Do you want to hit better drives?
Do you want to hit it further and straighter than you ever have before?
I'm Matt Walter, PGA teaching professional here at Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin,
Tennessee.
I'm about to show you how to let the big dog eat.
So, let's talk about the big dog.
Hitting driver, there's a couple of things that we need to talk about as far as launch
conditions when it comes to hitting the driver further and straighter.
So, when we're hitting our big stick, we usually have, about, somewhere between 9 and 12 degrees
of loft, so that's not a lot.
So, if we actually hit a descending blow, we decrease loft, and we're losing distance
at that point.
When we hit driver, we have an equation on TrackMan called attack angle, and it measures
how much down you hit on the ball versus how much up you hit on the ball.
And so, to keep it simple, what I tell students is, if it sits on the ground, we want a negative
attack, meaning we hit down on the ball and hit it through the shot.
If it sits up on a tee, we want to have more of a positive or level attack angle, so that
way, we return the club with the same amount of loft or a little bit more, and get a good
pop as we hit our shots.
So, with driver, we have an optimal window to hit our driver in, launching somewhere
between 10 or 14 degrees, spinning somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 rpm, depending on
what we're trying to do, depending on what speed of golfer you are.
So, if you're the average American male, you're only swinging about 90, 95 miles an hour.
You don't need as much launch in the air and as low spin as Rory McIlroy who swings at
122 miles an hour.
So, we've got a little bit of variance as we go through our player profiles, but either
way, the equations still hold true.
If you hit down on the ball 5 degrees versus hitting up on it 5 degrees, you'll lose about
30 yards, given a 100-mile-an-hour club head speed.
So, you have to be able to hit up or level on the driver to hit it further.
So, I have a great drill here.
We put our head cover up just in front of our golf ball, and this will enforce us to
finish our swings on the upward tick instead of descending down and catching our head cover.
So, if we make a good swing here, we should be able to finish our swing and miss our head
cover.
So, we make that kind of golf swing, we miss the head cover, we know we hit up and not
down.
Now, the next part of the equation.
"Coach, I hit up on it, but I still don't hit it far enough.
I've got to find a way to get more distance."
The biggest thing I can tell you is that we've got to increase the width of your golf swing
and the height of your golf swing, so basically getting your hands to travel further so the
golf club travels further.
So, one of my favorite drills, and this is another good one for beginners or guys of
high caliber players, is that we want to be able to start with a nice wide and slow takeaway.
So, this drill, we set up a ball behind the club head, (and to keep it low and slow; that's
kind of a favorite saying), and we push the ball back.
As we push the ball back, it forces us to create some width in our takeaway.
Too often, I see the club go straight up, and now we're toast.
We're already narrow, the next move is to get it wide, really hard to play it from there
for most golfers.
So, our goal is to get this baby set up, push the ball back, finish our backswing, finish
our follow-through.
So, let's try it out.
So, we set up, get the ball behind the driver, build a good stance.
We're going to go wide in the takeaway, high to the top of our backswing, and hit another
great drive as we go through our full swing elements here.
So, our goal is to create width and height in our swing so that we can increase the speed
in the downswing.
The higher and further my hands go, the more speed I can create, but we've got to find
the window in which we can stay in control, so it's a balancing act.
So, I would recommend, start with correcting attack angle, then add some width and height
to your golf swing, and specifically in your backswing, to create a better blow at the
golf ball.
And when it comes to hitting driver, sometimes it can be the arrow.
Getting your equipment checked by a trained professional like myself who has a radar that
can measure ball flight information, knowing that your ball is spinning the correct amount,
launching at the correct amount...
And you can get some good numbers inside and hitting into a net, but I prefer to see my
ball fly in order to get a great club fitting, and that way you can know what the ball flight
is doing as you hit the ball, and not guessing at what the TrackMan or even any other radar
is guessing when it hits into a net.
But, the better the information, the better, and TrackMan's one of the best that we use
to get great ball flight information.
And don't be fooled that distance is always better.
If you hit it further and you're not straight, that's not always the best combination.
Sometimes it's worth giving up five yards to get a better grouping as far as ball flight
goes, and maybe looking into the golf ball to figure out that other five yards that you
need.
So, look into your driver.
Make sure you're playing the right shaft, the right flex, the right loft, the right
setting.
There's a lot of variables when it comes to getting a good driver fitting, and please
get the right, appropriate fitting done for yourself to help you get the best distance
you can, tailored to your golf swing.