Loyalp4wn

@Golfingdad , I have been giving the driver a lot of practice, and now feel comfortable using it in my rounds. Thanks for the honest input!

Yeah yeah, I get it, you literally find all of this hilarious, quit being a broken record... I really don't even think you read my first post.. I was trying to get advice on club selection, not to stroke my ego! I'm just going to say this, because this is LITERALLY the only thing you want to hear from me, maybe I don't hit the 5wood 270 yards! And don't try to tell me about your hilarity, or try to put any other equation into this, because I know the only thing you wanted to get from me is that I don't hit the 5wood as far as I said I do. I regret posting things like this because of people like you, you want to turn this into some kind of ego battle to fulfill your God complex, give it a rest man, I just gave you your belittlement fix so move on.

a slow mo video with face on view? What is this, help me Peter Kostis?! Look man, I'm not going to bend over backwards to show you something I'm confident with. And you can hold your handicap perspective over me all day, I told you I had a "good" short game, not a great short game. I gave you an explanation of the par 4's that I play consistently from the blue tees, how are you going to tell me that if I'm facing 60-70 yard approach shots on a par 4 370 yd hole that I'm not reaching 300? I'm not going to even respond to this 5 wood bull anymore either, because seriously... why do you care so much? Is it that a 10 handicapper is hitting the ball farther than you? It really seems like that is the reoccurring point you keep trying to make in your posts. This thread wasn't even intended for this pointless banter, and I'm just assuming that you're going to keep beating a dead horse with your responses, and since you don't have video evidence now, you've won this battle! Just take the victory and enjoy your 2 handicap, you earned it.

Thanks for your confidence Tims65. I feel like theres a lot of beating around the bush here for no reason. Lets say I do find a more accurate means of measuring my distances, I still feel like I'm not going to be that far off of my original estimates. At my home course, that I play every day, there are a few par 4's that are from 350-370 yds. On the ones closer to 370 yds my drive lands 10-15 yds in front of the 100 yard marker. If there are winds blowing at me, I'm usually right at or before the 100 yard marker. Maybe I don't have the most accurate means of measuring my distances, but I know what a 250 yard drive looks like, and then I know what my drive looks like and it's considerably farther! I'm not saying any of this to be arrogant, or "wow look at me I can drive the ball 300 yards", I'm saying this with years of development and progress with my swing. I hope I can get a video on here showing you my full swing speed, as the videos I have on here are swings on the range. You can say what you want about my handicap not adding up to my distances either, I just registered for an official handicap 2 weeks ago and haven't received it yet, I'm just giving you my strokes over par average, which is 9.6. I'm now dealing with 60-70 yard layups that require an extreme amount of touch that I'm currently without, when I was using my 5wood to tee off I was dealing with 110 yard lay ups that I have a better gauge with.

My swing wasnt a representation of 270 yards! Did you read my comment by the way? Ill post a video hittiing my 5 wood exacty like I do off the tee when I play tomorrow, and you can tell me if im speculating.

My handicap trend is 9.6 strokes over par, I wont have an official handicap until my clubs revision date. But based on the scores that Ive put in there, which are high 70s low 80s, and compared to those with similar scores that have a handicap, im assuming mine will be closer to a 7. Ive hit my driver on a launch monitor, and the shortest ball I hit was 295 yards, everything else low 300's. Im pretty sure we're going to disagree all day on the 5wood distances, but I know for sure Im hitting the driver in the 300s

Also, thanks for the replys everyone, and the kind words about my swing!

Savvyswede, at Torrey Pines driving range they purposely take 30% of the distance off their range balls to avoid players hitting each other, as there are mats on both sides of the range.

Osmond I could be wrong on 270 yds, however I'm confident that when I was hitting the 5 wood off the tee, I was in the 260s. With the new driver, I'm positive that I'm not hitting anything less than 300 yards unless I miss hit the ball. I'm pretty sure im not exaggerating these numbers either, because with the new driver I am now seeing my ball 30-40 yards farther than golfers I play with. These aren't your weekend hackers either. Today I was actually awestruck at the distance of my drive, on a par 4 that's 368 yards to the green from the blue tees I actually hit my ball 20 yards short from the green. There was an extreme amount of wind however, and the group in front of me approaching the green was not very happy that I almost hit them.. (I couldn't believe it either). I'm kind of in between your statement of seeing lower scores though. I see it on some holes now, however with my large drive now, I'm seeing 60-70 yard lay ups now that I haven't practiced in a while that are baffling me. (I've gone with the bump and run approach to these now after learning my lesson with trying to gauge the gap with a wedge, and I'm seeing great results). I do think in time though I will start to see lower scores, my short game is good, however I'm going to need to practice certain shots now that I haven't come into contact with when using my 5 wood.

Hitting the s3 [VIDEO]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ML-TGL5o7mY[/VIDEO]

--update-- last week I bought a Cobra S3 driver with 10.5 degrees of loft, and I'm glad to say that this is the most consistent driver I've ever hit. I have a regular shaft on it, and I no longer tee off with my 5 wood. With this new driver I'm putting the ball out there 300+, I'll post a video of it tomorrow, love this driver!

Lihu, thanks for the advice on club choice. Im currently using callaway xhot irons which actually feel excellent, despite getting too much carry at times. Im also using regular shafts on all of my woods, including the 5wood and driver. What would be the difference if I upgraded to the shaft you mentioned? Ive noticed that when I initially was trying out drivers, stiff shafts we're having me slice the ball consistently. Im going to take all of the info ive learned on this thread to my next club purchase, and this time around ill make some better decisions. Not that im too dissapointed with my current game, im just now wondering the potential for better play that I could be disregarding. Thanks for the info by the way

I agree, that is still considerable distance. I think the amount of time that I've spent hitting the 5 wood I have has given me the ability to accurately swing faster. I mean, whenever im playing with people, they'll say, "wow you really pound that 3 wood". When they come to find its a 5 wood, and that ive out drove them, theyre usually pretty dumbfounded haha.

Yes, those would be very accurate numbers to my distances. I also tend to play most of my shots off my front foot because I know that I could potentially over hit those shots very easily. I also place the ball at my front foot for my 5 wood tee shots.

I might not be explaining that right, I think what I meant was my arms squaring the club face upon impact. What happens is that I feel like im squaring up to early causing the big hook. As far as irons, im not sure what degree the sand wedge is, its not labeled, but compared to other sand wedges ive had, it feels like its a 56 degree. I think I tend to speed up my swing on longer irons, for example there sometimes where I will pull a 7 iron out of the bag for a 185 yd. However yes, my 6 iron tends to be a consistent 195-200 yds depending on the type of impact I put on it. My hybrid is really just a big gap club for me, I mostly use it for my 2nd shots on par 5s an occasionally to tee off on short par 4s because I have so much control with that club. (Almost more than my 5wood). I fear errancy with anything more than a 6 iron, and actually rarely use it. In fact today I only used it once at 195 out on a par 4 and safely got on in regulation. Every other iron shot was below a 6 iron, and I even contemplated using a 7 iron for that shot.

Hey guys, just got back from the course. Today I shot a solid 80 sticking with the 5 wood off the tee. I took the driver to the range beforehand in an attempt to incorporate it into the round, however my old habits came back, bad duck hooks especially.. So in an attempt to stick to consistency I stuck with the 5 wood. I would like to address a lot of the comments here, as you all have been VERY informative with your replys, (thanks for that). Regarding mrflipper, yes I do hit my short irons anl considerable distance, when im 150 out im always reaching for my pitching wedge, however depending on wind I could fluctuate between the wedge and playing a 9 iron off my front foot. The steepest long iron that I hit is a 6 iron, and thats very occasional. Anything 210 plus I use my 4 hybrid, which is a club I am in love with for accuracy. Anything from 110-100 i use a sand wedge for, if its 5 yds more i take the same club and add more speed in my swing to reach. Drvfrshow, I really like your advice of taping the club, I really think that shorting the shaft could help me, because when I do hit my driver right, it mimicks the same draw that I have with my 5 wood. And yes, you would be correct in saying that I miss more draws than I would like to. Its almost like when bubba misses that big fade and the ball ends up going straight to the right. However, my misses are not really errant at alland I can always recover from those misses. Basically my most missed shot with the 5 wood is me not turning my hands over at the right time and having the ball go straight right. Now if I were to do the same shot with the driver, (which is what I do), my miss would be a large duck hook, and what that feels like in my mind when its happening, is feeling the clubface square off too early coming down, and just holding that over through the ball. Its a very bad feeling, and I rarely do that with my 5 wood. So in the midst of things, I do like the idea of staying within my 5wood play, however I will try the tape idea, and gradually attempt to hit the driver with more accuracy.

Hi everyone, Im very thrilled with the responses im getting here! Regarding distance, I'm going off of where i've been landing with my groups drives. So realistically, I've seen that i've been hitting the 5 wood 250-270 off the tee. I think I carry so much distance with it, because I've been practicing so much with this club at the range, and have been able to accurately swing faster with it upon teeing off. What I've noticed, is that I can sometimes reach par 5's in 2, with my 2nd club being my 4 hybrid (which is my most controlled club in the bag). When im not getting there in 2, I'm usually 15-20 yds off. Regarding driver miss hits, my natural shot is a very small draw, if I dont make the right contact, I tend to hook the ball really low to the ground resulting in a very short drive making it hard to recover. My miss hits on a larger scale tend to slice o.b. All of these things have really kept me from picking it up again, as if im playing with a driver (granted the distance advantage, like Matt66 said, im costing myself at least 4-8 strokes around. And now most recently breaking 80 now consistently has all been due to placing myself in fairways consistently with the 5 wood. Im hoping to find an alternative that wont sacrifice so much distance, and will see what modifications i can make to the driver that fits my swing better, again thanks for the replys everyone!

Also Jameson, I do fear the driver.. Its a bad thing as I can definitely put the ball out there, but my lack of control is what keeps me reaching for the 5 wood. I do like your idea of gradual use, I think perhaps if I trust my driver on certain holes it will restore the confidence I lack with it. Hoping for better results, but first lots of practice, thanks for the input!

This is excellent advice, I like both ideas of shaft length and lofting up. Ive hit a 12 before and felt its comfort, perhaps an 11.5 could be the perfect amount of loft. Needless to say i'll be heading to golf galaxy this week haha, thanks!

Hi there, i've got a question regarding club choice. For the past 2 months I've been using a ping G15 5 wood to tee off instead of my ping G20 9.5 loft driver. The reason for this has been accuracy, I can consistently put the 5 wood in fairways, and using this method my last 3 rounds have been 78, 83, and 79, so im seeing lower scores. My question is, should I keep using the 5 wood or learn to hit my driver consistently, (which is very hard for me, but on good hits im seeing 295-300 yd hits). With my 5 wood im seeing around 270 consistently, and I'm always placing the ball right up with the people im playing with who are using their drivers. Should i continue to keep my distance advantage on the backburner, or should I start hitting the big stick and learn to keep it consistent? Would love to get some opinions, thanks!

I understand, thanks for the original posture equation, I've been trying to improve on that this week.

I think people need to leave out "no offense" when theyre obviously trying to offend someone. Its a double negative, and almost as bad as someone saying, "irregardless"... Look, I get what you're saying... Im very thrilled at the responses i've received in regards to helping my swing. In fact, I've taken most of the advice given on this thread to the range every day this last week... Granted its not producing immediate results, it will take time like most things, of course. I joined this forum in hopes of getting advice on correcting my swing, not replying to comments like this about something that I already know. This was the best I could set up today, and I really cant find much wrong with it aside from that it doesnt meet the EXACT guidelines for camera placement, and ive seen a lot worse on here. Look, mvmac was able to assess it (thanks for that), Im going to work on the takeaway amongst other things.

Was hoping i could get some advice here, i dont want to get into camera placement, this was the best i could do.. I feel like theres enough in this video to be assesed. Ok so the only way im able to make great contact with the ball is to line my club underneath the ball and swing at the area underneath the ball and not directly at the ball. If i tell myself make sure the club head strikes the ball, the ball ends up hitting the hosle of the club causing a shank. Im just at such a loss as what i need to do to solve this problem, because if you watch this video, this is the only way im able to hit the ball right now.. Granted it produces a solid strike in the direction i want it to go everytime.. However its just disturbing that at my level i have to line the club up like this to hit the ball.. Please any advice whatsoever to fix this would be great thanks [VIDEO]http://youtu.be/sKyy7sZAtmE[/VIDEO]

Thanks for the replys guys! I took your advice on posture and worked on it a little bit today, and achieved some better results. I should say though at my height it's very hard to get that upright position, however I'm going to be working on that extensively over my next few sessions. This is a clip of me hitting a new 4 hybrid I bought recently.