There’s not much worse than the dread of checking the paintwork on the top of your club after a skied tee shot. It’s a very common shot among amateur golfers and can easily ruin your scorecard.
In this article PGA Professional Jack Backhouse explains what is a skied drive is, what causes it and most importantly how to prevent them.
What Does Skying a Driver Mean?
To sky a driver is it catch it out of the very top of the driver face, even on the top of the driver head itself. This action causes the ball to go very high (into the sky, hence the name) and with little distance.
This is a very common shot amongst golfers and can be very destructive to a player’s score.
What Causes You to Sky Your Driver?
It’s a question a lot of golfers want to know the answer to. A skyed tee shot can be caused by a few different factors.
Steep Angle of Attack
A possible reason for skying the ball is that a player’s angle of attack is too steep. A driver swing should create a positive angle of attack, meaning that there is an upwards motion through the ball.
A steep angle of attack is when a player is hitting down on the ball rather than up. This is good for irons but not so much for driver, especially as it is teed up.
You might hear that the some tour pros hit down on their drivers. Whilst the PGA tour average angle of attack with driver is negative 1.3, the average golfer needs to be hitting up on their drivers for maximum carry distance. This is due to a reduced amount of speed and compression.
Tee Peg Height
Whilst a player can hit a driver from any height tee peg, if the ball is teed up too high compared to the angle of attack, this can cause a skied tee shot. It means that the player will hit down and go under the ball, making more contact with the tee peg.
Advertisement
Ball Position
Is your ball too far forward in your stance, or too far back? Both of these ball positions can cause your hands and arms to compensate for this and can cause a strike out of the top of the driver’s face.
- RELATED: Best Golf Drivers 2025
So, how do you fix it?
Getting this destructive shot out of your game might be easier than you think. The first thing to ask yourself is, are you teeing the ball too high? Something as simple as a lower tee height might just get you hitting the centre of the driver face without any swing alterations.
A player’s angle of attack played a huge part in skying drivers. Hitting down into a driver is going to cause a skyed shot and so feeling a more upward motion through impact is going to help counteract this. As shown in the video, tee pegs behind the ball help create a visual aid for that upward motion.
Conclusion
Skying your driver is a frustrating issue amongst many golfers. Not only does a skyed drive damage your scorecard but it was damage your driver too. Hopefully, this article has given you some tips on how to eliminate the skyed tee shot from your game. In the YouTube video, PGA Professional Jack Backhouse goes into greater detail, demonstrating drills to help golfers hit better drives.
Remember that these might not be a quick fix and may require some extra practice time to master. Stay patient.
Advertisement