|
Featured
Instruction Mastering
the Driver "You
Da Man!"………."Let the Big
Dog Eat!"………"Tee it High
and Let if Fly!" Commonly used #1 Wood
phrases and there are probably dozens of
sayings that apply to the most important
club in the bag THE DRIVER. Some people
will argue that the Putter is the most
important club in the bag and that you
"drive for show and putt for dough". My
thought is that after you hit that 3rd
ball out-of-bounds, really…how
important is that 5 foot putt for a 9? I
think that starting out a round of golf
with a great drive down the middle can set
up the beginning of a great round.
The
Driver Lets
take a closer look at the club itself.
First of all, it is the longest club in
the bag…. 43" to 45" average
length…..it also has the lowest loft
of the all the clubs, except the putter,
and has the highest chance for operator
error. Since the loft and length of the
club will cause the ball to go
farther…why do we feel that we have
to swing out of our shoes for this one
particular club? That is a good
question….we all know that the easier
we swing the farther the ball goes with
effortless power but the majority of
amateurs have a different swing when the
"Big Stick" is in our hands. Set-up A good
set-up procedure for proper ball placement
would be to always start with your feet
together, ball in the center, and turn the
left toe out and place the right foot on
the outside of our right shoulder.
(right-handers) This allows the ball to be
played off the inside of the front heal so
the ball is being struck on the upswing.
Depending on the face depth of your
driver, you may want to experiment with
the different tee heights to get the
correct trajectory. Practice We
have all heard that practice makes
perfect. Then someone said…perfect
practice makes perfect. I totally agree
with the latter but unless we are using
Video to see if our swing is the same you
should have a solid range technique to
perfect your accuracy with the Driver.
Here is an excellent drill for you to use,
to maximize your time on the range.
The
Temp & Distance Drill: Start out by
picking a target on the range that
represents a fairway of about 40 yds wide.
On the left of the range you can maybe
pick a tree and to simulate the right side
of the fairway, you can pick say…a
telephone pole. Always visualize a
fairway. Next you should divide your range
bucket into 3 separate piles of balls.
With the first pile, I want you to hit the
ball from 125-150 yards with a full swing
but obviously reduce the speed so the
balls only go a max of 150 yards. Make
sure they are in the fairway. With the
second pile of balls I would like you to
hit the ball only 175 to 200 yards. You
should still be swinging full but your
tempo will need to be increased so the
balls only go a max of 200 yards. The last
pile of balls should be geared towards
going over 250 yards but maintain about an
80% speed. Results There
will be no doubt about the efficiency of
your time being spent with the most
important club in the bag! This drill is
designed for you to feel the relationship
between your body and arms and how they
have to work together in order to produce
a straight drive. Remember, your goal is
to keep each ball in the fairway with the
different tempos. Instead of just a trial
& error session on the range, you will
now have a set goal (fairway) and a tempo
drill that allows you to feel how the arms
and body have to synchronize their
movements in order to hit it
straight. Trouble
Shooting These
are some rules of thumb to solve the ball
flight errors that may occur while doing
this drill. For Right-Handers: If the ball
goes right of the center of the fairway,
you may be turning your lower body too
quick and therefore the hands and arms are
late and causes ball to go right. Ball
going left may be due to the lower body
slowing down and the arms/hands speed up
passing the lower body and this usually
causes a hook or left shot. By
understanding this simple ball flight
rule, you can work on your tempo and make
the adjustments to create consistency and
perfect timing with that troublesome
club. Have a
great season and I sincerely hope that
this article helps you to discover the
true meaning of….. "Wow, some people
don't go that far on Vacation!"
For
further information, feel free to contact
Rick at Bogart Golf &endash; Downtown
(720) 274-0203 or via email your questions
to: rick@bogartgolf.com |
