No lift when driving

[Pen]

This is embarrassing...I am a brand new player, have only played 18 once, and the problem I am having is I cannot lift the ball at all! I don't have much trouble smacking the ball, (yet), but it just rolls along the grass no matter how hard I try. What am I doing wrong? Is it about technique, or strength? I have disability, MS, and bad back, but there must be a way I can play somehow right? Fortunately, I have a good sense of humour and laughed at myself all the way through, but I'd seriously like to improve. ..Thank you.

Edited January 2, 2017 by Pen

[iacas]

First question first: are you hitting the ball near the center of the clubface, or are you hitting the top of the golf ball?

Second question: is the golf ball positioned off your front foot (the one closest to the target), or back in the middle (or even further back) in your stance?

[nevets88]

Did you try Uber instead? Rimshot. 

I'll show myself out.

But seriously, welcome to the game, what you're experiencing is what everyone goes through, golf is hard, but there's a lot of good info here that will help you get going.

[Buckeyebowman]

Have you had any instruction at all? I'm not talking about dropping a ton on an ongoing series of lessons. I'm talking about hiring a pro for single lesson covering the following. GRIP, STANCE, ALIGNMENT, BALL POSITION!

OK! Maybe you'll need a couple of lessons. But, if you get  a grounding in the basics, and practice those you'll be further ahead. I'm lucky in that when I picked up the game, I had people around to help.

One thing from your post stands out to me, and I don't really know if it's a local colloquialism, but you wrote about not getting any "lift" on your shots. I'll tell you this. If you are consciously trying to "lift" the ball into the air, you have no shot!

Golf is a game of opposites. Except for your Driver or a teed up fairway wood, if you want the ball to go up, you need to hit down.

[natureboy]

On 1/3/2017 at 10:56 PM, Buckeyebowman said:

Golf is a game of opposites. Except for your Driver or a teed up fairway wood, if you want the ball to go up, you need to hit down.

A 'hitting down' mental image can also encourage excessive steepness through the ball. All you need to take a divot is have low point of your swing a bit in front of the ball that brushes the grass. Hit through the ball slightly downward. The deflection of the inclined plane of the club off the ball will take the divot. It doesn't need to be a highly conscious thing.

But that 'extreme opposite' feel / picture might help the OP if he's hanging back / trying to hit under the ball to get it up in the air...if he doesn't shift his whole upper body toward the target and get super-steep in the process.

[Buckeyebowman]

2 minutes ago, natureboy said:

A 'hitting down' mental image can also encourage excessive steepness through the ball. All you need to take a divot is have low point of your swing a bit in front of the ball that brushes the grass. Hit through the ball slightly downward. The deflection of the inclined plane of the club off the ball will take the divot. It doesn't need to be a highly conscious thing.

But that 'extreme opposite' feel / picture might help the OP if he's hanging back / trying to hit under the ball to get it up in the air...if he doesn't shift his whole upper body toward the target and get super-steep in the process.

Good point! I have a buddy who does that. Also, he tees the ball quite low even when hitting the driver. I tell him that this encourages him to "chop down" on the ball. He'll tee a 3 wood and a Driver at the same height! I tell him he doesn't have to have the ball a mile in the air, but do some experimenting, Bring it up a quarter inch at a time, to where he can "sweep" the ball off the tee.

Thinking more about it, I might suggest that the OP "powder" his balls! Get some baby powder or cheap foot spray powder, and use it to see exactly where on the clubface he is contacting the ball. Sounds to me like he might be catching the ball way low on the clubface.