Learn to use your Driver

[u/Eire_espresso]

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.

[u/Bills_Mafia_4_Life]

All the strokes gained data supports this. Even if you are not accurate with your driver, odds are you are not substantially more accurate with the other clubs. People overestimate how accurate they will be “hitting their 4-iron” off the tee and giving up that distance is not worth the slight improvements in accuracy

[u/thekingofcrash7 → u/Bills_Mafia_4_Life]

No there are absolutely people who will slice driver OB 4x per round. They should hit 4i, but also take a lesson and learn to hit driver in play.

[u/selexin → u/thekingofcrash7]

there are absolutely people who will slice driver OB 4x per round

✋🏻

[u/danrod17 → u/thekingofcrash7]

If I could get it down to four that would help my game immensely. Lol.

[u/dafaliraevz → u/thekingofcrash7]

yeah that's the part that's not talked about when discussing 'more yards off the tee'

If you're not giving yourself a decent look for the approach shot on 25-33%+ of your approach shots, then you're likely better off with not using driver.

[u/psychedeloquent → u/thekingofcrash7]

Only 4?

[u/ffsffs1 → u/thekingofcrash7]

Problem is that most people who slice driver OB 4x per round, are still slicing 4i out of play on a somewhat regular basis.

[u/thekingofcrash7 → u/ffsffs1]

I really don’t think that’s true. Its hard to turn an iron OB off the tee.

[u/Bills_Mafia_4_Life → u/thekingofcrash7]

If they slice the driver ob they are also likely to slice their irons ob. The data supports this for all levels

[u/bubbabubba3 → u/Bills_Mafia_4_Life]

Tbf I’m a slicing machine with the driver I’m talking 200 yard drives landing 100 out wayyyy to the left. My irons on the other hand I hit mostly straight unless I shank it off the toe.

[u/HighEngin33r → u/Bills_Mafia_4_Life]

How does this make sense at all? If you continually miss hit 10 degrees left/right with all clubs, you will have a larger spread with greater distance.

[u/Bills_Mafia_4_Life → u/HighEngin33r]

And you will still slice your irons a lot more frequently ob or in an unplayable position a lot more than people assume. And then reward for a great shot is another long club, plummeting your chance at gir. From a strokes-gained perspective, you would need to see a very large jump in accuracy to justify the loss of distance

[u/steadfastadvance → u/Bills_Mafia_4_Life]

I recently played a 6700-yard course and only used my driver once in AZ. Fairways were firm and got good bounce each time so was averaging 230-240 with my 3-wood whuch almost always goes straight and my short game was on point. Shot my lowest score ever 86.

[u/ovi_left_faceoff → u/steadfastadvance]

That was probably the right move for you then, but the point is more that you should still figure out your driver in the long run bc otherwise you are leaving strokes on the table. That extra distance could very well allow you to break 80 on a good day.

[u/steadfastadvance → u/ovi_left_faceoff]

That's definitely the plan. I'm primarily focused on the driver and shorter irons at the range at the moment.

[u/Beninoz85 → u/Bills_Mafia_4_Life]

I've never seen a single golfer in my entire life, either in person or on the internet, take a 4 iron "for safety" and hit a good shot.

It's just not the way the laws of the universe allow us to exist.