The Driver - How to Properly Use the Most Important Club in Your Bag

Improve Your Golf Game: Driver

 

The Driver

If you happen to be a newbie at golf, like everyone is at one time, the driver is called the 1 wood or referred to as the big dog. It is such a fun club because you can swing away and hit the ball as far as you can.

You can be Happy Gilmore if you want to try. That is the alure of the driver and the names.

There are so many names for it, but it is the club that you are supposed to hit first most of the times and should go the furthest.

It has a long shaft with a round end that used to be made of wood, which is how it got its name. Now they are usually made with some sort of meta.

However, the driver is one of the most difficult clubs to hit. Because of the loft of the club, which goes down the lower the club number gets, the spin created by the face of the driver causes the ball to go left to right more than the other clubs with different lofts.

This is why the club is harder to hit than any of the other clubs. The loft of a club determines how much spin and in what direction that spin goes to.

The driver produces a lot of right and left spin on the ball so it is harder to hit the ball straight than using another club with a higher loft.

When To Hit Your Driver

So you gone out and bought a driver. The first thing you want to do is go to the range and start hitting it.

Drivers feel weird and uncomfortable at first. The only way to get past that is to hit golf balls as much as possible.

After you spend some time on the range, you are ready to go out on the course and hit away.

But do you hit your driver on every hole? Of course not. There are hole that are two short like par 3 holes that are less yards than your driver can go.

Also, there are times when you should not hit your driver. If you are on a hole that is really tight or there is water in around you, put your driver away and hit a club that you are certain will clear the hazard or not go into the woods.

This is probably the biggest mistake that newbies make.

Don't be so concerned about how far you can hit the ball, just be concerned about how straight you can hit it.

Tips To Properly Use Your Driver

Here are a few tips that can help you properly use your driver. It can be the best club in your bag or the worse. Usually a driver is not in the middle.

• Stance - Make sure your stance is wide and stable. Don't make the mistake of moving around too much. Think of keeping the bottom half of your body as still as possible when you swing. This means you will have to swing a little less hard. It is worth it. You will actually hit the ball further if you hit the ball straight then if you swing your hardest and it goes into the woods. And just remember to keep your feet planted when swinging. Don't let them come up. 

• Address - With the driver, you want the ball to be forward in your stance at the address as shown above. All address means is how to stand in relation to the golf ball before you are about to hit. As you can see, the ball is right off the back of the front foot. Both knees are bent and the left shoulder is higher than the right.

• Back Swing - No matter how to take the club back, slow down. It is best to have a slow back swing. This is so that your body has a chance to get itself into the proper place it needs to be. Don't take it back so far. The farther back you swing, the harder it is to get the club back to the point of address.

 

• Head Down - Don't think that some people can see the ball when they are hitting it and even though Tiger is having some difficulties now, he has an amazing swing. You can see here that he is keeping his head down. I always thought that some people could watch the ball being hit because of the saying watch the ball. But the truth it, if you keep your eyes on the ball and your head down, it forces your body to come back to the place it started at. If you look at his address and swing, he could take the club as far back as he wanted to and his body would still come back to where it started because of is head. The head controls the spine and the spine is what keeps the body in place.

• Follow Through - When you swing through the ball, most people say to hold your finishing pose like you were taking a photo at the masters. The truth is, it is mental again. You are focusing your body on getting itself into the right positions to hit the ball correctly. Following through and holding the pose is a good idea because it does promote control. Control over your swing means you are not swinging so hard that you are almost falling over every time you swing the club. So make sure you hold that pose at the end. If you can't, you may be swinging to hard. 

 

 

I hope these tips help you with your driver. I can tell you that some of my best rounds have been when I didn't even use the driver. Just make sure you are staying in control of your swing and it will be alright.

Let me know if you have any other suggestions. Post them in the comments area and we can discuss.

Thanks,

Cheers!

More Places To find Golf Information

If your like me, you are always looking for more golf information. Check out Which One Is Better: US Open Golf or US Open Tennis. 

I'll give you a hint, I don't go to the Tennis US Open.