Driver inconsistency

[Steelcurtain]

Hello all,

The club I'm currently struggling the most with is my driver.  I can take my 3 wood and hit it off the deck dead straight 180-200 yards consistently.  But when I tee up the driver scary things happen.  I either have slight fades, nasty slices, or the ball just pops way up in the air and gets no real distance.  I believe I am good on my address.  I keep the ball just inside the left heel, ball slightly above driver, left should higher than right.

So this leads me to believe it's either my backswing or my follow through that is causing my problems.  For a driver do I want a wider backswing than say I would use for a fairway wood or iron?  Am I coming down with too much of a downward attack causing the clubface to open?

It almost makes me wanna not use tees and just blast my 3 wood, especially on par 3s and small 4s... 😣

Edited August 8, 2018 by Steelcurtain

[MrGolfguy67]

It's probably an outside to in swing path on the downswing, commonly known as 'over the top' or 'casting', which is causing the clubhead to impart the slice spin on the ball. Work on keeping your right elbow tucked in close to your side on the downswing to correct this. Good luck. 

[Shindig]

First, sweet avatar my new friend.

Second, if your driver is more likely to cost you strokes than gain strokes, when you're playing it's fine to avoid the driver.  But learn to hit the driver in your practice time, because long term it will save you most strokes than it costs you.  So if you're going to play tomorrow, yeah, hit that 3-wood.  If you're going to play in December, spend some time between now and then on your driver.

I don't feel like I do a significantly different swing with my driver than I do with my hybrids or irons.  Maybe that's a fault.

The obvious thing to do would be to film yourself hitting driver;  see this post for information on that: https://thesandtrap.com/b/playing_tips/filming_your_swing

Then use those shots to set up a "My Swing" thread.  You'll get some good feedback.

If you don't want to, or can't, or even if you plan to, check these two resources out and see if they help.  They helped me quite a bit! 

 

And also this one:

 

[boogielicious]

8 hours ago, Steelcurtain said:

Hello all,

The club I'm currently struggling the most with is my driver.  I can take my 3 wood and hit it off the deck dead straight 180-200 yards consistently.  But when I tee up the driver scary things happen.  I either have slight fades, nasty slices, or the ball just pops way up in the air and gets no real distance.  I believe I am good on my address.  I keep the ball just inside the left heel, ball slightly above driver, left should higher than right.

So this leads me to believe it's either my backswing or my follow through that is causing my problems.  For a driver do I want a wider backswing than say I would use for a fairway wood or iron?  Am I coming down with too much of a downward attack causing the clubface to open?

It almost makes me wanna not use tees and just blast my 3 wood, especially on par 3s and small 4s... 😣

I would recommend reading the threads that @Shindig posted and also start a My Swing thread in the Member Swings section. I could be a variety of things.