Driver Woes
 

I am having a lot of trouble with my driver -- even bought a second on ebay to punish the first one. I'm just not able to consistently use a hitting pattern and get results.

What's the secret to using "hitting" with a driver?

Have any of you employed a swinging pattern with driver as an alternative?

Any help greatly appreciated!

I was thinking of asking you if you slice, hook, experience loss of distance or what the problem may be - but I'm not going to. I'm going to shut up. Somebody else has to come in and help.

Ha, ha, ha.

My misses are wicked pull hooks, thin line drives and big blocks. I'd take the blocks if I could talk myself into just aiming that far left.

Sometimes, it feels like I'm hitting a topspin forehand in tennis -- the ball flight is decent that then nosedives down and left.

Brian, my thoughts fwiw (as you know i'm a newbie).... i've been making some intermitent progress with TGM & some of the irons have been quite nice but the driver like you pretty patchy.

i took the driver on the dog walk this morning & hit some decent ones when i made sure that i slid/shifted towards the target with my hips prior to un-winding the top half, that way i think i'm getting to impact with my guns still loaded rather than running out of right arm & lag pressure prior to impact (i think we just get away with it more with the irons & imagine we are making a better motion than we maybe are). I am swinging rather than hitting but the principle may still apply.

Hula-Hula
Turn-Slide-Turn

Even though you are hitting, you need to engage the pivot first to support the power package. Spend some time with the MacDonald drills and call us in the morning...

Kevin

Perhaps ....
 

Perhaps the address position with the ball further forward in your stance alters your stroke pattern without you being aware of it.

Perhaps you try to hit "up" on the ball instead of doing the right thing.

Perhaps this creates alignment error in the takeaway. It is very easy to get an OTT-ish takeaway with the driver if you don't insist on doing the right thing. The right thing is three dimensional, btw.

Perhaps all of the above ruins the down part in your three dimensional downstroke down, out and forward.

Perhaps your problem will go away if you just hit a few drives with the club face addressing an imaginary ball that is a few inches further back in your stance.

But then again, perhaps your isue is a different one from this usual suspect :laughing9

Ball position could be an issue. I'll try to move around a bit. When I play it a little back of my normal, that's often when I hit the big block. Like I said, a ball flight and distance I could live with if I could hit it predictably.

I did hit one last night where I placed the ball forward of low point, swung down to low point and let the club orbit bring me "up" into the ball as someone on here had described. Nice, high draw with great distance -- could live with that one, too.

There is still a "flip" in the driver. I'm really concentrating on PP#1 versus #3. "Down" may well be missing. Some good drives earlier happened with direct hand path and lots of down and out.

I do seem to "find" it on the driving range, but can't get it to the tee. I know there is a timing and rhythm issue going on on the tee (i.e. trying to kill it).

Kev,

I do feel like my hip action is the weakest part of my swing now. It feels like I either way over slide and hit it really thin with my irons or there is no slide and it's fat city.

Is there more than one MacDonald drill? I know the dowel across the shoulders with right hand drawing the right shoulder back. Is there another one?

I will commence drills now and see where that leads.

Not my business, but there are several and you can get them by going to the "search" doohinky here. These drills are the beginning of golf Nirvana. Without a good foundation, the house will fall down.

Normally I'm much swifter...thanks, I've located a thread on pivot drills... :)