver! Help!

[Mugs050]

When I first started playing the game (teenager) I naturally lagged the club and hit nice compressed irons. I would take good pelts but after the ball was struck and hit my clubs farther then almost everyone I played with. Since then I have gotten away from doing that as when I was young I could not control where my ball would end up. Recently in my search to get better and to find more consistency I have been trying to recreate that ball flight/motion. It has been a success I have now picked up 1 to 1 1/2 clubs with my iron distance, the ball has a lot more spin and I got the nice piercing zing sound.

I love how the irons feel, fly and land. It gives me instant feed back on a good strike or not. However this motion has created havoc on my driver. I hit low bunts that roll about 250, giving up anywhere between 25-50 yards on my old swing with the big stick. A well struck compressed 3 hybrid is going pretty much just as far and straighter as my driver.

This is how I have achieved my old compression:

- Swinging more around my body. Not super inside but little bit more around to create a shallower attack angle.

-Pressing the club slightly forward. Again nothing super exaggerated but pressed none the less.

-Keeping my left hand flat through impact (Right handed golfer)

My question is how do I fix my driver without screwing up my irons? Any ideas?

[MEfree]

My question is how do I fix my driver without screwing up my irons? Any ideas?

No simple answer from my perspective. The conundrum is that the driver is really the only club we want to swing up on while with the other clubs we want to hit ball then ground. Ideally, I think we would simply tee a driver high, move the ball forward, then make the same swing we make with the other clubs with the the exception that the driver never touches the ground (and the ball is positioned in front of instead of behind the low point of your swing). Erik had a thread where he advocated playing a fade with your upward swinging driver (presumably while still playing a draw on your downward swinging irons). Easier said than done IMO without it indirectly affecting how you swing other clubs. This might be easier to accomplish for blind golfers and those that have the ability not to adjust their swing based on ball position, but for me, it has been difficult. FWIW, while most of the LPGA players are said to swing up on their drivers (+ angle of attack), many PGA tour pros do not.

[boogielicious]

When I first started playing the game (teenager) I naturally lagged the club and hit nice compressed irons. I would take good pelts but after the ball was struck and hit my clubs farther then almost everyone I played with. Since then I have gotten away from doing that as when I was young I could not control where my ball would end up. Recently in my search to get better and to find more consistency I have been trying to recreate that ball flight/motion. It has been a success I have now picked up 1 to 1 1/2 clubs with my iron distance, the ball has a lot more spin and I got the nice piercing zing sound.

I love how the irons feel, fly and land. It gives me instant feed back on a good strike or not. However this motion has created havoc on my driver. I hit low bunts that roll about 250, giving up anywhere between 25-50 yards on my old swing with the big stick. A well struck compressed 3 hybrid is going pretty much just as far and straighter as my driver.

This is how I have achieved my old compression:

- Swinging more around my body. Not super inside but little bit more around to create a shallower attack angle.

-Pressing the club slightly forward. Again nothing super exaggerated but pressed none the less.

-Keeping my left hand flat through impact (Right handed golfer)

My question is how do I fix my driver without screwing up my irons? Any ideas?

The driver is a different swing than your irons. Approach it differently. Check out the thread above. Remember you are try to swing up or at least flat for the driver.

[oregongolfguy]

Check out the above mentioned thread.  Look at your stance, ball position and secondary tilt.

[virtuoso]

It is true that the sequence of the iron swing and driver swing is the same, but everything else is different. Just except that they are different and practice them both. No one ever complains that a punch 4 iron under the limbs and a high soft 4 iron to a long par 3 are different. No complains that sidehill lie are swung differently or that fairway bunker shots are swung differently. A lob shot is swung differently than a low skid and stop. Practice them all.

[Mugs050]

Kind of an update. Played this weekend twice and my driver was improved both days. Not great but better. I hit a couple in which I could say were safely around my old yardages/flight.

What I worked on was the following:

-moved the driver quite a bit farther up in my stance.

-wider follow through.

-dropped the club more inside on the down swing.

-delayed the release and from a tip from a guy at work, kept my left hand right of target on the follow through.

I got my first ever lesson on Thursday. I am going to ask about some things to work on from there.

[saevel25]

I love how the irons feel, fly and land. It gives me instant feed back on a good strike or not. However this motion has created havoc on my driver. I hit low bunts that roll about 250, giving up anywhere between 25-50 yards on my old swing with the big stick. A well struck compressed 3 hybrid is going pretty much just as far and straighter as my driver.

Stop hitting down on the ball with your driver.

[Golfingdad]

Stop hitting down on the ball with your driver.

Yeah ... without knowing anything at all about his swing, my first instinct would be to look at the ball position.  It's possible it needs to be moved quite a bit forward.