Hitting a towering, straight drive that splits the fairway is one of the best feelings in golf, but taming the 'big stick' can often feel impossible. Trading confidence for frustration on the tee box is a story most golfers know well. This guide breaks down the essential steps to controlling your driver, from the setup to the follow-through, providing practical advice to help you find more fairways and unlock effortless distance.
You can't hit a good drive with an iron setup. The driver is the only club in the bag you're trying to hit on the upswing, and your setup must promote that action. Getting this part right sets the stage for everything else. Forget about power for a moment, let's build a foundation for solid contact.
Unlike an iron shot from the middle of your stance, your driver setup needs a different ball position.
Your stance provides stability, while your spine tilt puts you in a powerful position to launch the ball high and long.
Your hands are your only connection to the club, and how you hold it has an enormous influence on where the clubface is pointing at impact. An improper grip forces you to make strange compensations in your swing. We want a neutral grip that allows your hands and arms to work naturally.
Start by placing your top hand (left hand for righties) on the grip. You should be holding the club primarily in your fingers, not your palm.
A good driver swing is built on rotation and width. Many amateurs mistakenly try to generate power by swinging their arms hard and fast, but real power comes from turning your body and creating a wide, sweeping arc.
In the initial part of your takeway, think "low and slow." Feel your chest, shoulders, and hips all start to turn away from the ball together as one unit. The clubhead should stay low to the ground for the first couple of feet. This promotes a wide takeaway, preventing you from immediately picking the club up with just your hands.
What you want to avoid is a "sway" - where your hips slide horizontally away from the target. Think about turning your body inside a barrel or a cylinder. As you rotate your shoulders fully (aim for a 90-degree turn), your back should be facing the target. This turn loads up your core muscles like a spring, storing the energy you'll unleash on the downswing. Your head should remain relatively stable, focused on the ball.
So you’ve made a full turn and you're loaded at the top. This is the moment of truth. An improper transition is the source of the dreaded slice for millions of golfers. The key is to initiate the downswing with your lower body, not your arms and shoulders.
The very first move from the top should be a small shift of your hips toward the target. It's not a violent lunge, it's a subtle "bump" that starts the unwinding process. This move accomplishes two critical things:
Once you make that initial hip bump, let everything else unravel. Your hips continue to turn, followed by your torso and shoulders, and finally, your arms and the driver aplit through the hitting area. This sequence generates incredible clubhead speed without you having to feel like you're "muscling" the ball. Remember, your body is the engine, and your arms are just along for the ride.
As you come into impact, maintain your spine tilt. The feeling should be that you're staying "behind the ball" and hitting it with a sweeping motion, catching it right on the upswing. This is the formula for launching high, majestic drives.
The swing doesn't stop at the ball. A powerful, committed follow-through is a sign of a good golf swing. Rushing the finish or cutting it short often means you failed to release the club properly.
After impact, feel your arms extend fully out towards the target. Let the momentum of your unwinding body pull your arms and the club around to a complete finish. Your body should be fully rotated so your chest and belt buckle are facing the target. Almost all of your weight should be on your front foot, with your back foot relaxed and resting on its toe.
Hold this finish! Pose for the cameras. If you can hold your finish position in perfect balance until the ball lands, it's a strong indicator that you stayed in sequence and used your body correctly throughout the swing.
It's one thing to know the theory, but another to fix bad habits. Here are a couple of common struggles and what you can do about them.
Cause: The most common cause is an "over-the-top" swing path, where you start the downswing with your shoulders, throwing the club on an outside-to-in path across the ball with an open clubface.
Quick Fix: Exaggerate the feeling of starting your downswing with your lower body. Feel like the club drops behind you before it moves toward the ball. This will help you shallow the club and approach it from the inside, promoting a draw (or at least making it straighter).
Cause: This usually happens when your body lifts up through the shot, pulling your arms and the club with it. This is often an unconscious attempt to "help" the ball into the air.
Quick Fix: Focus on maintaining your spine tilt throughout the entire swing. When you practice, keep your chest pointing down at the ball for a split second longer after impact. Remind yourself to trust the loft of the driver and your setup to get the ball airborne - you don’t have to lift it.
Controlling your driver comes down to mastering a few core pillars: building a solid setup designed for an upward strike, making a full and connected body turn, and sequencing your downswing correctly from the ground up. By working on these fundamentals, you can build a more powerful, repeatable tee shot you can rely on.
Of course, a great swing often needs a great on-course strategy. That's why we built Caddie AI. For those tricky tee shots where you are unsure of the right play or club, you'll get smart, simple strategic advice in seconds. You can even take a photo of your ball in a difficult lie to get an instant recommendation for your next shot, taking the guesswork out of your game so you can swing with confidence.
Thinking about hosting a golf tournament fundraiser is the first swing, executing it successfully is what gets the ball in the hole. This guide will walk you through the entire process, step-by-step, from laying the initial groundwork months in advance to watching your happy golfers tee off. We’ll cover everything from securing sponsors and setting your budget to planning the on-course fun that makes an event unforgettable.
A golf handicap does more than just give you bragging rights (or a reason to demand strokes from your friends) - it’s the game’s great equalizer and the single best way to track your improvement. This guide breaks down what a handicap is, how the supportive math behind a handicap index a is, and exactly how you can get one for yourself. We’ll look at everything from Course Rating to Adjusted Gross Score, helping you feel confident both on the course and in the clubhouse.
The compression of a Pinnacle Rush golf ball is one of its most defining features, engineered specifically to help a huge swath of golfers get more distance and enjoyment from their game. We'll break down exactly what its low compression means, who it's for, and how you can use that knowledge to shoot lower scores.
Figuring out which spikes go into your new (or old) pair of Puma golf shoes can feel like a puzzle, but it’s much simpler than you think. The key isn't the brand of the shoe, but the type of receptacle system they use. This guide will walk you through exactly how to identify your Puma's spike system, choose the perfect replacements for your game, and change them out like a pro.
The Golf Genius app is one of the best tools for managing and participating in competitive golf events, but figuring it out for the first time can feel like reading a new set of greens. This guide cuts through the confusion and shows you exactly how to use the app as a player. We’ll cover everything from logging into your tournament and entering scores to checking the live leaderboard so you can enjoy the competition without any tech headaches.
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