How to hit a low cut driver? (High windy days)

Hey guys I could use some help with thoughts, feels, setups to hit a low cut with a driver when it's windy. I'm a 2 handicap high speed player and my normal ball flight is a high draw. I can hit a fade somewhat reliably but it goes even higher than my normal flight. I really struggle in the wind because a draw just doesn't stop going left and my attempts at a fade just spin up and lose a lot of distance. I was watching the final round of The Open Championship that Shane Lowry won at Portrush and he was hitting these amazing low cuts off every tee in the windy conditions. How?!

hands ahead, no tilt at setup/impact. basically how you hit a knockdown, but with a driver.

I can hit it low doing this but I can't get it to fade. For some reason I really struggle to keep the face from shutting down.

Your swing pattern likely doesn’t line up to hit low fade with driver.

Hypothetically, your shaft is a hair vertical in transition and you drop the right shoulder to get it coming from the inside to hit up and hit that high draw.

You try and hit a Low fade with that swing pattern, you’re going to miss the golf course.

Even a golfer at your level shouldn’t be trying to go that opposite of your normal flight.

You can count the number of tour players who work it both ways regularly on one hand. They look at it the same way you should, why would I try and use a B swing to not get that much in return.

Diminishing returns principle at work here.

You are exactly right about being a bit steep and under. If I give up the dream of a hammering a low cut what would you recommend I do for windy days? My normal flight just rides the wind forever left.

Do you hit up a lot? Do you know your AoA?

With driver in the wind, the best thing to do is hit it solid. If you’re having that much trouble with the ball curving that much in the wind, you might need to tee it down and practice leveling out your turn for your swing long term in general.

We have three holes on our course that you really need to cut it off the tee, and the prevailing wind always seem to be into and right to left, so if you cut it too much it is gonzo. I move the ball up about two inches in my stance, drop my left foot back two inches, and use my normal swing but stay more left. That is what works for me, YMMV.

4-5 up AoA and 3-4 in to out path. I constantly feel like I'm holding off the face to avoid a big overdraw. I'd love to be able to feel like I'm releasing the club effortlessly without the fear of left. Scoring for me is 100% about the driver because on days I keep it in play I shoot around par +/- and on days I don't I'm at 80. Very much struggle in the wind off the tee.

Face it, you’re a one trick pony.

you hit high hooks. it is what it is.

you either need to change your path or develop a slightly different swing for driver on windy days.

That is the whole point of the thread... asking for thoughts, feels, setups for low fades!

Just hit a lower draw or a straight ball into the wind? I would stick with your preferred shape. I hit a fade 100% of the time with driver, the thought of trying to force a draw brings all sorts of chaos into play.

As Monte alluded to, more than anything hitting the ball in the middle or top part of the face to knock the spin off will make a big difference. One that works for me is either tee the ball normal height and try to make sure you touch grass to make sure you hit the top half of the face. Anything off the bottom will spin out of control

You might come across a few holes where trees mean you can't move it right to left...just hit a 3 wood or iron and move on rather than trying to learn two completely different swings.

That means your swing direction is getting close to double digits right.....that’s a block or hook waiting to happen.

This is why I’m so against the Up 5 movement.

Its way too difficult to match face,path, sweet spot and target at up 5 for every golfer, but even more at high speed.

Theres a reason the tour average is down 1, trending toward zero.

When my AoA gets above 3, ask me to play for money as I’m 3-5 handicap and ball speeds go under 180.

When it’s under 3, and preferably closer to 1 or zero, I’m a plus 5 and 180-185 ball speed.

So make this a long term project and make some tweaks to get the AOA down under 3 and your wind issues are likely gone.

Thanks for the great reply. TBH I really don't prefer the draw it just happens. Fade looks so much better to the eye but it's a huge struggle to hit it consistently.

Thank you Monte! Do you use lower tee height to help level out your swing or are you able to tee it higher and still swing neutral?

That being the case then perhaps look at making a swing change so that your intention matches what you see? Either way I think the best advice especially with the driver is to only move it one way at all times. Tiger used to do the 9 ball drill hitting all the different flights with his irons, still hits a fade 80%+ times with a driver. Same with Bubba and all his shot shaping has said that he never ever tries to draw a driver no matter what the hole...lucky for him Augusta sets up so well for a lefty hitting a fade!

I do, both in practice and on course.

Often, the “fairway finder” swings on tour are with a frighteningly low tee

Gentle’s first post are words to live by.

OP - I much like you had issues with hitting too far up and in to out. I was around 4 in to out and 5 up. Block city or hook with very little in between. I one day set up for a cut and realized my shoulder alignment was to about 2pm on a clock looking down target line - this was causing my in to out path. The fix for me was to check my shoulder alignment on every shot, I had to feel "like my left shoulder was pointing to 11pm on a clock". This shifted my path to about neutral to -1 and allows me to hit a straight ball that may fade from time to time. My worst strikes are when I close the face too early and hit it into the left rough, but was hit solid.

Long story short - tee it lower, move the ball up in your stance marginally, check your shoulder alignment and see what you have. You may be pleased with what you see just from a setup change.

This all day long! I suffer from being dumped under and have worked on path and AoA for the past couple years to sort it out. Given that, I still find my tee height creeping up higher and higher over time. The last thing a dumped under player needs is a higher tee with the driver. Learn to play from a lower tee height and the problem will start to correct itself. Monte, do you find most people need to change their driver attributes, (loft, shaft flex, etc.), when making this change?

Tee it lower, like Monte says, AND address the ball in the HEEL of the driver.

Not necessarily, but often, their club has been fit for that up move and they don’t have enough loft, the shaft/head combo creates too little spin, etc.

Do you not know how to hit a low one as a 2 cap? You have to lol... try moving around till you find that sweet spot that hits a stinger... try moving ball back a half inch or something and change your attack.... its not hard.

Also practice hitting a low straight one or draw cause you dont always wanna hit a cut into the wind.... I personally love hitting high and low ones and it comes in very handy lol and is not tricky if you're a decent player.

Dont let the stick with what you got crowd take the fun out of experimenting and improving just dont forget your orginal swing cause it can be lost.... just keep going back to your original swing and maybe even write down what it is technically, mentally and feel wise so you can always get it back if lost for a minute...

As Monte said. You run the risk of causing a lot more problems than you're going to solve. It's a different swing all together. However, maybe you're looking at the wrong club? What is you iron swing like? Surely it has a negative AoA and may give you an option that would work. I personally would play a punch FW or long iron as opposed to messing with your driver swing.

BT

I do it by teeing the ball low, keeping my exit path low, and feeling like I don’t allow the face to turn over into the follow through. None of this will likely work for you, but give it a shot.

I'm also a drawer of the ball with difficulty hitting a powerful cut.

I generally tee it lower and try to channel my inner-Trevino.

Try to get through it quicker with my body so I feel like my arms are trailing in a delofted position.

Probably not what I'm actually doing, but that's my feel.

learn to hit a consistent cut... a path and face thing

learn to hit a knockdown... a setup thing (excluding flipper issues)

combine the two things.

For what it's worth, there's plenty of guys playing for a living that don't hit the low cut driver on a windy day, especially if their warmup tells them it's a bad idea. There's not many holes where simply fligting the ball a little lower, and ensuring you keep spin off the ball so it's better in the wind, doesn't meet your needs to put the ball in play. Hell, just swing normal and you're probably fine as well with the low spin golf balls they have today.

And the followup to that is, having that movement is rarely a necessity and just a nice way to help ensure a one way miss. You start doing things that fight your pattern, and you just brought the two way miss into play. double cross = double bogey... food for thought.

Set your feet and hips open, tee it lower, open the face a touch so it is in between the target and your starting line. Then try to bust into the trees on the left with your body while your arms are passive.

Spend some time on the range hitting drivers off the deck. It might take some time and several ugly shots to get there, but as a better player you'll make the adjustments needed to find the right feel to hit the shot you're looking for.

Here's my take since the power cut is my normal shot. Slightly open stance and open the driver face in the address position. I tee the ball very high and have the ball inside my left foot so probably a bit closer to the middle than you probably are. Take more of flat swing- think a line drive in baseball versus a home run swing. I aim down the left side and boom!

If you can hit a driver off the deck then you can hit a low cut driver. When I want a low cut driver I just kick up a bit of grass, "tee" the ball up on that grass and hit driver off the deck.

Ball.forward

Cut swing

Hit down and left through impact

DON'T STOP TURNING THE BODY THROUGH IMPACT.