Help w/ Driver (i'm wordy, apologize in advance)

[fronesis]

Just repeating what others have already said, but there’s definitely something off with your setup, approach, and swing on the driver and it has nothing to do with the technology. 

 

I’ll just add: anyone who can play to a 2 index (a 2!!) can hit one of today’s modern drivers and hit it well.

 

My one question is this: do you have a local pro that you trust, or just someone you know who knows the golf swing. I’m not a PGA pro but I would bet big money that I could have half an hour on the range with you I could fix whatever is up.

 

My best guess is to repeat something a few folks have suggested: you may have the ball teed too high with it too far up in your stance, and you are flipping up at it. It IS possible to swing up on the ball properly, but it requires a lot of hip slide to be able to shallow the angle of attack. Most amateurs I play with (who are not as good as you!) have the ball too far forward and teed to high, and they just flip at it to get up to the ball.

 

[turtsoup]

20 minutes ago, fronesis said:

Just repeating what others have already said, but there’s definitely something off with your setup, approach, and swing on the driver and it has nothing to do with the technology. 

 

I’ll just add: anyone who can play to a 2 index (a 2!!) can hit one of today’s modern drivers and hit it well.

 

My one question is this: do you have a local pro that you trust, or just someone you know who knows the golf swing. I’m not a PGA pro but I would bet big money that I could have half an hour on the range with you I could fix whatever is up.

 

My best guess is to repeat something a few folks have suggested: you may have the ball teed too high with it too far up in your stance, and you are flipping up at it. It IS possible to swing up on the ball properly, but it requires a lot of hip slide to be able to shallow the angle of attack. Most amateurs I play with (who are not as good as you!) have the ball too far forward and teed to high, and they just flip at it to get up to the ball.

 

I'll say it this way, im a 2 at my home track and not a "traveling" 2 lol. There's a big difference of course. I think you hit the nail on the head for me. Teed high, too far forward and flippy. High right if not flipped, low left if flipped. Makes a ton of sense thinking about it now 

[UKGolfer86]

So im only a 12.5 index, so nothing on you at 2, but what you describe parallels pretty much what i went through over the last 6 weeks or so.  Everything was good apart from my driver, missing low hook left and high push to the right.  My pro who has totally transformed my game took me out to the practice tee, watched 3 swings and had it solved.

 

1. My stance was too narrow.  He widened it to the point the insides of my ankles are at the outsides of my shoulders.  This keeps me centered during the swing (behind the ball) and stops me sliding towards the ball and forces me to rotate.

2. Brought my ball back about 1 ball inside my left heel and teed so 1/3 of the ball sits above the top line of my driver face.  I was level with my big toe and 2/3 above topline previously

3. Set up square to the ball (i was a little closed)

4. Have the intent to swing up and out to the right.  I subconciously dropped my right shoulder at address and proceeded to hit drive after drive down the center of the practice fairway.

 

The change this brought about within 5 minutes was outrageous.  Picked up a solid 25 yards on average.  My last 4 rounds ive now hit 39 of the 44 fairways (only use driver on 11 holes) ive hit driver which is significantly better that previous.

 

There was no concious technical swing changes, just a solid set up and the vision of hitting up and right.

[turtsoup]

That is awesome and sounds jusy like what im going through. Thank you sir. 

[MelloYello]

I like the advice delivered above by several posters. I also got several of those same tips last year during a driving lesson.

 

My stance was a little too narrow and I tended to tee the ball very high/forward. The result was a lot of toe-strikes with high launch and ~3000rpms spin. My SS was 105-ish and I could hit it pretty high/straight so I wasn't a bad driver at all, but I clearly wasn't maxing out my carry with that kind of spin.

 

It felt quite uncomfortable to narrow the stance and even weirder to tee the ball at a more appropriate height. Nonetheless, there's very clearly a reason why so many talented iron players struggle with the driver. It's a very different animal. 

 

When I started, I had a downward AoA (~2^o). You've got to focus on changing that, which will (in tandem with off-center strikes) cause a lot of poor drives. 

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

On 5/5/2021 at 6:22 AM, turtsoup said:

Ok, a lot like many others, i hit my 3 wood as far as driver.  Three wood seems like a low trajectory and no spin bullet that runs forever.  Its an M6 with a tensei blue and I love it.  Currently hitting a G410 with a Tensei Orange at stock length.  I hit it ok i guess but driver has always been the worst club in my bag.  Currently a 2 handicap and hit driver all over the place, its ridiculous.  Thinking its definitely got to do with attack angle and all of that but can i find something that will help me driver wise?  Do i need to go with a lower spin head or something?  Definitely looking for a new stick.  At this point, i hardly hit fairways anyway so mainly looking for distance i guess.  I dont have very many options for fitting around me, would have to travel quite a bit and i just dont have the time for it currently.  Really thinking maybe TSi3 at 45in or something similar.  Also, ping drivers stock are D3 and some of the new stuff is coming in at D2.  Could i be more weight sensitive maybe.  I know this is a jumbled mess but just getting it out of my head and downloading it on you guys lol.  Its aggravating.  I play with some older guys that hit driver as far as i do.  I hit irons 20 yards further than they do but they hit driver with me, i dont get it

 

My son has had the same issue for many years, but made a breakthrough this past year.

 

He’s gotten fitted by one who works with higher swing speed players, worked on his sequencing a bit, his positioning and was finally able to hit straight shots with his driver.

 

Too soon to see how well this will continue, but he was quite happy finally shooting his first 68 round. Got to his head because next round was 79 Hahaha.

[Ri_Redneck]

Do the driver and 3w "FEEL" the same when you swing them. If not, get the driver closer to the 3w. Most stock drivers are too light in total weight and it can throw one's timing off.

 

BT