Driver Woes
 

I am having a lot of trouble with my driver -- even bought a second on ebay to punish the first one. I'm just not able to consistently use a hitting pattern and get results.

What's the secret to using "hitting" with a driver?

Have any of you employed a swinging pattern with driver as an alternative?

Any help greatly appreciated!

I was thinking of asking you if you slice, hook, experience loss of distance or what the problem may be - but I'm not going to. I'm going to shut up. Somebody else has to come in and help.

Ha, ha, ha.

My misses are wicked pull hooks, thin line drives and big blocks. I'd take the blocks if I could talk myself into just aiming that far left.

Sometimes, it feels like I'm hitting a topspin forehand in tennis -- the ball flight is decent that then nosedives down and left.

Brian, my thoughts fwiw (as you know i'm a newbie).... i've been making some intermitent progress with TGM & some of the irons have been quite nice but the driver like you pretty patchy.

i took the driver on the dog walk this morning & hit some decent ones when i made sure that i slid/shifted towards the target with my hips prior to un-winding the top half, that way i think i'm getting to impact with my guns still loaded rather than running out of right arm & lag pressure prior to impact (i think we just get away with it more with the irons & imagine we are making a better motion than we maybe are). I am swinging rather than hitting but the principle may still apply.

Hula-Hula
Turn-Slide-Turn

Even though you are hitting, you need to engage the pivot first to support the power package. Spend some time with the MacDonald drills and call us in the morning...

Kevin

Perhaps ....
 

Perhaps the address position with the ball further forward in your stance alters your stroke pattern without you being aware of it.

Perhaps you try to hit "up" on the ball instead of doing the right thing.

Perhaps this creates alignment error in the takeaway. It is very easy to get an OTT-ish takeaway with the driver if you don't insist on doing the right thing. The right thing is three dimensional, btw.

Perhaps all of the above ruins the down part in your three dimensional downstroke down, out and forward.

Perhaps your problem will go away if you just hit a few drives with the club face addressing an imaginary ball that is a few inches further back in your stance.

But then again, perhaps your isue is a different one from this usual suspect :laughing9

Ball position could be an issue. I'll try to move around a bit. When I play it a little back of my normal, that's often when I hit the big block. Like I said, a ball flight and distance I could live with if I could hit it predictably.

I did hit one last night where I placed the ball forward of low point, swung down to low point and let the club orbit bring me "up" into the ball as someone on here had described. Nice, high draw with great distance -- could live with that one, too.

There is still a "flip" in the driver. I'm really concentrating on PP#1 versus #3. "Down" may well be missing. Some good drives earlier happened with direct hand path and lots of down and out.

I do seem to "find" it on the driving range, but can't get it to the tee. I know there is a timing and rhythm issue going on on the tee (i.e. trying to kill it).

Kev,

I do feel like my hip action is the weakest part of my swing now. It feels like I either way over slide and hit it really thin with my irons or there is no slide and it's fat city.

Is there more than one MacDonald drill? I know the dowel across the shoulders with right hand drawing the right shoulder back. Is there another one?

I will commence drills now and see where that leads.

Not my business, but there are several and you can get them by going to the "search" doohinky here. These drills are the beginning of golf Nirvana. Without a good foundation, the house will fall down.

Normally I'm much swifter...thanks, I've located a thread on pivot drills... :)

Do drill #2 while always feeling some pressure on the left foot.

Also #4 making sure you are getting your right shoulder on plane for the down stroke.

Thank you! I'll be working this hard this weekend...

One issue I'm having that is contributing. I'm wearing my bi-focals in preparation for some eye surgery. I'm not keeping my head up as well so I can see the ball and therefore not getting my shoulder turned enough. Just a mess right now.

Keep up the good work. There are many really good teachers out there, but YODA's interpretation of Homer Kelley's foundation is one you can trust for the rest of your golfing life.
:golf:
Kevin

Kevin's advice is spot on. Be really careful with bifocals, it can mess up your neck tilt. When doing the drills, take off your glasses, set up in posture and then close eyes, feel the movements in the drill.

The post
 

Would someone please explain the point to pivot around. the back of the neck or the sternum? The tail bone or the belt buckle? Will lots of MacDonald drill-#2, #4 - create good or bad habits?

The Bear

You get to pick. What works for you?

Taking my glasses off and closing my eyes are basically the same! :)

I think that has been part of the set back. I often realize that my should turn has been incomplete because my chin was in the way...all will be fixed in a couple of weeks!

What happens then?

Lenses? (a good idea)
Laser operation? (maybe - Tiger has done it)
Eye transplantation? (probably not - does it even exist as a possibility?)

Lens implants -- my eyes are too bad for lasik. So somewhere between laser and eye transplant.

I've worn hard contacts for 30+ years, but you make less tears as you get older, making hard contacts less comfortable. (I always say it's ironic that we make less tears as we get older, even though we have more to cry about! :eyes: )

Pretty soon, pilot vision!

Good luck .

Thank you!

I struggled with this until I decided to hit up on the driver and now I've gained yardage and am hitting high low spin bombs.

Others may disagree, but I see nothing wrong with hitting up on the driver as long as you can maintain the flat left wrist.

My checklist is:

Ball position mid left foot
Head stationary well behind the ball
Right arm continually driving outward (though in the end upward)


Whenever I hit down with the driver I was hitting low spinners or high right cutting blocks.

Hitting up produces a high low spin bomb.

Towards to end of the season (Nov.), I was experimenting with hitting up as you describe and caught some very long drives.

Has anyone noticed how low pro's seem to tee the ball? Seems lower than half a ball above the driver face...

Do you produce a fade when hitting up on the driver as the ball is moved forward, a charateristic of hitting?

Yes, basically how I reason it is that the face is going from closed to open at impact....

Thus if I hit it on the upstroke it will be a little more open than usual.

Thus if I shut it a hair more at address it should still be basically square.

Hitting today my normal shot shape was high and dead straight to high with a 5 yard cut.

Things are looking up!
 

Hi Grant. Say, if you were to describe how far up the ball is in your stance when Hitting "up" with reference to the left heel, how would you do so? :doh:


OOPS ! Doing three things at once. Sorry. No Need to respond!

Thanks.

ICT

I thought moving forward leads to more draw action as the face is, after low point, now closed to the target line? Unless you are holding off, the angled hinge simultaneously closes and lays back.

When I did the forward/up, I got high draws to fairly straight balls unless I felt like I was "wiping" the club across the ball with a hold off type feel.

With a swingers horizontal hinge the face opens going back and closes going forward which with a down an out motion should produce a push draw.

With a hitters angled hinge the face should remain more closed going back and lay back at impact which will produce more of a straight shot or fade depending on ball position.

Swinger open to closed, hitter closed to open is how I basically think about it.

So basically if you move the ball position back a touch and HIT down and out you should produce a draw. When you move it forward you should produce a higher cut.



That is where I am basically with a driver I might be a little further forward but not much. Somewhere around my big toe and index toe (lol?).

When I hit the driver poorly its because my right shoulder isn't getting down deep enough or I get quick.

So basically my pre-shot rehearsal with my driver is 5 really relaxed and slow practice swings. Slow back with a low and inside the plane feeling drive of the right shoulder followed by a pop of the right arm.

The slower I can make it and thus the longer I drive that right shoulder and later I fire the right arm the higher and deeper the drives get.

To go a little further with it, I used to go with a higher lofted driver 10.5 minimum and hit down on it quite a bit. This gave me low launching high spinning rockets down the fairway.

This cost me quite a bit of distance and it got me in trouble because when you spin the ball a lot and you miss it a little the spin will amplify your miss. That 3 yard cut turns into a 20 yard slice OB in a hurry.

Hitting up with less spin means more carry, more roll, and obviously more distance but it also means if I miss it a little and I don't get dead straight ball or slight cut then it isn't amplified 10x by the high spin.

A mishit with 2500 spin on your driver vs. 3300 spin on your driver is a world of difference.

Appreciated!
 

Very informative and thoughtful explanation!!! :thumleft:


ICT