By Paul Myers
Swinging a driver is not always the same as swinging the other clubs in your bag. For one thing, your driver shots come off of a tee placed that keeps the ball off the ground – meaning the mechanics of the swing sometimes have to be different in order to contact the ball at that location….especially since you are usually trying to hit your driver the maximum possible distance. Hitting a driver can be one of the most-fun parts of the day on the golf course, and it helps when you know what you are doing.
Below are three golf swing driver tips designed to help you get on track with this important club. While it might not be as important as the putter to your overall success on the course, longer hitters have lower handicaps on average, so hitting a driver consistently well is a valuable skill indeed.
Golf Swing Driver Tip #1 – Flatten It Out
Because the driver is a longer club, you should be making a flatter swing around your body, as opposed to a swing that takes a more vertical up and down shape (like on an iron shot). The driver swing is a rotational one, where your shoulders stay a little more level and the club just winds up around your back before it is unleashed into the ball. Good posture can help to set yourself up for a rounded swing – take an athletic stance and keep your back fairly straight at setup to avoid getting overly hunched over.
Golf Swing Driver Tip #2 – Balanced Backswing
The backswing for a driver is one where it helps to be perfectly on balance if you are going to maximize your power potential. You normally want to be able to unleash your full swing speed down into the ball – but you probably can’t do that as well if you are falling off balance in the backswing. Focus on keeping your weight from going outside your rear foot, you want to make sure to correct that error if it happens. Good balance goes along with the tip from above.
For some golfers, staying centered makes it easier to keep your swing moving around your body, and can make it easier to strike the ball aggressively through impact but still in balance.
Golf Swing Driver Tip #3 – Ascending Blow
Perhaps the biggest difference between hitting a driver and hitting iron shots is that if you’re going for max distance you want to hit your driver with an ascending blow, while you should hit down into your irons. Sweeping the ball up off the tee is a good way to get a flat ball flight that soars through the air and maximizes distance. Drives where you hit down the ball and have a negative angle of attack simply don’t go as far. The good news is this – if you are able to handle the first two tips, staying balanced and making a round swing with the ball teed high and forward in your stance, the ascending blow should take care of itself. So, if you are having trouble hitting up into your driver shots, look to one of the previous two tips as the likely cause of the problem.
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