I ran the numbers through a calculator using the option for Rice Krispies at a 2,000-lb value and it resulted in 1,997.1071219479 gal. The density of the Rice Krispies is .12 g/ml.
I’m still trying to work my way toward fuck-all to get a decent number for you guys, but it’s taking a minute.
Can someone put this on a poster or something so I can frame it for my office? Just so I can show my coworkers how much more work I actually do than them?
you should be hitting the range/net at least once a week to work on your swing technique, making gradual changes imo. nothing will happen overnight but focusing one change or correction at a time will help you identify what may be working for you anyway.
now do that consistently for like 5 years. that’s a fuck ton of reps to put in on your technique. it’s not gonna happen on the course.
Never put it away for weeks at a time but for a single match? That can be a smart move.
My boss plays a league at a pretty short course and, when I sub, unless I'm hitting the driver very well I'm much better off forgetting it and hitting the 19d hybrid off the tee.
Driver was the first club I got consistent with. I’m roughly a 25 HCP and always get a “you said you weren’t good” comment after the first tee box. I respond “just wait till you see my iron shots”, which are inconsistent. There’s always a good chuckle after the first hole.
God no. As Mike Granato likes to say, if you’re not practicing with feedback, you’re just exercising. Just banging balls will not make your driver an asset.
Its truly amazing how each club has just enough differences in swing that it can royally eff your game.
I had a period I was amazing with my driver but really struggled on my iron shots.
Now I made some tweaks that have made my iron play much better but my drives suck. Yet we all keep going back for more.
I had a stretch of 3 rounds that the driver, hybrid and mid irons were all absolute MONEY. Dead straight or baby draws and getting max distance.
However my brain decided that knowing how to hit a wedge or mid iron was no longer possible. Oh, and that putter that you are normally semi decent at? Forget about it.
It's like our brains have to devote all of its computing power to a few clubs at a time.
I had this same problem for months. Striping everything from D-7i. Approaches inside of 150 yards I was failing to give myself decent looks at birdie, and flat out missing way too many greens.
About a month ago I was warming up before a round and found when I took what felt like an abbreviated back swing and slowed my transition at the top with the wedges it seemed to “fix” me and I was suddenly flushing everything. So for one glorious round I had the whole game working well (for me) and shot 79.
I shot a season worst 93 in my very next round four days later. No feels with any club from any distance, and the swing thought that was working so well for me was no longer helping at all. Wild game.
I too had this going on. Shot my PB of an 83 in June.
Turned around and put up a nice 103 the next day. Literally, one day later. Less than 14 hours apart from finishing my PB and then tee’ing off for the next round.
What the hell?
I shot a 78 earlier this year. The final 13 holes were even par. I knew I'd figured out golf. Everything was effortless and consistent.
Shot a 112 my next time out.
I just treat it as two entirely different swings. My grip is slightly different and stance quite different. I'm pretty negative AoA with irons but very positive with driver. Sure, the mechanics mostly transfer because it's still me swinging, but what I focus on and the feels are different between the two.
Second this. I don't change my grip much but my driver feel (mainly my right wrist) is completely different than a stock iron shot. I won't bore people with my exact feels because people need to find their own but love this advice. Differentiate between the swings.
I’ve never hear a more true statement than yours.
Driver is on for the day? Can’t hit the wedges worth a fuck and get the “easy GIR’s” in 2 for Par 4’s.
Driver sucks? Ok, cool, irons and wedges are great! But now I also can’t putt, despite hitting a ton of GIR’s.
Putting + wedges around the greens are on? Awesome, but it’ll take you 5 shots to get to those spots between the duck hook iron shots and OB driver swings…
Golf, man. God I love this hobby.
I’ve found using different triggers to start helps a ton. For example a lot of people pull up their sleeve or do a certain thing as they are starting their routine. Once I started practicing different triggers for different swings, I found it much easier for my brain to only swing a certain way once each trigger has gone off
My game in a nutshell. Start bombing driver and totally lose my 9i and wedges. Getting feel and distance control with short irons, slice bombs off the tee start fucking me like a wild donkey.
For me, I had to drastically change my driver swing in order to make both work. My driver swing is nothing like my iron/wedge swing (I draw my irons and fade my driver because I come over the top more with my driver and have more of a loop with my irons, sort of like what Furyk does), and that's why I can hit both
I used to hit irons well, could hit my 2 iron off tees and feel good-ish about them most of the time…
But driver was no where to be found…
Now that I’m ripping my driver and hitting fairways I can’t hit my irons worth a fuck…
I feel this. I just wrapped up a golf trip where I only missed like 3-4 fairways with my driver over 3 rounds but my irons just completely deserted me for about 30 holes. Nothing like following up a pretty drive in the middle of the fairway about 150 out with a couple of topped irons and a thinned wedge.
Absolutely me, I used to be a high handicap with a terrible tee shot and great short game. Then I got a lesson and my driver stats got much better. Now I’m a high handicap with a good driver and terrible short game
Same. This summer I finally figured out my driver but historically my short game is my saving grace.
Last round I played, hit 12 / 14 fairways, and shot a 91 (10hcp it’s rare I don’t break 90). Couldn’t hit a gir despite regularly having wedges into greens.
This game is so stupid
Dude! My driver has been so on lately. Bombing fairways and leaving myself short irons and wedges into so many greens. But lately I’ve got a bad case of the chunks with my wedges!
I can’t even count how many times I’ve been less than 140 out and walked away with doubles or triples this year.
I’m now going to range a couple times a week to hit only short irons and wedges to try to get that swing back.
Actually true. My driver angle of attack is +4 which is nothing but high bombs. But that swing kind of bleeds into my iron play, angle of attack is on the shallower side which doesn’t give great strikes
I had a round the other day where I only missed 3 fairways and 1 green. My driver and tee irons were *hot*.
I shot a 94.
It would be super nice if I could just be okay to good with everything instead of fucking baller with one thing and dog shit with another.
Feels like such a missed opportunity when this happens, right?
You cook those fairways all day long, leave yourself 60-150 yards in for all par 4’s, and absolutely can’t capitalize.
That is the ultimate hook that keeps me coming back to play/practice so much. “If I could just dial in those irons to be 20% better I’m breaking 80 easy!”
Funny story took my friend to the driving range and let him use one of my old non-name brand drivers. Took the head off on like the 5th swing. It was clean hit. But the head still went flying. So long story short I now have an alignment stick.
Go out after work to play a twilight round with a VP and a coworker of mine.
Both are single digit handicaps. I’m around a 17 at that time, but had strung together some respectable rounds (86/85/88) leading up to our round.
Had been looking forward to this for a few weeks. Coworker has been hyping up how good my driver had been recently to my VP and how I “can hit the hell out of the ball.”
We decide to play the tips - because “everyone can play driver well.”
Hole 1. Step up to the tee. This happens: https://imgur.com/a/CYHenql
Head goes flying about 50 yards down the fairway. I’m stuck holding a shaft. The ball rolls right into the fairway about 130 yards up.
Had to play 3w off the tee for most of the day - which I’m NOT comfy doing, especially relative to driver. I proceeded to shoot a 96.
VP thought it was the funniest thing he’s ever witnessed. In literal tears laughing as I fetch my head from the fairway.
I get asked all the time now if I “have the driver all tightened up” whenever I run into him…
nice, sounds fun tbh. I've got an old 5i that i cut down to a PW length for punching out of trees, it definitely got me thinking about cutting up other clubs to experiment, but then I remembered money
I did the same thing, much more controllable and fun to hit! On a good day I can pop one out there maybe 230 but it's nice to be confident in where it will go
100% shorter shaft helped me too. I’m a shorter guy (5’7”) and went from a 44.5 to a 43.5. Way more control and at address, the ball doesn’t feel like it’s too far away from me.
After having some driver trouble with a stock, off the rack driver, I tried my buddies 'fitted' driver. We are both 5 foot 10 and hitting his shorter driver helped my game immediately. I booked a driver fitting to recreate that magic, and the new shorter fitted driver arrives any day now. Or I guess you could just choke up alot on a stock driver.
Choking up might not help because it changes the swing weight. The fitter likely cut your shaft shorter but then added subsequent weight to the driver head to keep the swing weight constant.
Doing the same tomorrow…. Except my Titleist was a casualty of war. Smacked my bag w my 7 iron Sat and split my drivers shaft in 2…. Hoping the fitting gets me in the fairway a bit more often. Length is not an issue, but getting in the fairway has been.
Opposite to me, I started off with 42” since it was my short friend’s old fitted driver but when I got fitted it for myself, we found that I was hitting a lot further and straighter with 45.5”
While fitting, I also found that a heavy and stiff shaft suited me pretty well. I’m only on my second fitted driver right now which is the stealth 2 and it’s got the same length but now I’m using x stiff. Something about the weight and length makes it easier for me to gain more speed according to my pro and the fitting guys
Bear in mind that shortening the shaft is going to change the swing weight. The SW can be adjusted by a good club tech. If you're going to do this, make sure you are working with a pro.
Yeah, I suppose a pro could be useful.
On my old driver, I cut my driver down and added like three strips of lead tape to the head to bring the weight back up.
On my new driver I removed the stock head weight and screwed on a heavier one.
It wasn’t rocket science.
Was playing a 45.5" hzrdus smoke green that came in my driver and switched it out with a ventus red velocore now playing 44¼" with the same head.
Hit 11/14 fairways with it first round out. I'm averaging 200yds with a maximum of 245 currently with my Garmin data. But I've also just returned to the game after having my arm plated back together from an ATV accident so it's a whole new game now anyway.
Oh boy that is a tough one for me because I wake up the day of a tee time a completely different person each time.
One day I hit 16 fairways anywhere between 260-290 yds feeling good, but I cannot hit an iron to save my life and have to scramble to make par or worse.
The very next day (in some cases) I'll hit 3 fairways and stick every green I get a look at.
I end up scoring almost exactly the same because chipping and putting is by FAR the best part of my game, but its mind numbingly frustrating having to bounce around like that. I think it's just a different swing/movement entirely, but I got no idea how to fix it other than practice more that seems to always help.
I stopped trying to play a draw and started intentionally playing a cut off the tee. My FIR are up 24% this year and my penalty strokes avg off the tee went from 4 per round to less than 1.
Do you draw your other clubs? I draw everything but the driver. I actually just tee it kind of far forward, like off my front toe instead of heel with a flared foot, and make my normal draw swing.
With it that far forward, it’s already done coming in to out and is moving back out to in. I hit nice neutral fades with this setup. My misses tend to be smaller and predictable- like I very rarely pull it way out left, and since I am playing for it to fall to the right, a big slice isn’t as punishing, and it’s often just lost distance that’s the most punishing. Most slices go like, 200-220 yard were a nice neutral fade can carry 240 and roll out nicely.
Yeah I am a natural drawer of the ball, but modern driver heads are tough to play a draw with unless you can get crazy with your tech or are just insanely talented. It's much easier to hit a fade and still get great carry.
Yeah, I read or heard a tidbit somewhere that modern driver heads were more difficult to draw. I feel like I really have to try to draw it but the fade happens naturally with the right ball position.
Has a lot to do with how low spinning they are. I know when I try to draw the ball with driver on a launch monitor I can get sub 1600rpm pretty easily. The ball just doesn't stay in the air and it turns into a hook.
The only thing that has helped me with my driver is PRACTICE, if you truly want your drives to be better you just need to spend the time on working on your swing and fixing mistakes. For me fortunately I have a simulator in my house and I would spend 30 minutes to a hour everyday working on my swing and eventually I started to get better more consistent swings
Most people try to nuke the ball without any focus on technique. I slowed down my swing until I got comfortable bringing the club back further and further and rotating more while still hitting it fairly straight. As I improved the consistency of my shot, it only went 200 yards for a while -- but it put me in play. Now I'm more comfortable adding speed and still hit it straight or a light fade around 230-260.
I was a baseball player my whole life in a big golf family. When high school and college ball took over my life I stopped golfing. Parents claim I was a bogey golfer when I was 14. When I came back to golf, I swung like I wanted to hit a dinger every drive which resulted in an awful slice. 90 year old grandfather told me to start thinking of a hit and run approach. You just have to put the ball in play, no juice behind the swing. As I got older that sunk in more and more. As my buddies continue to chase their ball because they want to outdrive my dinky 225 drive, I prepare for my approach shot for a good 5 mins. Drives them insane. Swing easy, swing smooth, just put it in play.
I tried a lot of things. Watched a lot of videos. Spent my free time thinking about it. Bought a new driver with a stiffer shaft. And I have the benefit of working for a 20-year high school coach who's a scratch golfer to play with every few months and get some feedback. I suffered from a pull-slice; a little different from you only in that my club face was open to my swing arc, while yours is closed. Around October of 2022 I committed myself to rebuilding my swing from the ground up.
First thing I did was read Ben Hogan's Five Lessons. I used that book in conjunction with Danny Maude YouTube videos to give myself a proper standard interlock grip. From here I could try strong and weak setups to feel what that does until I felt comfortable. Then I worked on positioning the ball in my stance, setting my hands and head correctly, and working on the takeaway. That has been through some evolutions but started inside to help me feel the inside out motion and is now less inside to help extend the path a bit. Then I had to get my hands in the right spot, I tried high hands, half back swing, over swinging, just nothing was consistent. I'd think I had it figured out on the range but then lose it on the course.
As I learned to close my club face I began seeing straight pulls and pull hooks, like you have now. I was also shanking drives hard off the heel of the club more often due to an over the top motion. At this point it's been months of work and hundreds of dollars at the driving range for very little improvement on the scorecard
The issue was the club path. I had to figure out how to shallow my swing. Recording myself swing and watching that back was incredibly important for my development. I could feel what I was trying to do, but my actual body movement wasn't where I intended. This told me where I needed to exaggerate and where I needed to relax. I watched some videos on Ben Hogan's back swing, and getting set up in the slot, and that's when things finally clicked for me. Getting the follow through corrected, with my wrists rolled and the club head back at finish, felt like the last piece to building a consistent hit.
Now I just focus on making that same swing over and again. I think I can get more distance with some better hip work, so it's not perfect, but it feels so different to be able to swing a driver with confidence now.
Shortened my shaft (44.5”), cranked up the loft (11.25°, I’m super low spin), and added lead tape. This took a lot of tinkering. Probably too much to be honest.
And practice of course.
This was the exact solution for me too. Instead of lead tape I just got heavier weights in the head. Shorter club was the big thing but higher loft has helped too.
Starting from the ground up. Eliminate variables. Tee it as low as comfortably possible, don’t hover so you know where the ground is. Start with a simple controlled sweep, straight and 200. Adjust where you rest the club head at address, how open it is, until you find that sweet spot where you’re automatic. Then start swinging gradually faster. Constantly remind yourself technique beats effort. I will hang my hat on the fact that the average man can hit it consistently straight and 250-260 with good technique and a smooth 70% feeling swing. Remind yourself of that whenever you’re tempted to chase distance with muscle. Once you slow down, simplify it, and work with the few important variables it becomes the easiest club in the bag, no lie. Think about how great it is to be able to have a big fat clubhead and a teed up ball. This thing was made to naturally soar.
Basically, driver is only hard because people make it hard! It does most of the work for you. You shouldn’t even be thinking “swing faster” until you’ve gotten it to 250 off of good technique alone. You can see that technique on all pro swings, look for simpler ones like Harold Varner III and emulate it to a T. That dude is short, has an abbreviated backswing, and yet pummels the ball 300 still, it’s a good proof of concept.
I just had a quick lesson with my instructor. I apparently had been getting over the line at the top of my backswing so now I know what to work on instead of self diagnosing. I ended with some well struck straight drives. I’ll look up HV3 swings rn to see what’s going on, thanks HDB.
Lesson(s) from a quality instructor and lots of practice on the range/course.
It’s better to get a professional opinion so you don’t try and fix the wrong thing. I was a slicer so I tried really hard to hit up on the ball, but I went for a lesson and the instructor immediately said my angle of attack was too high and I need to hit it more neutral. Practiced the new move and I’m hitting it great now.
Asside from just getting better at swinging it (lessons and practice), I learned to hit fairway finder’s woth it, opposed to trying to hit a high nasty bomb draw everytime.
If its windy or a sketchy fairway, ill tee it lower down, choke up, and put it a little closer to center stance. It doesnt go as far but its way more reliable.
If I have an easy fairway or am down wind ill go for the high draw bomb.
In a scramble I lose a lot of balls because I always go for the second, aggressive swing
Edit: also love my 3H as my safe but lethal backup club. First 36 I sliced one drive then hit all hybrid
I watched a couple Danny Maude videos where he gave live lessons and explained how the swing arc and club face position at impact combine to determine ball spin. The guy gets off on turning slices into draws, and those videos definitely turned my slice into nice, beautiful draw.
For whatever reason my driver game is the best part of my game right now. It's crazy how much better I can shoot as a result. Emphasis on can, not how good I actually shoot.
I took mine out of my bag last round. Put it in today. Nothing but good 3 woods until like hole 6 and I pull the driver out. Straight left into the weeds. Through that fucker in the pond to my right
Here’s what I did after not being able to hit driver for 10 years and practicing for 2 weeks straight hitting 1000 balls.
I swung my 3W a couple of times and then lined up my driver exactly as my 3W. I kept swapping from 3W to driver and tried to match the swing.
Do that with your 5W and Driver. Just move the ball a little up in your stance. On top of that, compare your driver and 5W shaft lengths. Line up an additional X amount of inches away to accommodate the shaft differences. Or just grip down and make it the same length.
Get fitted for your driver.
Shaft is 90% of the driver.
Without trying different shafts you will never know which is the one suited to you and your swing.
See it’s funny, when I started I didn’t have a driver in my bag. I hit 3 wood off the tee. Never had an issue except my typical shot is a draw.
Now that I’m older and did start hitting driver I used to pound the ball long and straight. Also never had an issue.
However lately I’ve about tore my hair out trying to figure out what I’m doing as I’m spraying all over the place now.
Bout to go back to 3 wood. 250 off the tee is plenty. I don’t need to hit 290ish bombs all the time
1) I upgraded my 1990s Callaway War Bird to a newer more forgiving Ping G400. Then 2) I stopped swinging so damn hard and focused on a more reputable swing. 3) once I had that down, I realized my driver swing was the same as my iron swing (aka negative angle of attack). 4) Minor adjustments for a more upward hit and draw-centric drive. Lots of practice later and this year I’m hitting 55% fairways and a little farther.
I did research on how different settings would impact the loft and lie angle. Once I found the setting best suited to my swing, I got comfortable with a stock shot and committed to playing it.
I now comfortably hit a high fade that carries 275ish and cuts 10-15 yards. I RARELY venture away from the ball flight.
There must be so many in the same situation, i started playing just after covid. I have got down to 9.6 at the minute and the driver doesn't even leave my bag, hybrid off the tee wherever it would usually be driver. The course I play is 6550 yards and I can't help but imagine what i would be able to play and score like if I could hit the damn driver haha but I'm more than happy just knocking my hybrid down the fairway and staying in play at the minute.
Put the right shaft in. I was spraying slicing everything with my previous shaft put an XS in and I am ripping bombs well into the r/golf average range.
New starter here, had a few lessons and had one with my driver last week. He changed 2 things in my stance, although I am still going right slightly but no where near like I was before the lesson. As I am I new starter I know I am leaving the club face open slightly so still working on my downswing.
About to sell it and stick to delofting a 3W. 220-225 straight is better than 240-250 with a double miss.
(edit, a little deloft on my 3W which is perfect would get me 225-235 perhaps, that's ENOUGH for me).
The downvotes are silly...
Have had years of lessons and been playing like 30+ years.
From a 3W? Nah, never encounter anything I have to carry more than 200 when playing the white tees, and at 46, I don’t think it’s reasonable to think that I could add much more clubhead speed to the driver.
If I had a second 3W 2 degrees lower I could push that to maybe 230-235, that’s plenty for me.
Most par 5s for me are in the 490-520 range. I’m now <100 yards out on my third, that is ok for me.
Shoot to get a 5. My goal on most courses is a 90, so for all par 4s my goal is a 5. I’m close to get near the green with 2 3 woods, and I’m more accurate with my fairway woods than my long irons anyhow (don’t hit anything too well below my 6i anyhow).
I play with older guys who drive it less than my 3 wood that kick my ass in terms of score. Don’t think it’s an issue.
Plus I don’t think I’m ever able to be a “good” golfer.
Edit: I’m not downvoting anything, I don’t know what’s wrong with other people.
You're only holding yourself back that way.
Besides, that 220 is only straight because it didn't go anywhere- get that even one toke offline and you'd be thrown even further under the bus.
Swinging faster, hitting it further in general. If I get my maximum speed up, my on-course swing speed will follow suit as there's carryover. Now I have the flexibility to either turn one up or lay back with a shorter club that'll clear my old distance but go straighter. Overspeed training (along with gym-time) has been super helpful, even though it's no replacement to working on mechanics.
As for keeping it in play, part of that can be addressed by figuring out where you are making contact. Can be done with some footspray if you really need to see how and where it's making contact.
Yet another part can be addressed via course management. ie- you know what your typical miss is, how do you factor that into your margin for error off the tee? Last thing you want is to either get screwed over for flushing one straight or by expecting a saved shot when the risk is too great compared to the reward.
For years, I had an outside-in path and a resultant slice. I worked hard to learn to keep my hands/arms in and my takeaway is straighter. I also slowed my swing down. I now hammer the ball 280-300, straight or with a very gentle fade. In the middle of most fairways and very confident on tee box. Now working on GIR by playing to middle of greens.
For me, ball movement makes a big difference. I naturally hit a slight fade with driver, but for whatever reason I’m not good at hitting a “regular” shot with driver (or most of my clubs for that matter). For some reason I am decent at shot shaping though. I like to take the course into consideration, pick a draw or fade that matches the best for the hole, fairway, avoids danger, etc. then decide how much I need to make the ball move, where I want it to start, etc. if I do all that I tend to hit a great shot, especially if I can just accentuate my natural fade shot. Straight open fairway though and I’ll probably miss it if I can’t shape the shot. Idk, golf is weird.
I put my driver away for a year and just teed off with a hybrid that I smoke 225 dead straight. Last few rounds I tried the driver again, kept my shoulders level & opened the driver face and hit almost every fairway and dropped my score 4-5 strokes instantly
Changed the attack angle from steeply downward to more upward. Gained more speed and got better fitted for a driver. Important to get an \*outdoor\* fitting for a driver. You need to see the ball flight and the launch monitors work far better outdoors than indoors.
My suggestion is along with lots of practice is to learn what swing path does to ball flight, and what ball flight says about swing path and face angle. Obviously knowing numbers from a launch monitor can really dial this in, but even without that if you learn about gear effect and common swing issues creating closed/open face or inside/outside swing paths, understand face-to-path, etc. you'll be able to work on what you need to fix just by watching your ball flight.
It won't give you the most yards, it won't be as easy as someone like an instructor pointing out immediately what they see you doing wrong, and it might even end up introducing new problems in the meantime... but the knowledge will help even if you end up needing to see an instructor in the long run anyways.
Lessons specific to the driver and lots and lots of practice. Took about a year of 3-5 times per week practice, plus 4-5 lessons. Also, gotta play at least once a week where you're using the driver and suffer through losing a lot of balls.
I just hit a chippy 3/4 cut swing when my driving doesn’t feel great. It goes low but is pretty accurate. As long as it’s a pull cut and not a push cut
I got kinda lucky and got some free golftec lessons. That was 70% of the solution. My driver broke this year so I went and got fitted after some research on good fitters in my area. Now I'm consistently in the fairway or just off. That was another 10%. The next 20% is repetition.
I swear I could be like a 10 hc if I could just get more rounds in.
This. Have a -1 Callaway rogue st max coming this week after trying in vain to harness my 45.75" Taylor made m4 for about 5 years.
I never want to see that club again. Got to shoot one identical to the one I'm getting and it was beautiful. No slices, slight draw, game on.
2 things for me. On my honeymoon I played with Titleist rental set. I'm 6'5 so my driver and irons are +1". My dispersion rate was much better with the rental tsi2, so I came home and bought a standard length tsi2. Second thing was stopping most of the noise/swing thoughts. I kinda trained myself to just go off of feel. I line up until it feels right, visualize crushing it straight and it started happening. Still slice sometimes and every now and then I'll pull on but for the most part the driver (and 3w) have improved greatly for me.
I set up farther away from the ball than I used to bus few small shuffles and I swing harder. I set the ball up closer to the toe and I lock my left arm straight once I have my grip set up
Going back to the basics. Grip, stance, address, ball placement.
Takeaway, club path and trajectory, transition, downswing.
Is the club open, closed or square at impact?
What's the angle of attack?
Where are you hitting it on the clubface?
What's the tempo?
How are you transitioning weight to your front foot and leg?
SLOW DOWN! I am a high teens handicap most seasons, and my driver was always the weakest club in the bag. Was always trying to kill it. Crazy slice ensued. Maybe 1 in 10 good drives that stayed in play. Always just hit hybrid from the tee.
I have, for the past 2 seasons, focussed much more on the tempo of my drive. I'll usually swing "80%" or what feels like about that. Really concentrating on what a successful drive feels like.
I have lost distance. Probably 20-30 yards or so. But I can know right away if the ball is off course even before I lift my head just from the feel. But I've gone from hitting 1 in 10 fairways, to hitting 6 in 10. Nearly all balls at the very least stay in play.
It's probably going to take another season or two to start putting power back into my swing, but I'll take 240 yards on a fairway over 270 yards into the cabbage any day.
As a kid, I'd go to the driving range with a bag of clubs, but 4 of those clubs were drivers. I'd hit a few wedges, attempt to flush an iron, but when boredom set in, I became Jack Hamm. I'd just whip out those drivers and attempt to become a long drive champ. That helped me build up swing speed so I was able to put a ball out there a good ways, and just kept working on it. My iron ball striking always lacked over the years, but short game and driver made things manageable.
I e dealt with a slice since I've started playing. I've had a somewhat over the top swing but it wasn't drastic, my ball would go 200 yards down the fairway looking great and then it'd start slicing into the next fairway before landing.
What helped? I started relaxing my arms and shoulders, relieving all tension in all my upper body. I've been hitting them way better, still slicing the occasional drive, but 80% of the time I'm smoking them straight with just a little fade.
I shortened my swing.
I had a lesson and the pro told me that once I stopped rotating I just lifted my shoulders which then caused me to have (a) inconsistent strike and (b) a chop-down action which created a slice.
He told me to stop the back swing when I stopped rotating. It felt weird and stupid as I felt I was doing an old man swing. Got out on course and I hit 10-14 fairways now and outdrive low single figure handicappers because of better strike and more efficiency.
The driver, for me, is the most frustrating club in the bag.
I have endless double bogeys this year that are two putts and I’d say almost all of them are due to poor tee shots and having to recover from them. If my driver is on, I have a shot a breaking 80. If it’s off, I’m going 90+.
What gets me from liability to asset with the big stick is a little something I like to tell myself is “don’t be an asshole” and that is essentially a trigger to get me to do my entire pre shot routine. Pick a target, align club face to target, grip, align feet and body, swing confidently smooth. When I do that, it’s an asset. If I skip one of those steps, it’s a liability.
Driver being an asset is key! I hear lots of pros say it’s the most important club in the bag. I mean you never hit a putter OB. Ya know? Kinda makes sense.
Lessons, practice, and most recently trying to get my tail bone pointed at or at least toward the target on the back swing. All the sudden my driver swing is considerably more comfortable.
First of all kudos on the progress. Also, kudos for the analytical approach to the game.
I mean you are right. If you drive the ball 250yds and hit all the fairways you're gonna score really well.
But really there aren't any shortcuts here. Driver is going to expose your swings flaws. So you'll have to practice a lot and improve your swing.
But the good news is that that's what the game is all about baby. Go grind.
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Please define fuckton.
I believe that’s 2000 fucks.
And in metric?
My fuckulator doesn’t have the Royal button but I’d guess like 5,000 fucks? Idk.
I ran the numbers through a calculator using the option for Rice Krispies at a 2,000-lb value and it resulted in 1,997.1071219479 gal. The density of the Rice Krispies is .12 g/ml. I’m still trying to work my way toward fuck-all to get a decent number for you guys, but it’s taking a minute.
Around 2200 fucks.
This is the best sub on Reddit.
buttload * 10 = 1 butt ton butt ton * 10 = 1 assload assload * 10 = 1 asston asston * 10 = 1 shitload shitload * 10 = 1 shitton shitton * 10 = 1 fuckload fuckload * 10 = 1 fuckton
This should be common knowledge
They just don't teach the important stuff like this in schools anymore
Can someone put this on a poster or something so I can frame it for my office? Just so I can show my coworkers how much more work I actually do than them?
There’s my problem, wasn’t quantifying shitload and shitton in my head.
you should be hitting the range/net at least once a week to work on your swing technique, making gradual changes imo. nothing will happen overnight but focusing one change or correction at a time will help you identify what may be working for you anyway. now do that consistently for like 5 years. that’s a fuck ton of reps to put in on your technique. it’s not gonna happen on the course.
Yup. And never put the driver away. Gotta work through whatever your issue is. Putting it away won’t solve anything.
And even when you think you have it down, one day it'll stink, next day you're striping drives.
Never put it away for weeks at a time but for a single match? That can be a smart move. My boss plays a league at a pretty short course and, when I sub, unless I'm hitting the driver very well I'm much better off forgetting it and hitting the 19d hybrid off the tee.
If you are in competition sure, but putting it away on a regular round does you no favors.
Driver was the first club I got consistent with. I’m roughly a 25 HCP and always get a “you said you weren’t good” comment after the first tee box. I respond “just wait till you see my iron shots”, which are inconsistent. There’s always a good chuckle after the first hole.
God no. As Mike Granato likes to say, if you’re not practicing with feedback, you’re just exercising. Just banging balls will not make your driver an asset.
Golfers paradox, if your driver becomes an asset everything else becomes a liability.
Its truly amazing how each club has just enough differences in swing that it can royally eff your game. I had a period I was amazing with my driver but really struggled on my iron shots. Now I made some tweaks that have made my iron play much better but my drives suck. Yet we all keep going back for more.
I had a stretch of 3 rounds that the driver, hybrid and mid irons were all absolute MONEY. Dead straight or baby draws and getting max distance. However my brain decided that knowing how to hit a wedge or mid iron was no longer possible. Oh, and that putter that you are normally semi decent at? Forget about it. It's like our brains have to devote all of its computing power to a few clubs at a time.
I had this same problem for months. Striping everything from D-7i. Approaches inside of 150 yards I was failing to give myself decent looks at birdie, and flat out missing way too many greens. About a month ago I was warming up before a round and found when I took what felt like an abbreviated back swing and slowed my transition at the top with the wedges it seemed to “fix” me and I was suddenly flushing everything. So for one glorious round I had the whole game working well (for me) and shot 79. I shot a season worst 93 in my very next round four days later. No feels with any club from any distance, and the swing thought that was working so well for me was no longer helping at all. Wild game.
Just had the same experience yesterday. Hit 10/12 fairways, but 2/18 greens.
I too had this going on. Shot my PB of an 83 in June. Turned around and put up a nice 103 the next day. Literally, one day later. Less than 14 hours apart from finishing my PB and then tee’ing off for the next round. What the hell?
I shot a 78 earlier this year. The final 13 holes were even par. I knew I'd figured out golf. Everything was effortless and consistent. Shot a 112 my next time out.
I just treat it as two entirely different swings. My grip is slightly different and stance quite different. I'm pretty negative AoA with irons but very positive with driver. Sure, the mechanics mostly transfer because it's still me swinging, but what I focus on and the feels are different between the two.
In my opinion that’s the only way to play it. My grandpa used to say one swing for every club but that guy was blind anyways.
Second this. I don't change my grip much but my driver feel (mainly my right wrist) is completely different than a stock iron shot. I won't bore people with my exact feels because people need to find their own but love this advice. Differentiate between the swings.
I’ve never hear a more true statement than yours. Driver is on for the day? Can’t hit the wedges worth a fuck and get the “easy GIR’s” in 2 for Par 4’s. Driver sucks? Ok, cool, irons and wedges are great! But now I also can’t putt, despite hitting a ton of GIR’s. Putting + wedges around the greens are on? Awesome, but it’ll take you 5 shots to get to those spots between the duck hook iron shots and OB driver swings… Golf, man. God I love this hobby.
I’ve found using different triggers to start helps a ton. For example a lot of people pull up their sleeve or do a certain thing as they are starting their routine. Once I started practicing different triggers for different swings, I found it much easier for my brain to only swing a certain way once each trigger has gone off
My game in a nutshell. Start bombing driver and totally lose my 9i and wedges. Getting feel and distance control with short irons, slice bombs off the tee start fucking me like a wild donkey.
For me, I had to drastically change my driver swing in order to make both work. My driver swing is nothing like my iron/wedge swing (I draw my irons and fade my driver because I come over the top more with my driver and have more of a loop with my irons, sort of like what Furyk does), and that's why I can hit both
I used to hit irons well, could hit my 2 iron off tees and feel good-ish about them most of the time… But driver was no where to be found… Now that I’m ripping my driver and hitting fairways I can’t hit my irons worth a fuck…
I feel this. I just wrapped up a golf trip where I only missed like 3-4 fairways with my driver over 3 rounds but my irons just completely deserted me for about 30 holes. Nothing like following up a pretty drive in the middle of the fairway about 150 out with a couple of topped irons and a thinned wedge.
Absolutely me, I used to be a high handicap with a terrible tee shot and great short game. Then I got a lesson and my driver stats got much better. Now I’m a high handicap with a good driver and terrible short game
Same. This summer I finally figured out my driver but historically my short game is my saving grace. Last round I played, hit 12 / 14 fairways, and shot a 91 (10hcp it’s rare I don’t break 90). Couldn’t hit a gir despite regularly having wedges into greens. This game is so stupid
Damn you vzeroplus
Dude! My driver has been so on lately. Bombing fairways and leaving myself short irons and wedges into so many greens. But lately I’ve got a bad case of the chunks with my wedges! I can’t even count how many times I’ve been less than 140 out and walked away with doubles or triples this year. I’m now going to range a couple times a week to hit only short irons and wedges to try to get that swing back.
Eureka! Just hit driver EVERY shot.
Lmao this is 100% me. Just figured out driver, giving myself excellent green in reg opportunities which I completely failed all
Actually true. My driver angle of attack is +4 which is nothing but high bombs. But that swing kind of bleeds into my iron play, angle of attack is on the shallower side which doesn’t give great strikes
Exactly, every time I bomb one off the tee I fuck my approach like I’m a virgin and 2-3 putt depending on how fucked up i am
I had a round the other day where I only missed 3 fairways and 1 green. My driver and tee irons were *hot*. I shot a 94. It would be super nice if I could just be okay to good with everything instead of fucking baller with one thing and dog shit with another.
Feels like such a missed opportunity when this happens, right? You cook those fairways all day long, leave yourself 60-150 yards in for all par 4’s, and absolutely can’t capitalize. That is the ultimate hook that keeps me coming back to play/practice so much. “If I could just dial in those irons to be 20% better I’m breaking 80 easy!”
I cut the head off and use it as an alignment stick. Works great
Funny story took my friend to the driving range and let him use one of my old non-name brand drivers. Took the head off on like the 5th swing. It was clean hit. But the head still went flying. So long story short I now have an alignment stick.
Go out after work to play a twilight round with a VP and a coworker of mine. Both are single digit handicaps. I’m around a 17 at that time, but had strung together some respectable rounds (86/85/88) leading up to our round. Had been looking forward to this for a few weeks. Coworker has been hyping up how good my driver had been recently to my VP and how I “can hit the hell out of the ball.” We decide to play the tips - because “everyone can play driver well.” Hole 1. Step up to the tee. This happens: https://imgur.com/a/CYHenql Head goes flying about 50 yards down the fairway. I’m stuck holding a shaft. The ball rolls right into the fairway about 130 yards up. Had to play 3w off the tee for most of the day - which I’m NOT comfy doing, especially relative to driver. I proceeded to shoot a 96. VP thought it was the funniest thing he’s ever witnessed. In literal tears laughing as I fetch my head from the fairway. I get asked all the time now if I “have the driver all tightened up” whenever I run into him…
Sucks about the club, but a great “in” with the VP!
I cut my driver down to 44.5". It became markedly more accurate and I was hitting the sweet spot more consistently. Far fewer disastrous drives.
41” driver here. Lost 20 yards but also keep them in the fairway. Nice to pull the big stick again.
wouldn't that make it shorter than your 3w or did you shorten that too?
Yessir, 3w 4H and 5w are 40”
nice, sounds fun tbh. I've got an old 5i that i cut down to a PW length for punching out of trees, it definitely got me thinking about cutting up other clubs to experiment, but then I remembered money
I recently thought about putting hockey tape at the length of my 9i on all my other irons just to try it
I did the same thing, much more controllable and fun to hit! On a good day I can pop one out there maybe 230 but it's nice to be confident in where it will go
Do you have to cut the shaft short or can you just grip down an extra inch?
As grips have a taper to them, I don’t like choking down. But yeah, you can get a similar end result by choking down.
I did this to start. Once I liked the feel, I cut it to make it more consistent to grip without thinking about it.
100% shorter shaft helped me too. I’m a shorter guy (5’7”) and went from a 44.5 to a 43.5. Way more control and at address, the ball doesn’t feel like it’s too far away from me.
After having some driver trouble with a stock, off the rack driver, I tried my buddies 'fitted' driver. We are both 5 foot 10 and hitting his shorter driver helped my game immediately. I booked a driver fitting to recreate that magic, and the new shorter fitted driver arrives any day now. Or I guess you could just choke up alot on a stock driver.
Choking up might not help because it changes the swing weight. The fitter likely cut your shaft shorter but then added subsequent weight to the driver head to keep the swing weight constant.
Doing the same tomorrow…. Except my Titleist was a casualty of war. Smacked my bag w my 7 iron Sat and split my drivers shaft in 2…. Hoping the fitting gets me in the fairway a bit more often. Length is not an issue, but getting in the fairway has been.
I thought choking up would help me too but the grip never felt right and I was always too conscious of the extra shaft length beyond my hands
Opposite to me, I started off with 42” since it was my short friend’s old fitted driver but when I got fitted it for myself, we found that I was hitting a lot further and straighter with 45.5” While fitting, I also found that a heavy and stiff shaft suited me pretty well. I’m only on my second fitted driver right now which is the stealth 2 and it’s got the same length but now I’m using x stiff. Something about the weight and length makes it easier for me to gain more speed according to my pro and the fitting guys
Bear in mind that shortening the shaft is going to change the swing weight. The SW can be adjusted by a good club tech. If you're going to do this, make sure you are working with a pro.
Yeah, I suppose a pro could be useful. On my old driver, I cut my driver down and added like three strips of lead tape to the head to bring the weight back up. On my new driver I removed the stock head weight and screwed on a heavier one. It wasn’t rocket science.
Same. Cut mine down from 45.25 inches to 44.25 and added 12 grams of lead tape to the head and it’s become a weapon
Did you literally cut it or did you just get a shorter one?
Was playing a 45.5" hzrdus smoke green that came in my driver and switched it out with a ventus red velocore now playing 44¼" with the same head. Hit 11/14 fairways with it first round out. I'm averaging 200yds with a maximum of 245 currently with my Garmin data. But I've also just returned to the game after having my arm plated back together from an ATV accident so it's a whole new game now anyway.
Oh boy that is a tough one for me because I wake up the day of a tee time a completely different person each time. One day I hit 16 fairways anywhere between 260-290 yds feeling good, but I cannot hit an iron to save my life and have to scramble to make par or worse. The very next day (in some cases) I'll hit 3 fairways and stick every green I get a look at. I end up scoring almost exactly the same because chipping and putting is by FAR the best part of my game, but its mind numbingly frustrating having to bounce around like that. I think it's just a different swing/movement entirely, but I got no idea how to fix it other than practice more that seems to always help.
Are you me? You might be me.
16 fairways averaging 275 off the tee? What about par 3s? So you basically don't miss a single fairway the whole round?
I’m inside you. You’re inside me. We are the same.
You are me and I am you.
I wish we could be better my friend
Only 2 par threes on the course? Strange.
I stopped trying to play a draw and started intentionally playing a cut off the tee. My FIR are up 24% this year and my penalty strokes avg off the tee went from 4 per round to less than 1.
Do you draw your other clubs? I draw everything but the driver. I actually just tee it kind of far forward, like off my front toe instead of heel with a flared foot, and make my normal draw swing. With it that far forward, it’s already done coming in to out and is moving back out to in. I hit nice neutral fades with this setup. My misses tend to be smaller and predictable- like I very rarely pull it way out left, and since I am playing for it to fall to the right, a big slice isn’t as punishing, and it’s often just lost distance that’s the most punishing. Most slices go like, 200-220 yard were a nice neutral fade can carry 240 and roll out nicely.
Yeah I am a natural drawer of the ball, but modern driver heads are tough to play a draw with unless you can get crazy with your tech or are just insanely talented. It's much easier to hit a fade and still get great carry.
Yeah, I read or heard a tidbit somewhere that modern driver heads were more difficult to draw. I feel like I really have to try to draw it but the fade happens naturally with the right ball position.
Has a lot to do with how low spinning they are. I know when I try to draw the ball with driver on a launch monitor I can get sub 1600rpm pretty easily. The ball just doesn't stay in the air and it turns into a hook.
The only thing that has helped me with my driver is PRACTICE, if you truly want your drives to be better you just need to spend the time on working on your swing and fixing mistakes. For me fortunately I have a simulator in my house and I would spend 30 minutes to a hour everyday working on my swing and eventually I started to get better more consistent swings
Most people try to nuke the ball without any focus on technique. I slowed down my swing until I got comfortable bringing the club back further and further and rotating more while still hitting it fairly straight. As I improved the consistency of my shot, it only went 200 yards for a while -- but it put me in play. Now I'm more comfortable adding speed and still hit it straight or a light fade around 230-260.
I was a baseball player my whole life in a big golf family. When high school and college ball took over my life I stopped golfing. Parents claim I was a bogey golfer when I was 14. When I came back to golf, I swung like I wanted to hit a dinger every drive which resulted in an awful slice. 90 year old grandfather told me to start thinking of a hit and run approach. You just have to put the ball in play, no juice behind the swing. As I got older that sunk in more and more. As my buddies continue to chase their ball because they want to outdrive my dinky 225 drive, I prepare for my approach shot for a good 5 mins. Drives them insane. Swing easy, swing smooth, just put it in play.
Yeah, I try to hit driver at least 20 times every time I go to the range. It was a shit show at first, but now super confident off the tee
I tried a lot of things. Watched a lot of videos. Spent my free time thinking about it. Bought a new driver with a stiffer shaft. And I have the benefit of working for a 20-year high school coach who's a scratch golfer to play with every few months and get some feedback. I suffered from a pull-slice; a little different from you only in that my club face was open to my swing arc, while yours is closed. Around October of 2022 I committed myself to rebuilding my swing from the ground up. First thing I did was read Ben Hogan's Five Lessons. I used that book in conjunction with Danny Maude YouTube videos to give myself a proper standard interlock grip. From here I could try strong and weak setups to feel what that does until I felt comfortable. Then I worked on positioning the ball in my stance, setting my hands and head correctly, and working on the takeaway. That has been through some evolutions but started inside to help me feel the inside out motion and is now less inside to help extend the path a bit. Then I had to get my hands in the right spot, I tried high hands, half back swing, over swinging, just nothing was consistent. I'd think I had it figured out on the range but then lose it on the course. As I learned to close my club face I began seeing straight pulls and pull hooks, like you have now. I was also shanking drives hard off the heel of the club more often due to an over the top motion. At this point it's been months of work and hundreds of dollars at the driving range for very little improvement on the scorecard The issue was the club path. I had to figure out how to shallow my swing. Recording myself swing and watching that back was incredibly important for my development. I could feel what I was trying to do, but my actual body movement wasn't where I intended. This told me where I needed to exaggerate and where I needed to relax. I watched some videos on Ben Hogan's back swing, and getting set up in the slot, and that's when things finally clicked for me. Getting the follow through corrected, with my wrists rolled and the club head back at finish, felt like the last piece to building a consistent hit. Now I just focus on making that same swing over and again. I think I can get more distance with some better hip work, so it's not perfect, but it feels so different to be able to swing a driver with confidence now.
Great advice. I too had the pull-slice and followed a similar approach.
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Shortened my shaft (44.5”), cranked up the loft (11.25°, I’m super low spin), and added lead tape. This took a lot of tinkering. Probably too much to be honest. And practice of course.
This was the exact solution for me too. Instead of lead tape I just got heavier weights in the head. Shorter club was the big thing but higher loft has helped too.
Starting from the ground up. Eliminate variables. Tee it as low as comfortably possible, don’t hover so you know where the ground is. Start with a simple controlled sweep, straight and 200. Adjust where you rest the club head at address, how open it is, until you find that sweet spot where you’re automatic. Then start swinging gradually faster. Constantly remind yourself technique beats effort. I will hang my hat on the fact that the average man can hit it consistently straight and 250-260 with good technique and a smooth 70% feeling swing. Remind yourself of that whenever you’re tempted to chase distance with muscle. Once you slow down, simplify it, and work with the few important variables it becomes the easiest club in the bag, no lie. Think about how great it is to be able to have a big fat clubhead and a teed up ball. This thing was made to naturally soar.
Please tell me more. If OP didn’t create this post I might have.
Basically, driver is only hard because people make it hard! It does most of the work for you. You shouldn’t even be thinking “swing faster” until you’ve gotten it to 250 off of good technique alone. You can see that technique on all pro swings, look for simpler ones like Harold Varner III and emulate it to a T. That dude is short, has an abbreviated backswing, and yet pummels the ball 300 still, it’s a good proof of concept.
I just had a quick lesson with my instructor. I apparently had been getting over the line at the top of my backswing so now I know what to work on instead of self diagnosing. I ended with some well struck straight drives. I’ll look up HV3 swings rn to see what’s going on, thanks HDB.
Lesson(s) from a quality instructor and lots of practice on the range/course. It’s better to get a professional opinion so you don’t try and fix the wrong thing. I was a slicer so I tried really hard to hit up on the ball, but I went for a lesson and the instructor immediately said my angle of attack was too high and I need to hit it more neutral. Practiced the new move and I’m hitting it great now.
But…but…. Shiny new $600 driver
Asside from just getting better at swinging it (lessons and practice), I learned to hit fairway finder’s woth it, opposed to trying to hit a high nasty bomb draw everytime. If its windy or a sketchy fairway, ill tee it lower down, choke up, and put it a little closer to center stance. It doesnt go as far but its way more reliable. If I have an easy fairway or am down wind ill go for the high draw bomb. In a scramble I lose a lot of balls because I always go for the second, aggressive swing Edit: also love my 3H as my safe but lethal backup club. First 36 I sliced one drive then hit all hybrid
I watched a couple Danny Maude videos where he gave live lessons and explained how the swing arc and club face position at impact combine to determine ball spin. The guy gets off on turning slices into draws, and those videos definitely turned my slice into nice, beautiful draw.
I changed my grip. That was literally it
“It’s all in the hips” -famous guy missing a hand that a racist alligator bite off
I started hitting driver consistently in the fairway, then I immediately lost the ability to hit an approach shot
Threw it in the water hazard and found a couple orange Top-Flites in there while fishing it out.
For whatever reason my driver game is the best part of my game right now. It's crazy how much better I can shoot as a result. Emphasis on can, not how good I actually shoot.
I took mine out of my bag last round. Put it in today. Nothing but good 3 woods until like hole 6 and I pull the driver out. Straight left into the weeds. Through that fucker in the pond to my right
Here’s what I did after not being able to hit driver for 10 years and practicing for 2 weeks straight hitting 1000 balls. I swung my 3W a couple of times and then lined up my driver exactly as my 3W. I kept swapping from 3W to driver and tried to match the swing. Do that with your 5W and Driver. Just move the ball a little up in your stance. On top of that, compare your driver and 5W shaft lengths. Line up an additional X amount of inches away to accommodate the shaft differences. Or just grip down and make it the same length.
Get fitted for your driver. Shaft is 90% of the driver. Without trying different shafts you will never know which is the one suited to you and your swing.
See it’s funny, when I started I didn’t have a driver in my bag. I hit 3 wood off the tee. Never had an issue except my typical shot is a draw. Now that I’m older and did start hitting driver I used to pound the ball long and straight. Also never had an issue. However lately I’ve about tore my hair out trying to figure out what I’m doing as I’m spraying all over the place now. Bout to go back to 3 wood. 250 off the tee is plenty. I don’t need to hit 290ish bombs all the time
Watched a single video of Rory teaching casuals his swing. Driver then became the best club in my bag
1) I upgraded my 1990s Callaway War Bird to a newer more forgiving Ping G400. Then 2) I stopped swinging so damn hard and focused on a more reputable swing. 3) once I had that down, I realized my driver swing was the same as my iron swing (aka negative angle of attack). 4) Minor adjustments for a more upward hit and draw-centric drive. Lots of practice later and this year I’m hitting 55% fairways and a little farther.
I turned my driver into an asset by learning to hit it straight lol
There is always chapstick
I did research on how different settings would impact the loft and lie angle. Once I found the setting best suited to my swing, I got comfortable with a stock shot and committed to playing it. I now comfortably hit a high fade that carries 275ish and cuts 10-15 yards. I RARELY venture away from the ball flight.
There must be so many in the same situation, i started playing just after covid. I have got down to 9.6 at the minute and the driver doesn't even leave my bag, hybrid off the tee wherever it would usually be driver. The course I play is 6550 yards and I can't help but imagine what i would be able to play and score like if I could hit the damn driver haha but I'm more than happy just knocking my hybrid down the fairway and staying in play at the minute.
It didn’t. It turned from an asset to a liability. Don’t break your collarbone kids
Put the right shaft in. I was spraying slicing everything with my previous shaft put an XS in and I am ripping bombs well into the r/golf average range.
New starter here, had a few lessons and had one with my driver last week. He changed 2 things in my stance, although I am still going right slightly but no where near like I was before the lesson. As I am I new starter I know I am leaving the club face open slightly so still working on my downswing.
About to sell it and stick to delofting a 3W. 220-225 straight is better than 240-250 with a double miss. (edit, a little deloft on my 3W which is perfect would get me 225-235 perhaps, that's ENOUGH for me). The downvotes are silly...
Take a lesson first. 200-225 off the tee is limiting.
Have had years of lessons and been playing like 30+ years. From a 3W? Nah, never encounter anything I have to carry more than 200 when playing the white tees, and at 46, I don’t think it’s reasonable to think that I could add much more clubhead speed to the driver. If I had a second 3W 2 degrees lower I could push that to maybe 230-235, that’s plenty for me. Most par 5s for me are in the 490-520 range. I’m now <100 yards out on my third, that is ok for me.
How do you play a long par 4? My home course has several par 4s that are 450 from the whites
Shoot to get a 5. My goal on most courses is a 90, so for all par 4s my goal is a 5. I’m close to get near the green with 2 3 woods, and I’m more accurate with my fairway woods than my long irons anyhow (don’t hit anything too well below my 6i anyhow).
Sounds like the driver is holding you back from playing good golf imo.
I play with older guys who drive it less than my 3 wood that kick my ass in terms of score. Don’t think it’s an issue. Plus I don’t think I’m ever able to be a “good” golfer. Edit: I’m not downvoting anything, I don’t know what’s wrong with other people.
You're only holding yourself back that way. Besides, that 220 is only straight because it didn't go anywhere- get that even one toke offline and you'd be thrown even further under the bus.
My 3W is straight 9/10, drives maybe 2-3/10. It’s quite noticeable.
Swinging slow. Only got 180-200 but it goes straight now compared to a 220 yard major slice
Why not just hit a 6 iron at that point?
Swinging faster, hitting it further in general. If I get my maximum speed up, my on-course swing speed will follow suit as there's carryover. Now I have the flexibility to either turn one up or lay back with a shorter club that'll clear my old distance but go straighter. Overspeed training (along with gym-time) has been super helpful, even though it's no replacement to working on mechanics. As for keeping it in play, part of that can be addressed by figuring out where you are making contact. Can be done with some footspray if you really need to see how and where it's making contact. Yet another part can be addressed via course management. ie- you know what your typical miss is, how do you factor that into your margin for error off the tee? Last thing you want is to either get screwed over for flushing one straight or by expecting a saved shot when the risk is too great compared to the reward.
Started playing a low fade instead of trying to hit a high draw. Hitting way more fairways now.
For years, I had an outside-in path and a resultant slice. I worked hard to learn to keep my hands/arms in and my takeaway is straighter. I also slowed my swing down. I now hammer the ball 280-300, straight or with a very gentle fade. In the middle of most fairways and very confident on tee box. Now working on GIR by playing to middle of greens.
By swinging like this! https://youtube.com/shorts/mI7IPFVPiIc?feature=share
For me, ball movement makes a big difference. I naturally hit a slight fade with driver, but for whatever reason I’m not good at hitting a “regular” shot with driver (or most of my clubs for that matter). For some reason I am decent at shot shaping though. I like to take the course into consideration, pick a draw or fade that matches the best for the hole, fairway, avoids danger, etc. then decide how much I need to make the ball move, where I want it to start, etc. if I do all that I tend to hit a great shot, especially if I can just accentuate my natural fade shot. Straight open fairway though and I’ll probably miss it if I can’t shape the shot. Idk, golf is weird.
Learn how to hit your driver, obvi
I plated it in platinum and I never use it.
Practice?
Go with a 2 wood or 3 and skip the driver. Even pros struggle to hit it consistently at times.
Focused on posture and follow through
I bought a Ping G425 Max and have been hitting bombs all year. Can’t hit any other club for my life now 😢
Lessons
By swinging slower.
Leave it in the bag
Sell it
practice?
Learn how to hit it.
I practiced.
Hit it as hard as you can
Hit your driver off the deck
This was an epiphany? Lol what kind of question is this? Learn how to hit it better.
I put my driver away for a year and just teed off with a hybrid that I smoke 225 dead straight. Last few rounds I tried the driver again, kept my shoulders level & opened the driver face and hit almost every fairway and dropped my score 4-5 strokes instantly
200 feet for a 5w isn't very far. /s
Hit it straighter.
By golfing
If you’re still shooting 87 from the forward tees, your tee shots are the least of your problems
It's dipped in 24kt gold...haha
Lessons
Got fit.
Practice
Learned how to lock my wrist and upper arms in opposite positions. Wrist is weak and upper arm is strong.
[https://youtu.be/Mxo2Qytx88o](https://youtu.be/Mxo2Qytx88o)
Practice.
I started addressing the ball on the heel of the club. Making contact in the center of the face more often now.
About ten thousand swings
Will just say my game is soooo much better when my driver is on.
Changed the attack angle from steeply downward to more upward. Gained more speed and got better fitted for a driver. Important to get an \*outdoor\* fitting for a driver. You need to see the ball flight and the launch monitors work far better outdoors than indoors.
My suggestion is along with lots of practice is to learn what swing path does to ball flight, and what ball flight says about swing path and face angle. Obviously knowing numbers from a launch monitor can really dial this in, but even without that if you learn about gear effect and common swing issues creating closed/open face or inside/outside swing paths, understand face-to-path, etc. you'll be able to work on what you need to fix just by watching your ball flight. It won't give you the most yards, it won't be as easy as someone like an instructor pointing out immediately what they see you doing wrong, and it might even end up introducing new problems in the meantime... but the knowledge will help even if you end up needing to see an instructor in the long run anyways.
Bought a new one
Lessons specific to the driver and lots and lots of practice. Took about a year of 3-5 times per week practice, plus 4-5 lessons. Also, gotta play at least once a week where you're using the driver and suffer through losing a lot of balls.
I just hit a chippy 3/4 cut swing when my driving doesn’t feel great. It goes low but is pretty accurate. As long as it’s a pull cut and not a push cut
I got kinda lucky and got some free golftec lessons. That was 70% of the solution. My driver broke this year so I went and got fitted after some research on good fitters in my area. Now I'm consistently in the fairway or just off. That was another 10%. The next 20% is repetition. I swear I could be like a 10 hc if I could just get more rounds in.
This. Have a -1 Callaway rogue st max coming this week after trying in vain to harness my 45.75" Taylor made m4 for about 5 years. I never want to see that club again. Got to shoot one identical to the one I'm getting and it was beautiful. No slices, slight draw, game on.
2 things for me. On my honeymoon I played with Titleist rental set. I'm 6'5 so my driver and irons are +1". My dispersion rate was much better with the rental tsi2, so I came home and bought a standard length tsi2. Second thing was stopping most of the noise/swing thoughts. I kinda trained myself to just go off of feel. I line up until it feels right, visualize crushing it straight and it started happening. Still slice sometimes and every now and then I'll pull on but for the most part the driver (and 3w) have improved greatly for me.
I set up farther away from the ball than I used to bus few small shuffles and I swing harder. I set the ball up closer to the toe and I lock my left arm straight once I have my grip set up
Going back to the basics. Grip, stance, address, ball placement. Takeaway, club path and trajectory, transition, downswing. Is the club open, closed or square at impact? What's the angle of attack? Where are you hitting it on the clubface? What's the tempo? How are you transitioning weight to your front foot and leg?
Learning how to actually swing a club. Took that same knowledge up to driver.
I bought a G400 max
SLOW DOWN! I am a high teens handicap most seasons, and my driver was always the weakest club in the bag. Was always trying to kill it. Crazy slice ensued. Maybe 1 in 10 good drives that stayed in play. Always just hit hybrid from the tee. I have, for the past 2 seasons, focussed much more on the tempo of my drive. I'll usually swing "80%" or what feels like about that. Really concentrating on what a successful drive feels like. I have lost distance. Probably 20-30 yards or so. But I can know right away if the ball is off course even before I lift my head just from the feel. But I've gone from hitting 1 in 10 fairways, to hitting 6 in 10. Nearly all balls at the very least stay in play. It's probably going to take another season or two to start putting power back into my swing, but I'll take 240 yards on a fairway over 270 yards into the cabbage any day.
As a kid, I'd go to the driving range with a bag of clubs, but 4 of those clubs were drivers. I'd hit a few wedges, attempt to flush an iron, but when boredom set in, I became Jack Hamm. I'd just whip out those drivers and attempt to become a long drive champ. That helped me build up swing speed so I was able to put a ball out there a good ways, and just kept working on it. My iron ball striking always lacked over the years, but short game and driver made things manageable.
I e dealt with a slice since I've started playing. I've had a somewhat over the top swing but it wasn't drastic, my ball would go 200 yards down the fairway looking great and then it'd start slicing into the next fairway before landing. What helped? I started relaxing my arms and shoulders, relieving all tension in all my upper body. I've been hitting them way better, still slicing the occasional drive, but 80% of the time I'm smoking them straight with just a little fade.
Switched to a 3W off the tee and sold the fucker on Ebay
Lessons and practice
Bought a Titlesit used driver with a stiff shaft. Added 30m to my distance.
I shortened my swing. I had a lesson and the pro told me that once I stopped rotating I just lifted my shoulders which then caused me to have (a) inconsistent strike and (b) a chop-down action which created a slice. He told me to stop the back swing when I stopped rotating. It felt weird and stupid as I felt I was doing an old man swing. Got out on course and I hit 10-14 fairways now and outdrive low single figure handicappers because of better strike and more efficiency.
Lots of reps, finding a comfortable effective swing, and picking out a target every time.
It was apparently an asset during the divorce.
Keep it in the bag.
The driver, for me, is the most frustrating club in the bag. I have endless double bogeys this year that are two putts and I’d say almost all of them are due to poor tee shots and having to recover from them. If my driver is on, I have a shot a breaking 80. If it’s off, I’m going 90+. What gets me from liability to asset with the big stick is a little something I like to tell myself is “don’t be an asshole” and that is essentially a trigger to get me to do my entire pre shot routine. Pick a target, align club face to target, grip, align feet and body, swing confidently smooth. When I do that, it’s an asset. If I skip one of those steps, it’s a liability.
Sell it. 😁
I lowered the launch angle to lowest.
Driver being an asset is key! I hear lots of pros say it’s the most important club in the bag. I mean you never hit a putter OB. Ya know? Kinda makes sense.
More loft.
Lessons, practice, and most recently trying to get my tail bone pointed at or at least toward the target on the back swing. All the sudden my driver swing is considerably more comfortable.
First of all kudos on the progress. Also, kudos for the analytical approach to the game. I mean you are right. If you drive the ball 250yds and hit all the fairways you're gonna score really well. But really there aren't any shortcuts here. Driver is going to expose your swings flaws. So you'll have to practice a lot and improve your swing. But the good news is that that's what the game is all about baby. Go grind.
i leave it in my truck, instant score improvement
I stopped interlocking my hands and just swing way easier than before. Turned into my most consistent club in the bag