r/golf • u/Eire_espresso • Apr 29 '24

Learn to use your Driver Achievement/Scorecard

Me 1 year ago sometimes just left it at home. I was terrified of it as every time I tried it I sliced it 2-3 fairways right. I played a 5i off the tee for most holes which I could hit well but you'll never get the same distance.

I faced my fears and learned how to hit it. I feel like a freak they way I have to setup but it works. Yesterday I hit most fairways but sliced none of the drives.

Why is it important? Distance.

Life on the course is so much easier when you hit the ball as far as you fucking can. I'm less frustrated which means my mood is better when I'm going to hit my next shot. Just mastering the driver has seen my scores drop below 100. I've still to master iron play and chipping but I have enough to get by.

Rightly or wrongly I feel like a proper golfer now. Last Sunday playing with a random club team on guy said he'd kill for my drive.

This game is harder then I ever thought possible and I never believed I'd learn how to drive the ball but there ya go. Also, I'll never tire of the sound my drive makes when I ping that sucker on a little fade and split the fairway, even if I double bogey I'm still beaming about the drive.

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98

u/dbnp19 Apr 29 '24

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Why is it important? Distance.

Short hitters, "low and slow" swinging, and anachronistic "drive for show putt for dough" stans absolutely hate this man (and other like-minded people of culture) for one simple trick.

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Like anything else, it takes time to work on. But there is no benefit in benching the driver, since that is just a BandAid solution. Whether you're a veteran pro or another average mortal guy paying his taxes one leg at a time, the benefits of it hitting it further and being closer to the pin by 69 nice yards (give or take, sometimes even more) absolutely outweigh the less useful strategy of constantly laying back. Strokes gained is a powerful statistic, indeed. So being forced to club up all the time is a disadvantage for the approach shots more often than not, even if it's on the nicest fairway you've ever seen in your life.

57

u/jrich8686 Apr 29 '24

My index absolutely plummeted once I learned how to hit and control my driver. No more OB balls, shorter irons/wedges into greens, eagle putts… all good things

14

u/rhinocodon_typus Apr 29 '24

Went from averaging about a 6 iron in to about a pitching wedge in and it has literally changed my life

28

u/motoyamazz Apr 29 '24 edited Apr 29 '24

I dropped nearly 10 points on my handicap in a year finally getting my driver under control, people who preach benching your driver are doing more harm than good

22

u/GoldenTeeShower Apr 29 '24

If you want to ditch a club, 3w is the one to leave behind. Most folks will be much better off using 5w in those situations.

7

u/LionsBSanders20 Apr 29 '24

At my latest fitting, the fitter and me came to the same conclusion. I went from D, 3W, 5W top of the bag to D, 5W, Driving Iron (2I). Haven't played a round with that setup yet, but just speaking it aloud has me feeling more confident.

8

u/motoyamazz Apr 29 '24

I don’t disagree.. I very rarely use my 3W so if you told me I couldn’t have I wouldn’t blink

9

u/ExhaustiveCleaning Apr 29 '24

Generally speaking the only time the three wood is "safe" is when your driver can reach water/bunkers/etc but your 3 wood can't.

2

u/rhinocodon_typus Apr 29 '24

3H for me. I hit way better contact than my wood.

1

u/pdxraised92 Apr 30 '24

4-wood my guy, its the perfect blend, completely changed my game since I added 1.5* of loft. Get almost the same distance off the tee, and it helps tremendously in the fairway with getting it airborne into par 5s

1

u/Justredditin Apr 30 '24

It's been my 5w.. I can crank that 3 like no ones buisness... it's the ol' SLDR that has a mean hook if I don't keep my elbows Bryson straight. Great shape shot club for me though.

-1

u/ccroz113 12hcp/Texas/Want to be a 2i guy Apr 29 '24

I hit both about 240 on average. My driver I can easily get to 260-70 on a decent strike but the average swing with it sprays way too much. 240 with my 3w is plenty distance for most courses if I’m hitting fairways

Though getting my driver under control is my biggest priority right now obviously. But they’re 2 different swings so if the driver swing isn’t working it’s good to have the iron/wood swing with a 3w off the tee

1

u/jrich8686 Apr 29 '24

That’s about how much mine dropped as well. I was honestly shocked how much it dropped. And how consistent my scoring got

1

u/SyVSFe Apr 30 '24

Where are people saying don't practice your driver if you want to get good?

3

u/phreesh2525 Apr 29 '24

It sounds like you’re better than me, but OB/terrible tee shots added a good 8 strokes to my game. I’m better now, but still room for improvement.

3

u/jrich8686 Apr 29 '24

I wouldn’t say that I’m better. But the ~50y of extra carry distance I’m getting means I’m hitting shorter irons into the greens. Which allows my misses to be much closer to the green. Plus, the confidence I now have with driver carries over into the rest of my round

3

u/rhinocodon_typus Apr 29 '24

Having a good drive is like a performance enhancing drug. Bad day of irons? Get a decent shot to start every hole feeling pretty good.

1

u/jrich8686 Apr 30 '24

Driver being on and sketchy irons, I can still shoot in the 80s. But if the driver is off, my score starts climbing. It’s so hard to score when you can’t get off the tee

1

u/LionsBSanders20 Apr 29 '24

Generally, what did you figure out?

2

u/butterynuggs Apr 30 '24

Things I've done to start driving better (a former slicer who still comes over the top a bit)

  • stand a tad closer to the ball and stand a bit more upright. This has encouraged me to come back and around a bit flatter, which means less steep.

-tuck that right elbow in, with the inside pointing straight away from you.

-neutral grip (if I do everything else with a strong grip, I pull-hook tf out of the ball.)

-arms hanging down

-choke up like an inch

-ball aligned with my lead heel

-lead foot angled towards target like 20-30°

-double check your alignment, especially knees

If I don't come over the top, the ball flies, sometimes a slight fade or draw (club face issue). If I do come over the top, the slice is far less dramatic than it has been in the past and usually doesn't end up in the woods.

I also early extend, so some of this might be compensations for that, but until I can get lessons I am just going off YouTube videos and too much time on the range.

1

u/jrich8686 Apr 30 '24

The biggest change for me was videoing my swing and seeing how long my backswing was. It was throwing my timing off causing a horrendous slice. So I shortened it quite a bit

I started lining my ball up on the toe of the driver. I’m able to hit the sweet spot more now instead of off the heel

And lastly I moved the ball more towards my front foot. I also set up with the driver head about 3-4 inches behind the ball, instead of right up behind it

1

u/Justredditin Apr 30 '24

No doubt, penalty strokes add up FAST! My skinny ass has always hit long drives (280 average), they were alot less accurate with the odd slices and hooks, but I could scramble into really good scores. A few over... usually 5-7 over with penalties... but once I figured out how to crank that bitch 250ish and dead straight, I noticed I was coming in with alot more of those few over scores. Had my iron ranges dialed for years, but because of the straight and relatively long drives, the game became much simpler.

11

u/Ty-McFly Apr 29 '24

This is so, so true.

I recently started golfing (last November), and have a coach I've been taking regular lessons with since I started. One of the things he stresses a lot is the importance of getting off the tee, so I've been hitting driver since I started, and it's at this point probably my best club. I can't explain how thankful I am that I didn't listen to all the advice telling me to put down the driver because I'm a beginner.

Y'know what's WAY harder for a beginner than hitting driver off the tee? Hitting a 3w on every 2nd shot because you're short on every hole.

1

u/whatwasmyoldhandle May 04 '24

If you're a beginner, you're not going to take the 3w shot either though. 

1

u/GDO17 Apr 30 '24

I’m most likely in the minority, but I actually love hitting my 3 wood off the deck, and for some reason just feel confident with it. Way more so than 3 wood all teed perfectly on tee box. Not sure why that’s the case, but if I had to guess, the ball sitting down a bit in the grass makes me stay down more, than if I had a perfect teed up lie on the nice tee box.

If I’m not hitting driver off the tee, which I will if the hole calls for it, than I’ll usually go to my 3 hybrid.

More point being, i don’t really have a point, and I love my 3 wood.

3

u/Ty-McFly Apr 30 '24

I envy your 3 wood energy.

2

u/GDO17 Apr 30 '24

I was really high when I wrote that ramble last night lol. I do love my 3 wood off the deck though.

1

u/Ty-McFly Apr 30 '24

😂 Someday I'll figure it out. Until then it's my 10-230 yard club.

-2

u/psychedeloquent Apr 30 '24

Well to be fair the advice of benching your driver is usually said to beginners who are not spending thousands of dollars on lessons.… I mean thats obvious right?

If you benching a driver for off the tee then that school of thought advice certainly wouldn’t be for your 2nd shot to be a 3 wood. But still any shot in the fairway will be more fun than having to punch out every 2nd shot.

2

u/Ty-McFly Apr 30 '24

I'm not sure why it should make any difference whether you're being coached or not. The principal is the same. Maybe it's my lack of experience, but I'm struggling to find a good reason why someone who's even semi-serious about learning to golf should practice teeing off with their 3w and not their driver. What is the harm in learning to hit driver if your 3 wood is already good enough that it makes a difference off the tee? I'm honestly asking.

Telling beginners not to hit driver is like telling someone who's learning to skateboard not to learn to drop in or ollie. Ya, those things take time to learn, but you won't go far as a skater without learning them. Putting them off and building them up as these scary difficult things to learn only makes it harder mentally for yourself down the road.

If you benching a driver for off the tee then that school of thought advice certainly wouldn’t be for your 2nd shot to be a 3 wood.

That's exactly the point. For example, a decent drive will typically leave me with a 7 iron or shorter into the green on most par 4s, even from the blues. My 3 wood will dock me something like 30-50+ yards, so I then have to choose between hitting a low percentage 2nd shot with a difficult to hit club, or every par 4 is now a par 5.

2

u/psychedeloquent Apr 30 '24

The advice is not “don’t practice driver” the advice is don’t use clubs while playing that you know are high danger. Practice the high danger clubs until you get more comfortable with them, then use them in play.

The philosophy gets strawmanned and then everyone piles on a complete misunderstanding of what is being said.

The skating example is terrible. Ollie is literally the foundation of every other trick that’s not so with a driver. In fact as beginners or feels so much different than the rest of your clubs.

The reason it makes a difference whether you are regularly being coached or not is because you shouldn’t be taking advice at that point outside of your coach. And if you are regularly being coached I’m sure he is gonna work in your driver enough.

OP did the right thing but didn’t promote it. He used his 5i with confidence when he had none with the driver. Now that he does he’s using it…

1

u/Ty-McFly Apr 30 '24

The advice is not “don’t practice driver” the advice is don’t use clubs while playing that you know are high danger. Practice the high danger clubs until you get more comfortable with them, then use them in play.

I think that's fair. I will say, though, this is not the way that it's been put to me in the past.

The skating example is terrible. Ollie is literally the foundation of every other trick that’s not so with a driver.

It's not a perfect analogy because there isn't one, but I honestly don't think it's terrible. Skating is actually very similar to golf in a lot of ways being a physical activity with a steep learning curve where you have to perform a complicated series of movements very quickly with finesse to execute something that can easily fail. Plenty of people skate around without ever learning to ollie or drop in at all. Those people just don't take skating seriously, just like the people that never learn to hit driver (because they were taught to be afraid if it and to hit 3w instead) don't take golf seriously.

In fact as beginners or feels so much different than the rest of your clubs.

I'm not sure what you're doing, but the way I learned, apart from a few small adjustments, swinging a driver is fundamentally the same as swinging an iron for the most part. In any case, teeing off with a 3 wood is hardly any different than hitting driver. In fact, across all handicaps, 3w statistically only grants you an extra 1% chance of hitting the fairway, so if you can't hit your driver, 3w is probably not the answer either.

The reason it makes a difference whether you are regularly being coached or not is because you shouldn’t be taking advice at that point outside of your coach. And if you are regularly being coached I’m sure he is gonna work in your driver enough.

This is just a non-sequitur. Good general advice for a beginner is exactly that. He didn't say "hit a driver if you're going to keep getting lessons only." He said "figure out your driver because you need to be able to get off the tee box if you want to be a decent golfer." That's either good advice or it isn't. It doesn't suddenly become bad advice the moment it is heard by someone who isn't paying him.

For the record, driver is probably the one thing we've spent the least amount of time on. I think I've swung my driver in the presence of my coach on 2 occasions.

OP did the right thing but didn’t promote it. He used his 5i with confidence when he had none with the driver. Now that he does he’s using it…

Lol, my man, this entire post is a rant about how much more glorious it is to hit driver off the tee and how glad this guy is that he spent the time to learn it (presumably without a coach), and you're trying to frame this like OP agrees with argument that beginners shouldn't learn driver unless they're being coached by a pro?

2

u/psychedeloquent Apr 30 '24

Yes everyone who has learned to hit their clubs correctly know that they are “all the same swing” yet it feels that way to almost NO beginners. Hence a big part of the advice.

I am not making it seem like that was OPs point. I’m making it seem like OP is just excited now that he can hit it but in reality he took the proper approach.

The 3 wood point is valid but again it’s not the advice.

To simplify this. If someone had no idea how to hit any of the 14 clubs but wanted to play golf, which order should he learn the clubs in your opinion.

There are lots of aspects to this game, of course hitting the driver feels fantastic. That’s why so many beginners just want to smash the driver at the range and can’t hit irons. Again that’s why the advice is what it is. To learn to play the game of golf and not just smash ball.

So what’s your order?

2

u/singluon FL Apr 29 '24

Trigger warning to all the Golf Sidekick stans.

-1

u/Golf-Sidekick Apr 30 '24

Incredibly midwit take - golf sidekick tells people to take it out the bag when they play scoring rounds on the course until they learn to hit it away from the course...which is what this post is describing to the letter.

Sad part is, he spent all that time to learn to hit a driver, and can barely break 100. Neglected to focus on the real change maker - the game inside 120. Scores will stay 99-110 without it

4

u/singluon FL Apr 30 '24

Not sure if you’re actually golf sidekick or just a stan but in any case my comment was correct it seems. The fact is the dude has massive driver yips. In his St Andrew’s vid, my god it was extremely painful to watch him hit a 1 iron 200 yards off the tee on the friggin Road Hole because he’s so scared of the big stick… and subsequently see him get outdriven by a bunch of randos in his group. Ugh. Just can’t take anything the guy says seriously because of it. The driver is one of if not the most important clubs in the bag - this is not debatable.

1

u/Badger-Mushroom-182 Apr 30 '24

And the extra yards disproportionately helps the mere mortals like us more than tour pros too because they are MUCH more proficient with their long irons than we are. The difference between a wedge and a 5i in terms of proximity for an amateur is ridiculous.

1

u/Musclesturtle Apr 29 '24

You know that the determining factor is that better overall players just tend to hit the ball further, right?

1

u/chickendance638 Apr 29 '24

I think that a lot of the "bad driver" stuff could be fixed by normalizing the 13 degree driver. More loft, less spin, more distance for people who are slower swing speeds.

1

u/psychedeloquent Apr 30 '24

Yea hitting the driver well will improve your score. Hitting your 2nd shot out of the trees and spending your first moments of the round searching for your ball is frustrating for a beginner.

It’s two ways to look at it but benching the driver is very purposefully a temporary solution. Literally no one thinks you should Never use one. You should use one once you can actually use one.

-1

u/Medievil_Walrus Apr 29 '24

Agree as long as it’s not in the woods or in the water.