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Driver troubles (slice) and shaft length question

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jcmoonchild

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Very new golfer here. I've been struggling with my driver, mostly slicing it. My iron shots feel great but the driver is driving me nuts (pun intended).

One specific question: I feel so far away from the ball and whenever I see other people or pros in address, they always look closer to the ball than me. The angle of their driver shaft always looks steeper...is my driver too long?? I'm 5'9" with long arms and I have a 45" shaft.

Swing video attached - any suggestions?

P.S. I stopped lifting my front heel on the backswing, though that didn't do much of anything.
 
Your best bet is to see a local pro and have a lesson. It looks to me like you are a little as they say over the top. face to path is what causes the ball movement. watch a few you tube videos from say mark crossfiled/rick shiels even TXG. They have a few real good instructional vidoes on how to help fix a slice and what causes it. Way easier than trying to explain here. Watch the vidoes and get a lesson and you should be on your way to curing that nasty 5 letter s word. If you feel you are to far away you could always try being a bit closer at the range and see if it does help. There are lots of good golfers here that can give you advice , but without seeing you and having the ability to see your face to path and angle of attack the advice may be wrong and lead you down the wrong path. Your safest bet and the one that will most likely yield you the best result is to have a lesson with a pga pro.
 
Club length should be OK. I'm 5' 10" when I stand really straight and have long arms, use a 45" driver shaft. Arms length has me at -3 lie angle on my irons.
Agree with Lefty regarding at least one lesson from local club pro. Also some good videos on you tube to assist. I struggled with persistent slice for years but got it corrected this year. I bought a Swingtip swing sensor that works with free app on the phone to identify my swing path then using tips from a few videos to correct finally got driver working fairly consistent.
 
Thanks! I am gonna look into a lesson. I have a baseball background and I think that is throwing me off a little bit. I notice that it feels much more natural to have my knuckles facing the target (i.e. the pitcher, or in this case, forward towards the fairway) on contact than to have my knuckles facing the ground on contact. And with a proper golf grip, knuckles forward flies the club face almost 45 degrees open. Whoops.
 
Like others have said starting with a lesson can get you pointed in the right direction. I had major slicing issues with the driver, took some lessons, and was able to start slowly working towards a better ball flight.

I think a lot of it comes down to you having that “Aha”moment. You may have to try a bunch of different YouTube tips before something clicks. That’s where the lesson can save you time having that instant feedback from an instructor.

A couple training aids that were a big help for me were the tour striker speed ball and plane mate. They will ingrain the motion of staying connected and shallowing the club shaft at the top which helps prevent a slice.
 
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I'm about the same height as you. I cut about 1.5 inches off the end of my 45" driver. I drove the ball a little better this past year. I guess you could try choking down a couple inches and see if that helps any. Good luck!
 
jcmoonchild said:
Very new golfer here. I've been struggling with my driver, mostly slicing it. My iron shots feel great but the driver is driving me nuts (pun intended).

One specific question: I feel so far away from the ball and whenever I see other people or pros in address, they always look closer to the ball than me. The angle of their driver shaft always looks steeper...is my driver too long?? I'm 5'9" with long arms and I have a 45" shaft.

Swing video attached - any suggestions?

P.S. I stopped lifting my front heel on the backswing, though that didn't do much of anything.
Click to expand...
I'm 5'8" with really long arms and my driver is 44.5", but depending on your swing, you may have to go shorter...
 
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