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The driver - to hover or not to hover?

I took this to the course yesterday. I usually hover, but grounded the head each time I pulled driver.

I found my results to be mixed. On one hole, I hit the best ball so far this season - long, straight penetrating flight into wind that resulted in a 297 yard shot. On another, I felt my club snag on takeaway and ended up slicing into the next fairway.

I do like the feeling of less tension beforehand, and it feels more in line with what I do for every other club... it also feels like I’m hitting more up on the ball, and that’s one of my main goals for this year based on the Vfit info I received.

The testing will continue.
 
I played 9 Friday and 18 today and I grounded as well as hovered. My hovered drives were the longest of the lot and it seems for me when I do my takeway and swing, I don't get near as many errant shots. Friday I had 2 drives at 230, 1 at 235, 1 at 241, and 1 at 260.

The 241 and 260 Friday were both hovering and they were the straightest of the shots I hit. I have not checked my yardages for today, but one drive I hit when hovering was one of the longest of the day.

I was struggling with a slight fade today as I was tired and it was so hot it was hard to focus. I mixed it up though with hovering and grounding. I can do both without any problem. After I hovered a few times it felt more natural and not as awkward. Not sure which way I will go with this, but I do plan to put more time into testing and experimenting with this.
 
I like hovering. It makes the takeaway gentle, which feeds relaxation into the entire swing--takes away the urge to clobber the ball.
 
I have always hovered my clubs when the ball is on a tee, just always felt more natural to me.
 
After experimenting more with the hover so far what I have found is I do have an increase in my average yardage at least 10-15 yards so far with the hover and my average attack angle is down a few degrees. It also appears that my ball strikes are more consistent, where I may have had 3 or 4 bad strikes out of 10, I now have about 1 or 2.

My guess is part of this is because of control. When grounding the driver you raise the club up then takeaway (or you may takeaway from the ground) and then swing through which means some adjustments must occur at some point during the swing. The hover is a straight takeaway into the back swing. I find grounding raises my strike angle - hitting more upward on contact when grounding verses lower strike angle when hovering.

I find this whole exercise very interesting and the numbers so far have been good for me with the hover. It may be that once I get this better dialed in it will be my go to swing with the driver. I have not tried it with woods yet. In my mind, woods would be a total disaster, but who knows. After all, it is golf we are dealing with. :ROFLMAO:
 
I don’t know when I started hovering but it helped with distance and accuracy. Now hovering is part of my set up, waggle, routine.
 
I've tried the hovering thing, but I hate it. My arms always feel tensed up instead of being relaxed.
Most of the shots I hit when hovering are never very good, so I don't do it.
 
tried to hover, just not for me... Willing to try something for a while, but this was just not it.
 
I don't have a launch monitor but in my last round I was a single sandwiched between a couple of foursomes and I hit two balls off each tee. On some holes I hovered the first swing some the second. At first I thought maybe I got a slightly flatter ball flight but I am not sure it was conclusive. I definitely didn't have more distance consistently hovered vs not.
 
I tried this today, and I'm not a fan. Definitely built up tension in my hands. I think I'd really have to be looking for a specific effect to try to incorporate it into the routine.
 
no hover for me.
 
I have generally been a no hover guy. Today I was struggling with the driver a bit and on 9 I hovered and I hit the driver great the rest of the way and seemed to have some extra distance. I am thinking I become a hoverer.
 
Lately I have been doing a partial hover. I will set the club down while getting lined up, then bring it into a hover position just before takeaway and this has been working great for me. It can always change, but right now that is what I am doing.
 
I may, but normally do not. But if I've fatted one or two, I will.
 
I hover on all my tee shots. Learned to do this a long time ago. As funny as it may sound, it helps me relax and removes any tension from my swing!
 
I started hovering for tee shots a few years ago, before that I always rested the driver on the ground behind the ball.
 
generally i dont. i'll do it once in a while if i feel like i need to loosen up tension in my arms.
 
I don’t hover.
 
I’m surprised this is still popping up a month later.
 
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