How to Control Your Driver Consistently
It’s tempting to pull the driver out of the bag on every hole and swing hard with it. We imagine in our heads smashing a drive way down the fairway but in reality it never seems to go the way we imagined.
Some of us have even become so fed up with poor driver shots that we’ve put it away and resorted to using the long irons and woods on tee shots.
Don’t give up so easily my friend.
The driver is a much needed club to succeed in golf, especially for those who lack distance and struggle to naturally hit the ball far.
It gives you a much shorter second shot, leaving you a higher lofted club with more control. This allows you to hit more greens.
The key thing to remember is relaxation – don’t be tense or angry when swinging the driver. The more relaxed your muscles are, the more control you will maintain and therefore, the longer and straighter your golf shots will be.
Every time you step up to the tee box, remind yourself that you don’t have to be tense and don’t need to swing hard. Relax.
Here is a simple golf swing sequence to remember when hitting your driver on the golf course.
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The Golf Driver Set Up:
The set up is important for getting off to a great start with your golf swing and helps build consistency into your swing by taking the same set up approach every time.
First, shift some of your body weight to your back leg. This may get a little bit of lean going during the address.
As you start to take the club away from the golf ball and start the back swing, there should be very little movement in weight shift.
Your upper body should begin twisting from the core and shoulders turning back to create some torque between the lower body and upper body.
Once you get the club back to a set position, keep your lower body relaxed as much as possible. Don’t shift all your weight to the back foot at this point either or else you risk moving too much forward on the down swing.
Also think about tempo! We want a consistent tempo during the back swing and the through swing. Golfers get in trouble when they try to over power on the down swing and lose focus of smooth tempo.
As you’re swinging on the down swing, your upper body will begin to unwind and arms / hands swing the club towards the ball. Your hips will also open up from a turned back position to a turned forward position.
If your upper body gets too far ahead of your hips and lower body, you can end up pulling the golf shot. If the hips and lower body don’t stay in good tempo with the upper body, you could end up pushing the golf shot.
As your swing heads into the finish (follow through), your front foot should stay stuck to the ground while your back leg will be turned and up on your toe.
Continue the swing over with a relaxed tempo so that the club ends up over your shoulder.
For best results, practice on the driving range hitting golf balls with a slower, more controlled tempo for a few days to get the upper and lower body in rhythm.
Hitting the golf ball straight down the middle 250 yards is better than trying to hit 300 yards and sacrificing lots of control, risking water or out of bounds penalties.
Tempo will be key to swinging the driver with control and consistency. Stay relaxed, swing smooth, and the ball should go straight.
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