How do you think it will take to play any club you don't play on a consistent basis?
Depends how much you practice and/or take lessons. The golf course isn't the place to learn to hit a club better, that's what the range is for.

I'm not saying never hit a club you suck with, I'm saying don't take it to a round. I've got plenty of clubs sitting at home that I'm not good enough at to game yet. 3i, 4i, driving iron, 3W, 60* wedge.

Why should the driver be any different from those? Plenty of golfers struggle with clubs and around here we say take them out of your bag...unless it's a driver. For some reason around here we say swap your long irons for hybrids because they're easier to hit, and don't try hitting a 3W off the deck, but swing away with a 46" driver.
 
Depends how much you practice and/or take lessons. The golf course isn't the place to learn to hit a club better, that's what the range is for.

I'm not saying never hit a club you suck with, I'm saying don't take it to a round. I've got plenty of clubs sitting at home that I'm not good enough at to game yet. 3i, 4i, driving iron, 3W, 60* wedge.

Why should the driver be any different from those? Plenty of golfers struggle with clubs and around here we say take them out of your bag...unless it's a driver. For some reason around here we say swap your long irons for hybrids because they're easier to hit, and don't try hitting a 3W off the deck, but swing away with a 46" driver.

I disagree. I think it's more beneficial to learn to hit clubs/shots on the course. There is no consequence for a bad shot on the range. Then again, I guess I'm of the thought that you gain more from a practice round on the course than spending hours on a driving range. I personally think driving ranges are for warming up, or working on a swing change.

To each their own.
 
Why play driver? Because it's the longest club in the bag, and length off the tee is very important...

Driver struggles can be corrected, could be a swing change but, more times than not, it's an equipment issue. We've all heard the importance of being fitted for clubs, this is true, ten-fold, with driver, specifically the shaft; regardless of handicap/ability.

Not carrying a driver is ignoring the problem you're having with it. I agree with the comment from Milligan9111, you gain more from a practice round on the course than hours on the range, and on game days, the ranges are for warming up.

Honestly, the biggest problem I notice people have with hitting driver is, simply, trying to hit the ball too long. Knowing you'll hit it further than anything else in your bag should be long enough. So carry it, hit it, but swing it smoothly and consistently every time.
 
Driver struggles can be corrected, could be a swing change but, more times than not, it's an equipment issue.

No fitting or technology will fully correct a terrible swing. You may make the miss less severe, but you'll always have a miss with an improper swing and no club can fix that.

I'd say the exact opposite is true. More often than not, it's a swing problem.
 
No fitting or technology will fully correct a terrible swing. You may make the miss less severe, but you'll always have a miss with an improper swing and no club can fix that.

I'd say the exact opposite is true. More often than not, it's a swing problem.
Agree.

At Legacy, I saw Canadan hit everybody's driver, from Kevin's rebar-infused monster to my light, whippy Adams Blue. All of his shots were a nice little draw right down the middle. The only difference was how far the ball went and how high. He put a good swing on every shot, fitting would just control the ball flight.

As for the range vs. practice round thing--if you can't hit your driver straight, what does going to the course and losing balls in the woods teach you? That you lose balls in the woods. So you put a not-normal swing on it to try to get one in the fairway and move on. Or you could go to the range, ideally with a coach, and actually fix your darn swing until you can hit straight. Then go try it on a tee box.

There are definitely things you can only learn on a golf course. How to properly hit one of your clubs is not one of them.
 
We have to get off the tees to have any chance to score. But we also know the statistics don't lie - there is a correlation between driving it further and handicap, so distance does matter. Maybe completely abandoning driver is just as unwise as continuously failing with it. The good news is that there are a million options available to help us maximize whatever we bring to the table (IIRC my first inklings of competency were to play a higher lofted and cut down driver).
 
We have to get off the tees to have any chance to score. But we also know the statistics don't lie - there is a correlation between driving it further and handicap, so distance does matter. Maybe completely abandoning driver is just as unwise as continuously failing with it. The good news is that there are a million options available to help us maximize whatever we bring to the table (IIRC my first inklings of competency were to play a higher lofted and cut down driver).
Correlation is not causation.

It could just as easily be (and is more likely IMO) that longer, straighter drives come with a more repeatable swing and consistently better contact. That can't help but lower your score.

Also look at the other end--how many long drive contest winners do you see winning on the PGA tour? Or heck, just look at Jordan Spieth. He's not a long bomber with an average of 290yds, but he's got two major wins this year.

I completely agree that you have to be able to get off the tee to score well. You also have to be in the fairway to score well. Balancing those two things is where the debate comes in.
 
I have thought about dropping driver before because I was hitting it so poorly, but realized I have to be able to hit it to score decently (for my expectations) unless I am playing a par 3 course.

In my experience, the driver just highlighted the faults in my swing. By not hitting driver I was just ignoring the faults that I was able to get away with in the shorter clubs.

Once I addressed them (by getting help from a professional instructor) I have started to see improvement in my overall game. I still have a long way to go but my misses with driver are not as bad, and the quality shots are even better as well.

My advise for those that are thinking about dropping the big dog, take some time to get your swing looked at by someone who knows what they are looking at (PGA pro, our own Tadashi, etc) as it could really help your game overall.
 
No fitting or technology will fully correct a terrible swing. You may make the miss less severe, but you'll always have a miss with an improper swing and no club can fix that.

I'd say the exact opposite is true. More often than not, it's a swing problem.
I tend to agree with this. A bad swing that barely finds any portion of the face is going to result in a poor shot... no piece of equipment will ever improve that.

With that said, I firmly believe that all of our swings are unique, and that fittings are paramount to best possible results. Dave referenced that nicely above with my activities down at the Legacy. Haha, that was fun.
 
You cannot fix a terrible golf swing, no club in this world can fit that. If your coming over the top, topping it or skying the ball no driver can fix that. Play with what you are conformable playing ,it may be a huge headed driver or a mini driver or even a persimmon wood if it works it works.

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk
 
I tend to agree with this. A bad swing that barely finds any portion of the face is going to result in a poor shot... no piece of equipment will ever improve that.

With that said, I firmly believe that all of our swings are unique, and that fittings are paramount to best possible results. Dave referenced that nicely above with my activities down at the Legacy. Haha, that was fun.
I swear, when you hit my Adams we probably could have raced a cart down there and caught that ball before it hit the ground. 240yds out, 300yds up.
 
I swear, when you hit my Adams we probably could have raced a cart down there and caught that ball before it hit the ground.
Hahaha. Would have been fun to get some spin numbers on that thing. Couldn't believe how shut it looked at address as well. I bet my descent angle was about 75 hahahaha
 
Agree.

At Legacy, I saw Canadan hit everybody's driver, from Kevin's rebar-infused monster to my light, whippy Adams Blue. All of his shots were a nice little draw right down the middle. The only difference was how far the ball went and how high. He put a good swing on every shot, fitting would just control the ball flight.

As for the range vs. practice round thing--if you can't hit your driver straight, what does going to the course and losing balls in the woods teach you? That you lose balls in the woods. So you put a not-normal swing on it to try to get one in the fairway and move on. Or you could go to the range, ideally with a coach, and actually fix your darn swing until you can hit straight. Then go try it on a tee box.

There are definitely things you can only learn on a golf course. How to properly hit one of your clubs is not one of them.

If someone is hooking/slicing their driver, but hitting their 3-wood straight down the middle all the time, then they certainly don't have a swing problem. They most likely have a confidence issue with their driver that causes them to either over-swing or under-swing. Either way, pounding balls on the driving range won't fix that. Case in point is to watch Tiger Woods hit driver on the driving range when he warms up (many videos of him warming up on a driving range with pro tracer). He straight up pounds it on a similar ball flight ball after ball. What happens when he gets to the course?

I'm not telling anybody what to do, I'm just offering my opinion. If going to the range and pounding balls helps you, by all means go for it. That simply doesn't do anything for me. We are all different types of players, and as such we will learn in different ways.
 
Agree...

The OP apparently has no confidence with hitting driver but does hit 3wood, which keeps him in play. Therefore, I'm assuming the problem isn't all his swing.
 
I had a funny circumstance Wednesday. I played without driver as I was playing my second bag in Little Rock as I had to ship it out and my new driver for that bag was being cut and reweighted so I teed off with just a 3W. It can't reach where I can get with a driver but the consistency was quite nice. I averaged 245 off the tee with a long of 265 and was 75% FIR (nothing was worse than first cut).

My 265 shot was over a tall tree into the center of the fairway. And on one dogleg par 5, I said to the guy I was playing with I was going to try and hit a high draw around the trees and the shot traveled exactly on the trajectory I had in mid and ended up going 255 in the middle of the fairway. Sure, driver is great to have but if it isn't working, I'm happy to hit 3W. Have to try a mini driver soon out of curiosity.
 
Why play DRIVER?

Correlation is not causation.

Perhaps, but it's also true that most people are going to be better with say PW than 7I.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
I'm one that has struggled hitting driver my whole life. There are streaks where I will start pounding straight but they only last for a few rounds and then poof, it's gone. For me it is a confidence/mental thing. I hit my 3 wood great, long and straight. If I need to hit a fairway, that's my go to. But when I get driver out I have zero confidence that it is going to find the fairway. I've tried different drivers and fits and I can't get over it. I've spent time on the range and have also tried working it out on the course but it hasn't helped so far. I just got a Callaway Mini Driver and am hoping this helps me out, get some more distance over my 3 wood and still hit fairways.
 
Why play driver? Because it's the longest club in the bag, and length off the tee is very important...

Driver struggles can be corrected, could be a swing change but, more times than not, it's an equipment issue. We've all heard the importance of being fitted for clubs, this is true, ten-fold, with driver, specifically the shaft; regardless of handicap/ability.

Not carrying a driver is ignoring the problem you're having with it. I agree with the comment from Milligan9111, you gain more from a practice round on the course than hours on the range, and on game days, the ranges are for warming up.

Honestly, the biggest problem I notice people have with hitting driver is, simply, trying to hit the ball too long. Knowing you'll hit it further than anything else in your bag should be long enough. So carry it, hit it, but swing it smoothly and consistently every time.

I agree with this^^^^^ Hitting the driver on the practice range is a very easy game is very different than hitting it in the course
 
You will see me hit 3 wood off the tee A LOT! I hit it in the fairway the majority of the time and I have come to realize that this game tends to be a heck of a lot easier out of the fairway. A 150 yard shot out of the middle of the fairway is easier than a 100 yard shot buried in the rough or behind a tree. That doesn't mean I don't ever hit driver though. Just have to know when to hit it and when to leave it in the bag. I've played my best golf this year ever and I've hit my 3 wood off the tee about 75% of the time.

So carry it, hit it, but swing it smoothly and consistently every time.[quote\]

Best sentence I saw. Too many times we take out the driver and instead of the nice smooth swing we try to hit that mother to the green!
 
I am of the belief lately that I just don't need driver in the bag at all. Just not consistent
 
I am of the belief lately that I just don't need driver in the bag at all. Just not consistent
Good shot Kang. :angel:

When you're on, you're *on* but on the other hand your 3W is significantly longer than my driver.
 
I tend to agree with this. A bad swing that barely finds any portion of the face is going to result in a poor shot... no piece of equipment will ever improve that.

With that said, I firmly believe that all of our swings are unique, and that fittings are paramount to best possible results. Dave referenced that nicely above with my activities down at the Legacy. Haha, that was fun.

I agree completely. Far too many people aren't fit properly and only hurt themselves.

My response was more towards the fact that no piece of equipment, stock or fitted, can fix a swing flaw. Fitted will usually just make misses less penalizing, which is a definite benefit in its own right.

Somehow, in my opinion at least, we [golfers] have to accept both "sides" to this argument. One side is to be fitted for everything but also find the most repeatable and best swing for us. Sometimes these two can fight against each other IME

I think too many look for a quick fix by buying shiny and new. Nothing wrong with that either. If you can afford it, do it!

I'd like to see more people take that $500 and address the actual problem with a good pro. Putting a band aid where stitches are required will never work.
 
I am of the belief lately that I just don't need driver in the bag at all. Just not consistent
Well.... maybe if you stopped trying to explode the ball with the driver every time you swung..... hahahaha!
 
I've been part of the less than driver crew this season. My 3 wood and a SLDR Mini TP have done me very well. It raises the question, brought up here many times, regarding if today's stock drivers are too long for most amateurs. I recently cut my BioCell+ down to 44 inches and it has made a world of difference.
I still will hit 3 wood or a hybrid on a Par 4 if the layout calls for it. My scorecard satisfies any ego boosting I may have a need for over distance. 240-260 out of the fairway for a second shot or 275-300 out of the rough (or worse), I know where I'm trying to play a second shot from.
Playing this game off the short grass is a beautiful thing.
 
Well.... maybe if you stopped trying to explode the ball with the driver every time you swung..... hahahaha!
I know... I just can't seem to stop it. Driver in hand always makes me do it. Idk why lol
 
Back
Top