Need driver help

[Bigmean]

Hey guys, I figured I would run this by you all. I have struggled with driver so bad I have quit playing all together 2x now over it.  I am giving it another go.  
 

This is my situation and my concrete pattern.  Yeah my big miss is pull hook push slice, but my real misses are ball goes straight like 180yards then tails hard lefts or right another 15-30y.  Good balls are straights or small draws and fades. 
 

I have a monitor and I believe that my path is Always within 2-3* of neutral on both sides and it is my release and face angle just all over the place.   So it leads me to think grip(I really hate messing with it, it is a  little strong) or my actual swing sync of lower body/arms/hands.

 

Any drills or tips for this kind of swing?   I can’t score because I can’t even pick a side of the fairway to play without risk of it’s going more that way, and 1 outs of 3 is a great drive so the fact that keeps coming up makes it’s harder to make big changes.  I honestly feel like the swing is sooo close but if you watched me it is a train wreck.

 

SS is probably 105(gc2 guesses this)

flushed shots over 300, avg of 20 drives generally 270-285 shaft depending.  My irons do similar but much tighter and somehow I can control it leaking left or right (I don’t want to say fade and draw cause I never start it out much one way or other, leaking and size and control of that leak is best way I can put this in words and I know from impact as I am watching it fly straight which way it is going to start tailing most all the time.  So I feel in there if I didn’t release or released early.  
 

Any drills or tips or any insight would be greatly appreciated. I am committed to practice driver all summer long.  

 

 

[Bigmean]

Also, gc2 has azimuth which I thought was best guess at path, but I just watched a video saying that if it starts straight I am square but path makes it tail.  That makes more sense on irons where I am altering my path more easily to make it tail left or right, and somehow straight.  
 

My history if it helps is learned to play, played a draw a while, hooked irons, switched to a fade in long irons and woods as that felt more comfy, always liked to power fade off tee, felt that was my best shot.  My natural swing with irons tends to be moving left at end.  I rarely push fade/slice irons, the right miss is dead push, But I can start a 9 iron at it and have it hook so much it misses the green by 10 yards.  
 

That said, should I commit to playing a draw off the tee?  If it really is a path thing I need to pick a side and commit, no?  At this point I don’t even care what suits my eye and I have a feeling commuting to draw will take away snap hooks as the path is the snap part.  
 

Sorry all this is so long, just trying to give info that may or may not help.   I have been trying to find this for a while now and am in the definition of insanity zone and need something to put me on a track worth going down. 

Edited May 15, 2023 by Bigmean

[golfinbrad]

You might get better help if you post a video of your swing.  It could be several things, but hard to diagnose or offer drills without seeing your swing.  That said, are you hitting fairways and hybrids pretty well?  I say, yes focus on working one side.  Hopefully it eliminates the two way miss.

[SNIPERBBB]

Need to figure out how to get one or the other but not both. If you like the fade then go with or vice versa.

 

Snap hooks shouldnt be a problem if you go with a fade unless you really bail out on one and catch the ball on the toe of the club.

[KMeloney]

For conversation sake, it sounds like you could be hitting too up on the ball with driver, and/or dropping your trail shoulder to do it. If you get too handsy, you get a hook; and if you hold off the face, you get a big push.

 

In the past I have tried to avoid hooks by weakening my top (left) hand, but it doesn't work. Not until I weakened my right hand [only] recently have I been able to straighten things out. My right hand now pretty much matches the face, and so now I have a better sense for where the face is pointed through impact.

[Golfbeat]

Usually when you hit the driver badly it is because you are steep and/or the club face is open coming into impact. My fix is to relax the arms and wrists and hit little shots with the driver keeping the club head low to the ground one foot before impact and one foot after impact with a square to slightly closed club face.

 

Then,  gradually create more speed in focusing more on hitting with the body whilst having relaxed shoulders, arms and wrists.

[Bigmean]

4 hours ago, golfinbrad said:

You might get better help if you post a video of your swing.  It could be several things, but hard to diagnose or offer drills without seeing your swing.  That said, are you hitting fairways and hybrids pretty well?  I say, yes focus on working one side.  Hopefully it eliminates the two way miss.

Yes, I crush my 3 wood as straight as anyone with a cap where I want to get back to could expect.  My hybrid in general is also not a problem.   I had my cap down to about a 6 5 years ago then this happened and it was like the whole thing blew up for me never to recover, mentally I can’t tell you how disastrous it has been.  
 

I had a lesson in February, which the advice was hands tighter together (I use interlocking grip) and stand closer to the ball (I don’t like this feeling and in practice on sim I can hit straight like this but I can also throw the heel into the ground.  The idea of this I believe is because my plane is shallow and that gets me more upright and with a sweeping plane my margin of error becomes sliver thin.  

 

it could be as easy as steepening my plane, I haven’t been able to see that through though as the bad shots are stupid bad.

[golfinbrad]

1 minute ago, Bigmean said:

Yes, I crush my 3 wood as straight as anyone with a cap where I want to get back to could expect.  My hybrid in general is also not a problem.   I had my cap down to about a 6 5 years ago then this happened and it was like the whole thing blew up for me never to recover, mentally I can’t tell you how disastrous it has been.  
 

I had a lesson in February, which the advice was hands tighter together (I use interlocking grip) and stand closer to the ball (I don’t like this feeling and in practice on sim I can hit straight like this but I can also throw the heel into the ground.  The idea of this I believe is because my plane is shallow and that gets me more upright and with a sweeping plane my margin of error becomes sliver thin.  

 

it could be as easy as steepening my plane, I haven’t been able to see that through though as the bad shots are stupid bad.

Based on this, you might benefit from a shorter driver shaft.  What are you using now?  If 45" or so, Try choking down and inch or inch and half to see what happens. 

[Bigmean]

5 hours ago, SNIPERBBB said:

Need to figure out how to get one or the other but not both. If you like the fade then go with or vice versa.

 

Snap hooks shouldnt be a problem if you go with a fade unless you really bail out on one and catch the ball on the toe of the club.

See I think that snap hooks are the problem because if my release gets a tad quick on a fade swing it is 3 off the tee.  I can of course hold off and play 10y right if fairway and guarantee a banana of sorts, but that is going 260s and I refuse to band aid this with some tee game that someone shooting 92 would have.  Even if I did that and got into 70s again, at some point it will need to be addressed and this is my albatross to slay. That is why I was thinking maybe screw the cut just focus on hitting draws off the tee?

[Bigmean]

4 minutes ago, golfinbrad said:

Based on this, you might benefit from a shorter driver shaft.  What are you using now?  If 45" or so, Try choking down and inch or inch and half to see what happens. 

Tried, I have like a 43.5 I made of an older shaft for lulz to test this, same thing.  Maybe because my delivery is is just different with driver?

[chollier986]

Pull hook AND push fade misses are complete opposites of each other.  Hard to imagine you can miss it like that with the intent being the same.  Are you seeing both misses while tryin to draw the ball?  Both while trying to fade the ball?

[golfinbrad]

7 minutes ago, Bigmean said:

Tried, I have like a 43.5 I made of an older shaft for lulz to test this, same thing.  Maybe because my delivery is is just different with driver?

Like I said earlier, really hard to tell without a video.  Only other 2 things that come to mind, is ball position could be creeping up in your stance causing a toe hook when you release it or slice when you hold on to it.  Other thing could be waiting hang too much on your bad foot.  Sorry, but taking a shot in the dark.  I really don't think it is a swing issue if you are hitting the 3 wood well.  Leaning towards a setup problem.  Good luck.  You'll get it figured out.

[Bigmean]

5 hours ago, KMeloney said:

For conversation sake, it sounds like you could be hitting too up on the ball with driver, and/or dropping your trail shoulder to do it. If you get too handsy, you get a hook; and if you hold off the face, you get a big push.

 

In the past I have tried to avoid hooks by weakening my top (left) hand, but it doesn't work. Not until I weakened my right hand [only] recently have I been able to straighten things out. My right hand now pretty much matches the face, and so now I have a better sense for where the face is pointed through impact.

For conversation sake, you just nailed this.    Right shoulder gets low and I hit up and I am a home swing self taught handsy player.  
 

OK, this is on to something.  I also can weaken left hand and get a couple good ones then it is just weak and right, as you said not a fix.  I am trying your right hand (I don’t think I ever mess with that even when I mess with grip) tip.  Thank you.

 

For anyone else, he 100% pegged this.  To build on this,  If I make a big a swing and finish strong and balanced on my left leg where swing and pose looks great, it is a guaranteed hook, every time.  somewhere between that and my finish falling a step back resulting in a push fade is a straight shot,  and it just isn’t repeatable to get that timing.

 

Also to add, too often I literally have to drop the club on follow through because I can’t keep my right hand on it.  That is also a hook but I think it is me falling back and low shoulder as well and my hands racing to make it to the ball and right after impact my right can’t hang on and the speed of follow through makes my left let go.  
 

So going off this diagnosis.  I would love to not change my swing plane, so mentally work on keep my shoulder higher?  Maybe somewhere along the line when I was playing good in chasing distance I got in bad habit of really unloading up and behind it and it went from working to not?  All that keys to power drives crap has you with a low shoulder and really behind it.

Edited May 15, 2023 by Bigmean

[golfinbrad]

1 minute ago, Bigmean said:

For conversation sake, you just nailed this.    Right shoulder gets low and I hit up and I am a home swing self taught handset player.  
 

OK, this is on to something.  I also can weaken left hand and get a couple good ones then it is just weak and right, as you said not a fix.  I am trying your right hand (I don’t think I ever mess with that even when I mess with grip) tip.  Thank you.

 

For anyone else, he 100% pegged this.  To build on this,  If I make a big a swing and finish strong and balanced on my left leg where swing and pose looks great, it is a guaranteed hook, every time.  somewhere between that and my finish falling a step back resulting in a push fade is a straight shot,  and it just isn’t repeatable to get that timing.

 

Also to add, too often I literally have to drop the club on follow through because I can’t keep my right hand on it.  That is also a hook but I think it is me falling back and low shoulder as well and my hands racing to make it to the ball and right after impact my right can’t hang on and the speed of follow through makes my left let go.  
 

So going off this diagnosis.  I would love to not change my swing plane, mentally keep my shoulder higher?  Maybe somewhere along the line when I was playing good in chasing distance I got in bad habit of really unloading up and behind it and it went from working to not?  All that keys to power drives crap has you with a low shoulder and really behind it.

I might be off with this one, but why not work on hitting the driver with a very low tee to level things out?  Might be easier than trying to think about where your shoulders are. 

[Nard_S]

Just by sound of it, you sound very handsy either by habit or forced to, sounds like you leave hands behind body in down swing and play "let's meet at impact". Timed well it works, body is too fast you push, body is stalled too much or is too slow you pull hook. But by use of hands and a blend of stalled rotation that's how it gets done. Am I close? Because that's how I swung forever and was having same dispersion patterns. 

 

 

[Bigmean]

36 minutes ago, chollier986 said:

Pull hook AND push fade misses are complete opposites of each other.  Hard to imagine you can miss it like that with the intent being the same.  Are you seeing both misses while tryin to draw the ball?  Both while trying to fade the ball?

I am not trying to work the ball at all,  my eye wants to see a fade, and when I try, my tendency is trying is a little holding off to avoid the guaranteed penalty hook so I play the left side but that is dead when a hook comes in.  

[Bigmean]

32 minutes ago, golfinbrad said:

I might be off with this one, but why not work on hitting the driver with a very low tee to level things out?  Might be easier than trying to think about where your shoulders are. 

Will try, I am so excited to try the shoulder thing tonight, also watched a hank Haney video today that said if you are pulling the ball but not a slicer by nature (me) play the ball back some and this coincides with the whole falling back behind shoulder thing.  
 

My mind is focused on not taking away too far inside (this is something I do that I need to always watch for) and to start transition lower body leading and in sync, but never any thoughts to shoulders or torso ever, but I know it has lean back at impact and a lot, I just thought that is a driver swing, but that also indicates why I can smash a 3 wood relatively straight and driver is lost cause….I also hit drives well if I am drinking (for real) or trying to crush it out of frustration mind blank in rage without a care where it goes.  (think 3 off tee) maybe in those cases the lack of focus is my friend away from bad habits?

[Bigmean]

36 minutes ago, Nard_S said:

Just by sound of it, you sound very handsy either by habit or forced to, sounds like you leave hands behind body in down swing and play "let's meet at impact". Timed well it works, body is too fast you push, body is stalled too much or is too slow you pull hook. But by use of hands and a blend of stalled rotation that's how it gets done. Am I close? Because that's how I swung forever and was having same dispersion patterns. 

 

 

Again, nailed.  Home swing, have been able to work the ball both ways since a kid, very very streaky player even when playing well.  You could watch me for 6 holes and think I am scratch or a 15 cap depending hahaha. 
 

My last round back nine had no pars, 3 doubles, 3 bogies and 3 birdies, and I was driving it well enough to boot, just not on 3 of the 7 holes.  I technically had 4 birdies with a 3 off the tee bogey.  Now you can also take the round and look at doubles and some other holes and come away with I am horrible.  Very extreme Jekyll and Hyde.  So your assessment makes sense.

[Bigmean]

This may help, I have 2 new to me driver heads and 5 shafts I am messing with along with working on my drives.  If you look at the numbers most will be missing right (by design of my subconscious fear of hooking and holding off) but here are 25 drives and numbers off them….I don’t have a vid but can work on it. I don’t like to overload swing changes so I am going to spend this week just working on shoulder angle, that right hand tip, and not hitting up as much, and see if I can get some straighter balls with a proper finish.

 

You guys are awesome, thispost made at work with me obsessing really has had some spot on things to try.  

[Nard_S]

4 hours ago, Bigmean said:

-Very extreme Jekyll and Hyde.

That's been my M.O. forever. Can get away with this on iron play somewhat but it's a wrecking ball off the tee with plus 200 clubs. It's a round killer. It's a huge berm for lowered index too. Had me peak at 6 index and coulod not go lower. 

 

The Rx for this is quite involved and will take a long time, not going to lie. 

 

I basically needed to alter views & beliefs on how the swing "should" work and even further get my body to believe it.

 

I came to understand that getting the hands to fire fast & early was a big key but I could only own that when I understood that fast hands does not mean fast transition. And that it also does not mean they are fast back to ball.

 

Think swinging over the top with hands at waist height. Fire hands away and lower to knees, then swing over the top with body. Mind, it's an intent. 

 

Throwing hands down to knees with back to target and with body angles held there in left side bend for longer is cliff notes. (Lead shoulder staying down is big, shoulder popping up high too early is death) What's tricky is that you need to simplify movements and alter sensew of power impulse. 

 

Why bother? To keep body and hands in sync and to flatten approach into ball and have longer bottoming.To have a much more repeatable path and to take the hands out of swing in the correct way.

 

PS You're a fabricator, right? Use NC to make counter tops or something like that,lol.. Search out "AMG", they use computer modeling, break golf swing things down in geometry which as a machinist speaks to me. Might to you too. Good luck.

 

 

Edited May 16, 2023 by Nard_S

[Bigmean]

Thanks for getting this in my head before hitting balls Nard hahahaha.  Seriously, I will hang them up before I rebuild from scratch, but everything you said I have already mostly been aware of so it is last resort.  

 

So I have caught lighting in a bottle about 5-7 times since I got what I have called the driver yips, I don’t get excited with what I think is a big breakthrough anymore.  That said, last night was potentially very productive. I am going to report back after about a week with some screen shots on numbers but the initial thoughts are:

 

-maybe my shoulder doesn’t drop as much as it does in my mind, or likely the new ball position/tee height/stance  made it so I couldn’t drop like I was.  

 

-my right hand sits neutral, left a tad strong, leaving this alone for now, I loathe grip manipulation and my grip is probably not it based on rest of bag.
 

-my man Hank Haney with the setup with my right foot back (slightly closed to me, but maybe not overly closed to line) and ball back some.  I’m ok if I have to close stance.  This I think worked most in combo with ball position. Stunningly to me, it wasn’t toe draw misses I hit from this stance, it was a sharp feeling heel miss baby fade that felt worse than me mis hitting my blades on a cold day, but went 270+ and straight.  Flush shots went 300 and instant better dispersion, with higher number of shots really down the line, not bad for everything not feeling comfortable.
 

-hands.  In regards to Nards comment, with this new alignment, my best hits were me turning my hands off, best way to say it.  I’m sure this is like duh natural release, but I have never been able to trust a natural release.  That said,  Timing is an issue to a degree but somehow the timing from this setup and passive hands was much more forgiving than when I worked on this passive hands feeling from prior setup.  Still lost some both ways, but no 45-60y offline shots that come up when I lose timing with my prior swing.  

 

last comment.  My launch angle was low low.  7*.  I usually am 12* range.  They were low bullets.   Not worried about trajectory now, I’m sure that is a back in stance thing as well as me not hitting up like I was.  Again, not worried about any of this but seeing a trajectory and movement changes that were improving with the number of shots I hit.  Due to fatigue my best drives in sim are usually like 5-20, after 30 I start to get into swing fatigue and probably am hurting myself by grinding out 20 more.  Last night my best drives were in the 30s where the changes were sorta vibing.   Again to nards comment about us handsy guys, I have been fooled by changes I make, but I am just having a good timing day, and next day that lighting in a bottle is gone.  So I’m cautiously optimistic that as fatigue got worse the drives picked up.  This is not how it works for me in a garage sweating my a** off hitting a drive every 60seconds.
 

I will report back at the end of the weekend with a few hundred balls of getting comfy on this and post the numbers for comment.   

Edited May 16, 2023 by Bigmean

[Bigmean]

14 hours ago, Nard_S said:

That's been my M.O. forever. Can get away with this on iron play somewhat but it's a wrecking ball off the tee with plus 200 clubs. It's a round killer. It's a huge berm for lowered index too. Had me peak at 6 index and coulod not go lower. 

 

The Rx for this is quite involved and will take a long time, not going to lie. 

 

I basically needed to alter views & beliefs on how the swing "should" work and even further get my body to believe it.

 

I came to understand that getting the hands to fire fast & early was a big key but I could only own that when I understood that fast hands does not mean fast transition. And that it also does not mean they are fast back to ball.

 

Think swinging over the top with hands at waist height. Fire hands away and lower to knees, then swing over the top with body. Mind, it's an intent. 

 

Throwing hands down to knees with back to target and with body angles held there in left side bend for longer is cliff notes. (Lead shoulder staying down is big, shoulder popping up high too early is death) What's tricky is that you need to simplify movements and alter sensew of power impulse. 

 

Why bother? To keep body and hands in sync and to flatten approach into ball and have longer bottoming.To have a much more repeatable path and to take the hands out of swing in the correct way.

 

PS You're a fabricator, right? Use NC to make counter tops or something like that,lol.. Search out "AMG", they use computer modeling, break golf swing things down in geometry which as a machinist speaks to me. Might to you too. Good luck.

 

 

Good memory, yup I’ve got some cnc machines and if I knew how how to really really draw in 3d cad I would have had a few putters designed and made by now hahaha.  Will search amg.   
 

I’m trying to keep this simple too, I know it doesn’t sound that way from my over analyzation, sim numbers, but really I just want to get a setup I can trust and a feeling I can cling to that works and then stop the over thinking.  Less has always been more for me.  
 

This sounds stupid, but I got really good at putting when I heard jack Nicklaus say “putting is an attitude” and I instantly understood what he meant.  When I putt, I have my line and speed mentally sorted then all I think about is is how I am going to make this putt, I can’t wait to make this putt, I look at the hole, not my line, and I see it falling before I pull the trigger and my body takes the prior speed idea and line ideas I have I set up to and hole and my body just makes it happen. I am sure my stroke and my alignment and all that is bad  technically, but it works infallibly consistent for me.  Ideally I would like to get driver to that point.  I just need to get setup with something I can semi trust, just lock into a target and then blank out mentally and swing makes ball go in that general area  70% of the time.  Confidence breeds more confidence and eventually you can not think at all except where you want it to go.

[Nard_S]

1 minute ago, Bigmean said:

I’m trying to keep this simple too,

Haha I knew I was polluting things a bit with wonky crapola. I like simple too. 

 

On second thinking,  I wish I just would have said , try swinging where you get right foot, knee, hip elbow & hand all in alignment at P6. Target that as an intent. You really don't have to change your swing but it does change firing of swing.I used this for a long time and it did help with the two way thing. Best of luck, look forward to hearing the progress.

[KD1]

21 hours ago, Bigmean said:

I had a lesson in February, which the advice was ... stand closer to the ball ... The idea of this I believe is because my plane is shallow and that gets me more upright and with a sweeping plane my margin of error becomes sliver thin.

 

I was also told I was standing too far away from the ball. I was told it was causing my hands to come in too high which caused rolling of the fore arms, or flipping the club face shut, which was hard to time. Standing a smidge closer to the ball than I was with the hands a bit lower would help be more conducive for a more stable club face through the bottom of the arc... for me, compared to where I was at

[Bigmean]

1 hour ago, KD1 said:

 

I was also told I was standing too far away from the ball. I was told it was causing my hands to come in too high which caused rolling of the fore arms, or flipping the club face shut, which was hard to time. Standing a smidge closer to the ball than I was with the hands a bit lower would help be more conducive for a more stable club face through the bottom of the arc... for me, compared to where I was at

Yeah KD, my guy is good, and I didn’t disregard the advice, he had me like a legit 2” closer and I was jammed up, but I have bumped closer about an inch and even before my new head/shaft experiment I was driving it better than before but I think the solution is going to be small changes to a few setup things (stance, ball position, distance to ball) in combo with a couple small swing adjustments.  I believe this comes down to such small margins of error that are expanded across 270 yards, and consistent delivery has to be the first step, then can worry about direction and hitting center of face etc.

[Bigmean]

I took last night off because pounding 50 drives a night had my left wrist sore yesterday but it is better today.  
 

I wanted to check back with you guys as I think I am concluding that my misses predominantly are coming from my path not face.  I have read that starting straight is face and how goes after 100y or whatever is path and I have a question at end of the breakdown.

 

My last session had literally 50 versions of ALL 9 possible flights and an actual start straight slice was most common, followed by straight/slight pull starting hook, then straight shots and  mixed draws and fades And lastly a couple nasty double crosses.
 

So with this I’m convinced after really studying the numbers when not hitting yesterday that from one swing to next my path is lives between -3 and +3.  This is how on course I can lose a ball right, then next tee shot over compensate hands and face then pull hook, then just blind swing a baby draw from the inside all in 3 consecutive holes while somehow my irons path are all from the inside or neutral or varying so much less that it isn’t a problem at my current level and wouldn’t be until it is exposed more from me actually being in the fairway.

 

I have been just hitting the ball, with no intentions to move it at all.  Basically in my mind I am trying to hit it dead straight.  
 

In light of this, should I now try to just keep swinging “straight” and iron out what a straight path feels like?  Or is that an insurmountable task and I need to pick a side of the ball to come from then go from there?

 
I also determined My end goal that I think is realistic.  I would like to get to a point I can hit 10 drives in a row and not have 1 more than 20y offline.  If 70-80% of them are on one side don’t care which one it would be cherry on top.  

Edited May 18, 2023 by Bigmean

[Bigmean]

To add, I’m convinced I’m over top most of time and my high cap tee game agrees, but in your recommendations I have zero trepidation playing a draw.  I’m not a high cap player off the tee box so it won’t be like some slice curing journey a beginner has for me.  I can hit a draw if I try, but not comfy with a driver is all which may be how this in time got so bad outside.  
 

I’m 50/50 on this:

 

1.  force myself to draw the ball consciously and scrap completely the old comfy feels and rebuild driver ground up.  
 

2.  Don’t fight what I have always been drawn to with driver and just get the 3* outside path in check to come in closer to 0 but always erring on coming from outside.

 

I’m leaning 1 because I’m so disgusted with my lack of control with driver I am inclined to burn it all down and nothing fits my eye anymore with this club.  
 

-I know this sounds like things aren’t going well,  But they are.  I have been more consistent this week working on what was discussed but I am at a point where my path stopped the progress there I believe. I’m still managing to come from

Both sides unpredictably if I have zero thoughts to path.  

Edited May 18, 2023 by Bigmean

[Long_Left]

19 minutes ago, Bigmean said:

To add, I’m convinced I’m over top most of time and my high cap tee game agrees, but in your recommendations I have zero trepidation playing a draw.  I’m not a high cap player off the tee box so it won’t be like some slice curing journey a beginner has for me.  I can hit a draw if I try, but not comfy with a driver is all which may be how this in time got so bad outside.  
 

I’m 50/50 on this:

 

1.  force myself to draw the ball consciously and scrap completely the old comfy feels and rebuild driver ground up.  
 

2.  Don’t fight what I have always been drawn to with driver and just get the 3* outside path in check to come in closer to 0 but always erring on coming from outside.

 

I’m leaning 1 because I’m so disgusted with my lack of control with driver I am inclined to burn it all down and nothing fits my eye anymore with this club.  
 

-I know this sounds like things aren’t going well,  But they are.  I have been more consistent this week working on what was discussed but I am at a point where my path stopped the progress there I believe. I’m still managing to come from

Both sides unpredictably if I have zero thoughts to path.  

The thread is super dense with information for being a single page so forgive me if this is already repeated information.

 

I'm very familiar with the patterns you speak of unfortunately. I've worked on it with a lot of intent the last 3 seasons and am hitting the driver better than I ever have. Currently +1 to scratch off the tee from -9 3 years ago.

 

My issue was face control and losing the club "behind" me in the swing. Basically overswinging, when I tried to go after it I'd either drop down from the top and come 8-10 degrees from the inside, hitting either a huge block/slice with a wide open clubface or a bullet overdraw with a wicked shut (to path) clubface or I'd throw everything so far outside at transition I'd be 6+ degrees out to in and hit screaming ducks (with some eye popping ball speed) or a 30 to 90 yard slice. When I tried to hit a fairway finder I'd miss with a pull the majority of the time as my hands and arms raced beyond my slower body turn. 

 

I have largely eliminated this "caveman" swing with a LOT of 9 to 3 drills with my feet together hitting an 8i to understand how to rotate hard while staying in balance and keeping the club and hands "in front of me." This stopped me from intentionally manipulating the face with my hands and wrists. If nothing else happens it can reduce the variance from shot to shot by a large margin. It's a very frustrating and embarrassing drill at the range if you're new to it, lots of poor contact, it's worth it in the long run.

 

Time spent on a launch monitor really helped me understand that my intense "effort" being put into the swing at transition was rewarded with 5+ mph slower club speed and a side bonus of 3x larger dispersion. It's not "swing easy" or "quiet the hands" or "shorten the swing" in a vacuum, it's finding your repeatable, comfortable, sequence of events. 

 

The Tour Tempo "Total Game" app helped me a ton feeling like I was making the same swing over and over once I found my natural pace. I also put a shaft in my driver that is (relatively) softer in the handle so my idiot lizard brain doesn't kick in to rip the club at 150% from a standstill. Steady hard acceleration, not dropping the clutch popping wheelies.

 

Bottom line is that it is 100% doable in my experience, feedback is critical, along with figuring out how to accept and incorporate that feedback. Fixing your path will only get you so far if you're delivering the clubface with high variance. My high clubface variance was due to over reach on the backswing, hope this helps.

 

 

 

 

[GoGoErky]

Post a video and let the experts give you feedback 

[Nard_S]

9 hours ago, Bigmean said:

I would like to get to a point I can hit 10 drives in a row and not have 1 more than 20y offline.  If 70-80% of them are on one side don’t care which one it would be cherry on top.  

A doable is to take one side out of play. Keep the predominant flight, don't fight that, fight the minor one.  

 

I tried like all heck to go fade biased but reality is I'm draw biased. It was a waste of time. I now just hit draws, pushy draws with big stick. Have two heights, keep it simple.

 

Expecting 90% on a 20 yard window is too demanding, and I think there's data out there to suggest it is.

 

In general, hands react to position they are in, if you're stuck or OTT, you will calibrate release intuitively. It keeps coming down to finding ways to simplify hand action.