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Why play DRIVER?

Canadan said:
Well.... maybe if you stopped trying to explode the ball with the driver every time you swung..... hahahaha!
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Being an internet golfer, I thought that was the whole point...
 
Canadan said:
Haha, it's a crazy decision. Any time I try to step on a driver it's a mess. And usually shorter and spinnier.
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I'm usually pretty decent at what feels like 95% to me. I'm swinging hard, but not out of control. When I swing "too" smooth (say 85%) I can be just as bad.

It's a fine line for this guy. Contemplating hitting something else, trying a mini, standing on my head...anything to get a little more consistency going.

That said, it's only because I'm actually playing better overall that the few complete misfires off the tee are really starting to frustrate me...
 
Mulligan9111 said:
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.
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I disagree with this. When you're playing a round of golf, you're always subconsciously trying to hit the fairway. If/when you start missing, it seems like you would have a tendency to mess with your swing to try to guide the ball into the fairway instead of continually being in the trees all day. You're right that there's no consequences on the range, which is good. Negative reinforcements in golf typically result in a larger effort to get the ball somewhere down the middle, no matter what; whereas on the range, you can focus on grooving a move without worrying if you push a drive.
 
As a senior golfer I need the distance off the tee that a driver provides. I can hit my 3-wood off the tee pretty accurately, but it only goes around 210 yards, give or take a few. A well-hit driver can get me out ~235 which is a big difference for my 2nd shot. On short par 4's it doesn't matter, but anything over 370 yards, I'll pull driver most of the time.
 
kc720 said:
I know... I just can't seem to stop it. Driver in hand always makes me do it. Idk why lol
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The struggle is real.

That said I have a 100% different swing on the range than I do on the course. I am all for playing a club you are struggling with on the course because I have seen it time and time again the range swing doesn't always= the round swing.
Don't patch a weakness by masking it and handicapping yourself expose it and make it a strength. It may be a struggle but it will be worth it.

That said smashing driver on every hole is not always the best play really depends on the distance you hit it.

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Canadan said:
Haha, it's a crazy decision. Any time I try to step on a driver it's a mess. And usually shorter and spinnier.
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Ain't that the truth. Having good tempo, sequencing and being smooth leads to good drives. Anytime I try to jump on driver, bad things happen.
 
GenErr said:
As a senior golfer I need the distance off the tee that a driver provides. I can hit my 3-wood off the tee pretty accurately, but it only goes around 210 yards, give or take a few. A well-hit driver can get me out ~235 which is a big difference for my 2nd shot. On short par 4's it doesn't matter, but anything over 370 yards, I'll pull driver most of the time.
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You and me both! These young guys will see the light someday...........

If you can't today's highly forgiving drivers, it is time to see a PGA Teaching Pro.
 
Mulligan9111 said:
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.
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I think a lot depends on the nature of someone's problems with driver. If one is functional with driver and it's a question of refinement, I agree with you. If the club is basically unreliable, then maybe one needs to work it out on the range before taking to the course.

For example, last week I was a single and got paired with two guys for a round. Nice guys but their golf game needed work. In particular, one guy aimed far left to counteract his slice. And because that slice killed his distance he would over swing a ton. If he made contact, the drive would end up 180-190 out. If he didn't it ended up all over and put him in a hole. It was a lot more of the latter than the former. Honestly, he would have been a lot better off playing anything other than driver.
 
tequila4kapp said:
Perhaps, but it's also true that most people are going to be better with say PW than 7I.


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The issue is you should be swinging the driver like the 7 iron and the sw. If you aren't hitting the driver well then learning and gaining confidence is a good cure. I have had many students learn on the course. But to each his own.
 
Because it's there. It's like being a mountain climber and reaching the second tallest mountain all of the time... and leaving Mt. Everest behind. Given, it's the longest club, and therefore the hardest to hit, but there is so much tech in the design of the driver these days, that with a decent swing and some good club-fitting, it's very probable that you can buy a driver you can hit decently well.

It's unrealistic to compare the lousiest shot with a driver to your best shot with the 3-wood. How about best against best?

Also, there's a large intimidation factor with the driver. With guys, pulling out driver at the tee box is the golf equivalent of peacocks puffing their breasts and showing their tails off against each other. People don't really notice the 20-yard chip we chunked off the green. But a nice, long drive, with the requisite sound and distance, people are bound to notice that.

On a tee box crossing into a large body of water, I was on the phone, so I let the other guys tee off first. I was focused on my call, so I didn't notice that none of the other four guys (we were a fivesome) crossed the water. When it was my turn, I put down the phone down, teed my ball and hit one across. How's that for intimidation?
 
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M first reaction to this thread title was "cause I can". But I see where some of the latest trends could quite possible negate the need. But ithere is something about pulling driver occasionally that just makes me feel better about playing the game.


And and for those talking about stepping on it. Yes smooth is much longer, I know this, but that escapes me from time to time.
 
If I am not hitting a club well for some reason, it comes out of the bag and into the trunk. I will then focus on learning to hit it consistently on the range. When I have regained my confidence in that club, it goes back in the bag.

My driver was the first to come out. I substituted it for the 3W off the tee. I eventually bought an offset driver and have been hitting it very well. Next I focused on the 4H, still not consistent enough to go back in the bag but making progress. Ive been focusing on my long irons lately since I am just not getting any kind of distance out of them. Making progress and am now comfortable hitting the 4-iron again. My latest focus has been hitting the fairway woods off the deck. I have made great improvements with the 5W off the deck but am still struggling with the 3W.

The ebb and flow of your swing means that some clubs will work and some wont and it will be an ever changing atmosphere. That's what I enjoy about this game is there is always something to work on.
 
Dave Alvarado said:
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.
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those clubs are some of the hardest in golf to hit. replacing 3i and 4i with hybrids, adding loft and shortening length by bagging a 4w instead of 3w, and bagging a wedge with more bounce are all ways to help you, but not necessarily giving up.

with a few rare exceptions, I suck at putting. should I take my putter out of the bag?

I get what you're saying, and while I don't think the answer is to take it out of the bag, I do think it can be hit less frequently to minimize risk.


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loquaciouspanda said:
I disagree with this. When you're playing a round of golf, you're always subconsciously trying to hit the fairway. If/when you start missing, it seems like you would have a tendency to mess with your swing to try to guide the ball into the fairway instead of continually being in the trees all day. You're right that there's no consequences on the range, which is good. Negative reinforcements in golf typically result in a larger effort to get the ball somewhere down the middle, no matter what; whereas on the range, you can focus on grooving a move without worrying if you push a drive.
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JMN57 said:
I think a lot depends on the nature of someone's problems with driver. If one is functional with driver and it's a question of refinement, I agree with you. If the club is basically unreliable, then maybe one needs to work it out on the range before taking to the course.

For example, last week I was a single and got paired with two guys for a round. Nice guys but their golf game needed work. In particular, one guy aimed far left to counteract his slice. And because that slice killed his distance he would over swing a ton. If he made contact, the drive would end up 180-190 out. If he didn't it ended up all over and put him in a hole. It was a lot more of the latter than the former. Honestly, he would have been a lot better off playing anything other than driver.
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As I mentioned in a follow up post, if someone can hit their 3w straight down the middle but slice and hook a driver, they don't have a swing problem they have a confidence problem. They don't have to groove a swing as they already have that swing grooved with their 3w. Most people that I see struggle with their driver, do so because they over-swing (get out of control trying to murder the ball) or they under-swing (swing tentatively trying to steer the ball). I personally don't think you can solve that confidence problem on the driving range. As I also mentioned, look at Tiger Wood's "range game" and what he brings to the golf course, they can sometimes look like two completely different swings.

Now keep in mind, I'm not saying that you can never benefit from going to the range, everybody is different and benefits differently from different types of practice. It's just been my experience that players gain the most from practicing on a course rather than a driving range (with the exception of working on swing changes).

Also, if hitting 3w helps someone score better, then I think they should do so. But at the same time, I don't think they should just give up on the driver as they are giving up something that could be a powerful weapon if they were to get it under control.
 
There's a teensy weensy difference between hitting driver and 3W. We have to hit down with the 3W, like all the other clubs other than the putter and driver. For the driver, we have to contact the ball after our swing bottoms out and is moving up already. That tiny difference messes with us. But the guys are correct - it's basically the same swing. Based on this premise, the easiest way to hit driver if you can hit your 3W well is to make some minor variations with your setup when you tee up with a driver.
 
Tadashi70 said:
I think most would benefit from learning to hit their driver. Learning to play golf males golf more fun. Leaving the driver out is just handicapping you in the long run.
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Agreed need to build confidence on the course with it.
 
Simple answer for me: I do not play one, and my game is better for it. Now one big caveat for this is that I can hit a 14 degree fairway wood as long or longer than many people can hit their drivers. Given a solid strike my expected total distance for my XR Pro fairway is a minimum of 230 and a maximum of 270. That's lasered numbers for me. Most times I find myself in the 240-250 range. But when I look at a hole, I plan around what would happen if I hit it 230 and go from there. My new home course has tees at 6100, 6400, and 6700. I played the 6400 first time out, and good drives (I had many) left me inside of 150 for all the approach shots, many times inside 125. At some point I will tackle the back tees for fun to see what happens.

For me, I have found that the length of your average 3 wood shaft is as long as I want to go. That is a 43" shaft length. Now would I be interested in trying a driver with a 43" shaft? Sure but nobody makes those stock and I am not willing to pay for one to be custom made. I swung Kang's BB Mini 1.5 in Branson and I liked it. So I could go that route if I wanted. But 45-46" shafts and I do not get along. I have years of experience with multiple brands to prove that.

As an added benefit, I can play the 14° off the tee and off the deck. That frees up a spot in my bag to rotate out clubs on the lower end as I see fit.

The bottom line is that there is no one right answer. The point is to get the ball in the hole using the fewest strokes possible. Find the clubs that work best for you and go there. That does not have to include a driver.
 
rbarthle17 said:
Simple answer for me: I do not play one, and my game is better for it. Now one big caveat for this is that I can hit a 14 degree fairway wood as long or longer than many people can hit their drivers. Given a solid strike my expected total distance for my XR Pro fairway is a minimum of 230 and a maximum of 270. That's lasered numbers for me. Most times I find myself in the 240-250 range. But when I look at a hole, I plan around what would happen if I hit it 230 and go from there. My new home course has tees at 6100, 6400, and 6700. I played the 6400 first time out, and good drives (I had many) left me inside of 150 for all the approach shots, many times inside 125. At some point I will tackle the back tees for fun to see what happens.

For me, I have found that the length of your average 3 wood shaft is as long as I want to go. That is a 43" shaft length. Now would I be interested in trying a driver with a 43" shaft? Sure but nobody makes those stock and I am not willing to pay for one to be custom made. I swung Kang's BB Mini 1.5 in Branson and I liked it. So I could go that route if I wanted. But 45-46" shafts and I do not get along. I have years of experience with multiple brands to prove that.

As an added benefit, I can play the 14° off the tee and off the deck. That frees up a spot in my bag to rotate out clubs on the lower end as I see fit.

The bottom line is that there is no one right answer. The point is to get the ball in the hole using the fewest strokes possible. Find the clubs that work best for you and go there. That does not have to include a driver.
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Truer words have not been said.
Unless you are a tour player, playing a small headed 43 inch wood of the tee us fine. Just ask Bobby Jones, Nicklaus, Palmer and the early Tiger Woods.


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I am actually considering dropping my driver out of the bag for the time being, and can probably count on one hand the number of times it has been hit in the last 6 rounds

Having said that, it should only be a temporary measure until I can get a driver fitting to work out what fits me best as far as weight / shaft length / etc as I have only ever hit the stock off-the-shelf clubs which may not necessarily be the best for me, and the bigger stores around here don't tend to carry much in the way of shaft options, if any

As my home course is only around 6,300 yards, I am not really losing anything over using my 3W or 5W off the tee as there are only a couple of par 4's that I have a long iron into the green and the par 5's are risky to go for in 2 as they both have OOB very close to the green so you don't need to miss by much to be in trouble
 
rbarthle17 said:
Simple answer for me: I do not play one, and my game is better for it. Now one big caveat for this is that I can hit a 14 degree fairway wood as long or longer than many people can hit their drivers. Given a solid strike my expected total distance for my XR Pro fairway is a minimum of 230 and a maximum of 270. That's lasered numbers for me. Most times I find myself in the 240-250 range. But when I look at a hole, I plan around what would happen if I hit it 230 and go from there. My new home course has tees at 6100, 6400, and 6700. I played the 6400 first time out, and good drives (I had many) left me inside of 150 for all the approach shots, many times inside 125. At some point I will tackle the back tees for fun to see what happens.

For me, I have found that the length of your average 3 wood shaft is as long as I want to go. That is a 43" shaft length. Now would I be interested in trying a driver with a 43" shaft? Sure but nobody makes those stock and I am not willing to pay for one to be custom made. I swung Kang's BB Mini 1.5 in Branson and I liked it. So I could go that route if I wanted. But 45-46" shafts and I do not get along. I have years of experience with multiple brands to prove that.

As an added benefit, I can play the 14° off the tee and off the deck. That frees up a spot in my bag to rotate out clubs on the lower end as I see fit.

The bottom line is that there is no one right answer. The point is to get the ball in the hole using the fewest strokes possible. Find the clubs that work best for you and go there. That does not have to include a driver.
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Following up on this, my round yesterday showed why the Mini drivers might be a good place for a lot of people to look at. It was very humid (not hot though) and walking the round I started getting some tired swings from the 10th hole to the 14th before I found my second wind. I had a couple of drives in that stretch that were basically line drives a few inches off the ground and the rough caught the ball before the fairway. A larger more forgiving head of a Mini probably would have helped there. But the 43" shaft length is perfect for me.

As for the tee height, I tee the ball up about 1" most times, but if I want to go for it I will tee it a bit higher. I hit the ball on the upswing off the tee with my fairway woods just fine.
 
Had my driver working pretty well for a few weeks, but now im back to my slice...frustrating. Been thinking of picking up a TM sldr s mini driver. RB has them for $79 right now. Has anyone replaced driver with one of these or similar club?
 
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