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Popping my drives up?

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the19thgreen

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So I have a problem. Occasionally, I will "pop" my drives up straight into the air. It is frustrating and I lose a ton of distance. I assume this is "ballooning"? What should I do to correct this? Lower tee height? Close the club face? Roll the wrists more?
 
Pop ups and ballooning are very different things. It could be tee height, it could be swing issues. It could be many reasons. You may want to hit up the Ask the Pro section and see what andy suggests
 
Thanks. It probably happens once in every 15 or so swings, so its pretty frustrating. Maybe Ill get my swing recorded and have someone look at it.
 
How high are you teeing the ball and where are you positioning the ball in your stance? Maybe if you could a swing video would help us a lot more!
 
When I tee it up, the ball is slightly above the top of the head of the driver. Is that correct?

I will see if I can get a video tonight.
 
It is all a matter of personal preference, but if I am picturing this correctly, the whole ball is above the top of the driver? That to me seems a little bit too high.

A video would be great.
 
No, 1/3 of the ball is above the driver. Sorry if I wasnt clear.
 
I do this occasionally as well. I have realized that it is a swing flaw. Tee height and ball position do not affect it for me. I get one or two a round it seems.

Definitely take video and definitely ask amollerud for help. He has helped me so much with my swing. Now we are working on the driver.
 
This month's Golf Digest, which just landed in my mailbox today, has a page about the pop-up with the driver in the Breaking 100-90-80 section, towards the very back of the issue. I can't find the article online yet, but it basically says that the pop-up comes from not having spine tilt away from the ball at the setup, and also starting your swing with your chest and arms instead of your hips. I struggle with the pop-up every now and again, and for me, it comes from trying to hit the ball too much with my hands from the top of the backswing. What I mean is that I'm basically throwing my hands at the ball, instead of letting the downswing start with my legs and hips and having the arms and hands "along for the ride". Check out the issue for some pictures to go along with a couple of drills to fix this.
 
If the ball is going straight up and about 40 yards out you are talking pop up. If it's getting out there nice and starts climbing then sort of falls out of the sky it ballooned. I tee the ball rather high and will on occassion pop it up. Generally it's from the club desending when it connects with the bottom of the ball, or simply goes under. Ballooning can come from a bunch of things, launch angle for one thing, even the type of ball.
 
I sometimes do this with my driver as well, but I think its mostly due to how high/low I tee it up :) I don't really know how high I tee it up, but I have a method and it seems to work every single time. I place the ball on the tee between my 2nd and 3rd fingers, and then when I'm putting the tee in the ground, my pinkie finger goes out to the side, so while I'm putting the tee in the ground, as soon as my pinkie finger touches the grass of the tee box, then that's high enough for me :)
 
I found this interesting drill today, I'm gonna give it a shot once the range opens back up!
lead.jpg
1-lg.jpg

If pop-ups are familiar to you, consider this simple drill. Grab a sleeve of balls and place it about 12 inches in front of the ball you're trying to hit. The goal is to create an upward angle of attack without hitting the sleeve of balls.
Click to expand...
 
IceyShanks said:
I found this interesting drill today, I'm gonna give it a shot once the range opens back up!
lead.jpg
1-lg.jpg
Click to expand...
The key is his spin tilt. The balls really do nothing since the are only an inch or two off the ground.
 
I used to struggle with this and for me, it was caused my leading with the hands.
 
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