Being able to drive the golf ball well is a key ingredient to lowering your handicap and enjoying the game more. Playing from further down the middle of the fairway brings your expected score down and just makes the game easier. In this video, PGA pro Jack Backhouse explains how to hit the driver straight and long.
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It All Starts In The Set Up
When trying to improve your game, it is easier to make changes the earlier they occur in the golf swing. For example, making changes to your set-up is pretty straightforward, but trying to close the clubface an extra degree before impact when swinging at 100mph is very hard, so getting your set-up correct is a great way to start improving.
Here are a few things you can do at address to help you increase club head speed and hit your tee shots dead straight:
- Widen your stance to just wider than shoulder width
- Tee the ball up higher than you are comfortable
- Make sure the ball position is up around the lead heel, varying slightly forward or back depending on your desired shot shape.
- Tilt your spine angle away from the target so that the lead shoulder is higher than the trail shoulder
Making these changes can sometimes be enough to straighten up your ball flight, optimise your angle of attack, and hit this essential golf club better.
Backswing Ideas
Sometimes, getting into a perfect address position is not enough intervention to change your driver swing and hit more fairways. In this case, it’s a good idea to look at some of the best drivers that have ever lived to see which parts of the swing we should try to copy. If you want to know how to hit driver straight and long, do these things:
- All the best drivers of the ball have always had a very wide backswing. This helps make the swing longer, boosts swing speed and helps up the launch angle at contact
- They would also create good depth to the hands. This makes the downswing more shallow, and the club approach the ball from the inside, again adding speed and helping you hit a draw
- They would all have big shoulder turns created by a big hip turn
Last-Ditch Downswing Thoughts For Better Driving
It would be incredible if you had made all of those address changes and then implemented the 3 backswing characteristics, but you were still not driving the golf ball better than you were before. However, if this is still the case, there are some downswing ideas that might help you hit up on the ball and flush this essential club in the bag.
- Shift your hips laterally towards the target as you start down whilst keeping your head back behind the golf ball. This will get your body into perfect body tilts, helping you hit up on the ball and launch the ball higher with less backspin.
- Straighten your arms into impact. If you really want to get the most clubhead speed out of your body and into the ball, your arms must be straightening into the ball. This feeling helps you throw the clubhead, giving you a fraction more speed and clubface closure to help you hit that high draw.
Everything you need to know technically about hitting the driver well is in this video. Go back and watch the greats hit driver, and you will see the characteristics spoken about and explained, and if you implement the changes into your own game, you will improve, and you will lower your scores.
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If you want to watch some more of Jack’s swing tips instruction videos, you can get to his YouTube Technique Tips playlist by clicking here. Please check out our other instruction articles if you liked this how to hit driver straight and long article!
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