Fault fixes: Hitting it further

Hitting it further

A disturbing new trend has entered my game in the last few weeks – I’m losing stacks of distance off the tee.

I’ve no real idea where the ball is coming off the face of the driver. Some are out of the roof, some out of the heel. What I do know is that not enough tee shots are being met out of the middle of the clubface.

There was only one place to turn, so I packed myself off to The Shack to let the Pro take a look.

Inconsistent

The Pro had me hit a few drives and, using Trackman, saw straight away the inconsistency not only of strike but of spin as well.

He noticed quickly that my swing always goes across the ball, on an out-to-in path, which meant I got a little bit steep on the shot. Fine for an iron, not for a driver.

The Pro said we needed to flatten, or shallow, my swing out a touch.

The drill

The Pro wanted me to feel like the ball was teed up almost shoulder high and like I was swinging around – almost like a baseball swing.

I am left handed and play golf the conventional way. But my left hand is dominant and was working to block the swing. I couldn’t get a proper release and, consequently, the swing wasn’t shallow enough.

By repeating the baseball swing drill, and feeling as if I was extending my right arm into the air, I felt like my body was turning much more into the ball and that the right side was much more involved.

The results were dramatic. From an average of 215 yards, I was suddenly hitting drives 235 – a massive improvement.

Key points

1 – Baseball swing

2 – Release right hand