I have a question here from Inner Circle member Richard LaPlant. Richard says, “I've been a member for only three weeks. My Swing with my irons in the fairway are showing incredible improvement just in three weeks time. But I'm having problems off the tee with both driver and irons because my shots are going either too high or line drives. I do use a tee with my irons, but only about half of an inch high. Here are my questions, how high do I set my ball on the tee with a driver and do I use a tee for my irons?”
Richard got a response from Glw458 who says, “Richard, for the driver, I tee the ball so that 1/2 of the ball is visible above the top of my driver. If you position the ball on your front foot as Surge teaches, this will ensure you strike the ball on the upswing.
“For the irons, I believe 1/2″ is too much. I was always taught to tee the ball so the ball appears to be sitting on top of the grass of the tee box.
“To help yourself, visit the range and put some tape on your driver and the irons you typically use from the tee and see where you are striking the ball on the clubface.
“Try your current method and try the tee methods I have discussed. Nothing feels better than a well struck ball on the 'sweet spot.'”
Amen, about hitting the ball sweet. That's why they call it the sweet spot. I sounds so solid, no vibrations, no anything, so Richard got some good responses from Glw458. I want to talk about some of the things he said.
First, I want to start addressing the concept about teeing the ball up on a par 3. I agree to that whole heartedly. I've always played the ball teed up. I've always taught it to be teed up. There's a well documented rumor out there that Ben Hogan once was asked in an interview, why does he tee the ball up on all par 3 holes when I lot of other pros don't. His answer was, “Because I play for money.”
Well, that makes a lot of sense. Even if you just play golf for fun, I think there's another good answer for teeing it up on a par 3. Tee it up pretty low to the ground, at the top of the grass. Because if you tee it up too high and hit it too high in the clubface, you're going to hit pop ups or swing underneath the ball. You want to tee it up relatively low, just above the grass.
The other reason you tee it up is because it reduces the margin of error of hitting the ground too early or hitting the ground too much. Reducing the margin of error increases the opportunity for success. So, the key is, tee it up on par 3's.
As far as the height for the driver, I think you need to test different heights. I had this personal revelation myself about a year ago. Because we swing to hit the ball on the upswing, I've always teed the driver up well more than half the ball above the clubhead, even to the point of the whole ball.
But for many years, as long as they've gone on the escalation of making gargantuan sized drivers, we got to the point where they made them bigger, but they kept raising the sweet spot higher and higher on the face. I've asked sales reps and I've asked executives with the big companies, vice presidents of marketing and manufacturing, I asked, 'Why do you put the sweet spot so high on the driver face?'
They said the vast majority of all golfers are coming over the top, swinging outside to in and chopping down on the ball and they're hitting it high on the clubface. 'How many golfers do you know that you've seen sky marks on top of the golf club? That's why we put it up there.'
Since most of the sweet spots are up there, if you tee the ball too high, it helps you to swing up even more, because I've found many time I'd swing up and hit the ball dead center of the clubface where the sweet spot supposed to be, but catch it a little bit low, or below the sweet spot, I hit a great drive, but it doesn't have that pop. It doesn't really have that jump off the clubface. When I did catch it higher on the clubface, not only did I hit it just as straight and get a little more of that pop and softness of hitting that sweet spot, I got a better launch angle and farther in the air and longer for the whole shot.
I actually found that by teeing it a little bit lower I stayed lower through the ball a little bit longer and I'm catching them more on the sweet spot, which is slightly above the center of the club.
So you might want to check with that. Yes, half of the ball above the driver might be working better. But the key is, for each of us, to do what was suggested. Put some tape on the club and see you're hitting the ball on the clubface that gives you the optimum launch you like to see and the solidness of contact that gives you a good, solid straight flight, and gives you optimum distance.
The Surge!