The driver is the hardest club in the bag to hit a draw with, yet the benefits of playing your drives with a draw on the golf course are enormous. A draw off the tee can add distance as well as navigating away from hazards.
In this video, PGA Professional Jack Backhouse details how to hit a draw with your driver.
- RELATED: Best Golf Drivers 2025
What is a Draw Shot?
A draw, for a right-handed player, when a golf ball starts out to the right of the target line. It then curves back left towards the target. For a left-handed player, it would start out to the left and curve to the right back to the target.
A lot of players might find they move the ball in the correct direction, right to left. But can’t control how much it moves, too much right to left is hook. There is a few way it can be tamed, as discussed in our how to stop hooking driver article.
Why is Hitting a Draw Difficult With Driver?
There is a reason why Tiger Woods, the greatest ball striker and shot maker of our generation, exclusively hits fades with his driver.
As technology has advanced and drivers have become larger and spin less. This means draw shots have become more difficult to play, as draws do not spin as much as fades.
Also, driver having less loft means that the clubface squaring up later in the swing. So, it can be harder to get the club face closed to the swing path and apply proper draw spin to the golf ball.
When we play our ball position forward in our stance in order to optimise our drivers for distance. This tends to move our club path more to the left of the target. This is then the opposite of what we need to draw the golf ball.
Fortunately for us, despite these things, there are ways we can help encourage a draw shot.
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How to Hit a Draw With Driver
Set Up Adjustments
Before changing anything in the swing there is a few tings to do at address:
- Aligning feet, hips, shoulders and forearms right whilst keeping the clubface square to target
- Pushing the hands further forward at address
- Moving the ball back in the stance
Doing these things will move the swing path further out to the right of the target, whilst keeping the clubface closed to the path.
Close The Face
We all know that we need the club face closed to the swing path to hit a draw. There are multiple ways you can close the club face:
- Bow the wrist in the backswing. For right-handed golfers, bowing the left wrist shuts the face.
- Release the club earlier. This is more of an in-swing idea and means you are going to turn the club face down earlier in the downswing.
Stronger Grip
Having a stronger grip just means the club will be more shut through the whole swing. This will then promote more of a closed club face.
Closed Shoulders
In order to hit a draw shot, the swing path needs to be in to out and to the right of the target for a right-handed player. For a left-handed player, it is out to the left of the target. What can help encourage this when drawing the ball is swinging down without turning your shoulders through the shot.
Keeping the shoulders closed for longer in the downswing will help keep the swing path in to out. It will also force you to close the clubface at impact, producing that wonderful drawing ball flight. Most drawers of the golf ball usually have square to shut shoulders at impact, despite slightly open hips.
Manage Your Spine Angle
Something that rarely is spoken about on this topic is the golfer’s spine angle.
A chronic slicer of the ball does a terrible job of maintaining a good spine angle. Meaning when they strike the ball, the spine is often vertical or even tilted towards the target.
In a perfect world, the spine angle should be away from the target at impact. This would put the golfer in a position where the trail shoulder is lower than the lead shoulder.
This position, combined with shoulders that are square to closed, will pretty much guarantee an inside swing path necessary to hit a draw shot.
Conclusion
To conclusion, while hitting a draw with your driver might be technically difficult at first, it’s a very beneficial shot for golfers to learn. By following the tips shared by PGA Professional Jack Backhouse, you can begin to gain more control, distance, and accuracy off the tee.
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