Everyone wants to hit the long ball. It's fun to watch and even more fun when you're the one hitting the ball. We can't all be like Bubba Watson and John Daly, but we can play from the middle of the fairway. A lot of my students struggle with the driver and I've often said that I believe it could be due to the length of today's drivers. However, that's not the only reason why you may feel less than confident standing on the tee box.
The number one suggestion I would give with regards to your driver could be a situation of the Big "A": alignment. It could also very likely have to do with your ball position.
With the driver, especially with the Peak Performance Golf Swing setup, we want to have the driver somewhat off the left heel. But, there's a very unique misinterpretation that sometimes happens when I say that. Let's say I'm standing with a conventional stance with my feet dead straight instead of with the 30 degree flared feet that I teach. With my feet in the conventional position, it feels like the ball is up off my instep. Now, if I open my feet and then move the ball up off my instep it would place the ball too far forward.
If my setup is perfect and I'm aimed correctly, ball position itself can actually make a change in the alignment. Even if I'm perfectly parallel left but my ball is too far forward, I'm effectively aimed left. This is because if you have incorrect ball position that is too far forward at the bottom of the arc, the clubface is going to be slightly closed by the time it gets to the ball. This ultimately leads to a habit of holding on, which can cause your shoulders to turn to the left too soon. Now you're left with a shaft lean too far ahead of the ball, which causes a slice.
I'm going to guess that Pondeli's ball is too far forward. But, let's say it's too far back. That would have the opposite effect as you'd now be effectively aiming right. If your body gets too far ahead of the ball, you'll be hitting it with a face that's not squared up yet, which will cause an even more severe slice.
When I walk in to the ball, I always put my bottom (right) hand's thumb square to the ball. This gives me a slightly forward shaft lean with the shaft pointed somewhere at my left hip. That ensures that when I start my takeaway with my right hip and shoulder, it will actually give me the feeling of the clubhead going back toe up because of the rotation of the forearms in the backswing. It feels like the clubhead starts first so when I start my downswing, my hands are leading which gives me good timing.
You must be aware that "off the heel" in the setup position means straight off the heel with flared feet. If you have your feet positioned any other way, the ball position will not work.
Alignment and ball position are critical to hitting the ball solid and straight. They allow you to control your ball flight and direction. So, keep it in play, hit more greens and shoot those lower scores!
Keep it vertical!
The Surge
Comments
Ball Position, Alignment and flight
Unlike Pondeli, I have the opposite problem with the driver : - ( My ball flight is lower than it should be. Not daisy cutters, but it would be nice to have it a wee bit higher trajectory. I have not 'meddled' with it at the moment, because I am getting better distance off the tee and staying on the fairway. I know I could hit it further with a tweak! The horns of a dilema.
Thanks Surge and good luck to DJ in qualifying.
I await comments from the guys on my problem. Off for a swing now. Hit them longer and straighter Surgites. DH
Alignment marks for video
Hi Don.
Love watching the dailys. Thanks.
How about painting some align marks on your mat? In your lesson today, the ball position that we saw did not match you words. :) and you didn't use your alignment rods.
In your experience how critical is ball position in relation to direction of hit? If your ball is 1" forward, will your (Don Trahan's) hand eye coordination compensate most of the time, or will you always hit it left with a bit of draw? What about the rest of us, how much error can we live with?
I've a major problem with pulls and have read all your old dailys about the issue and am still stumped. With the low spin balls of today, I don't know if I have path or face problem. I don't draw, but it goes left big time.
Louie
Ball Position, Alignment, and Flight Video Missing Element
Everything in this video is great but is missing one important element (I feel). At what height do I place the ball on the tee in relation to your suggestions on Ball Position, Alignment, and Flight? It seems that the ball height on the tee is just as important considering my swing (along with forgiveness and position of sweet spot of the type of driver or club being used) and desired trajectory of my ball as well as Setup, Posture, and Alignment. Please give us your thought on ball tee height in relation to your suggestions in the video. Thanks.
How high
Maybe this one will answer your question.
https://swingsurgeon.com/daily-video-tips/hitting-your-driver
Reply to S. Smith suggestion my original post
Thanks Steve for the video, I forgot about that video. Everyone should watch it, but the video covers only one way to set the tee and ball height and only covers Drivers. What about when raising the tee and ball and hitting the PPGS normally without spine tilt? What about using other clubs with tees pertaining to this video? This is what I am asking about in relation to the video, not just drivers. Because the way he explains the Ball Position, Alignment, and Flight, it seems various ball heights on tee could be effective for various woods and hybrid clubs as well as sometimes hitting irons off tees. Thanks again.
Dragon Head
Hmmnnn..... hitting it a bit low eh? Could possibly be one or more things. Are you teeing it high enough? Check that. Secondly it may help to move it slightly (as in a couple of centimeters) forward in your stance. This could aid in the other move and that is to make sure you are hitting up on the old ball:) That should give you a bit more "traj" as Tiger likes to say. Consider these in tiny increments DH as it seems you have played well as of late so we don't want to over tweak it. Keeping it in the fairway is a good thing so those are good horns to face, he, he!
BTW I did mean to post this below your comment above
Why low
If the ball flight is too low there is the path through the ball (that you mentioned), loft of the club (or effective loft from shaft dynamics), and club head speed.
All of us are going to lose club head speed at some point and when we do we are going to need more loft and a weaker flex to get the optimum trajectory.
I know several people that hit a driver and get less distance than they do with their 5 wood. Yet they always pull out the driver anyway for some reason (that I haven't figured out yet). LOL
Why low
Absolutely Steve. My best round in years and I left the Driver at home. 3w became the driver. I had some swing practice today in preparation for the round I had hoped to have today. A good golf nut friend of mine, mentioned something totally divorced from this subject. He and his wife are staying with his daughter while their home is repaired, post the earthquake in Christchurch. He had a set of old clubs in the car. He used them on Sunday to very good effect. They were replaced last Christmas with a new set of Taylormades. I have an identical set of the same old clubs. So I gave them a go during swing practice, yesterday and today. I enjoyed swinging them very much. It will be interesting to see how they perform. I put the old wooden driver in the bag for tomorrow also, I enjoyed swinging it's smaller head today. Will be fun trying. I like the look of the clubheads on the irons better. They look more like a blade than the other cavity backs. I have left out a few clubs I never seem to use. It will test my versatility a little, and why not.
Thanks for your comment Steve. On clubhead speed. It may have been me, but I found it easier to whip the wooden clubhead through quicker. Hmmm! DH
why low ?
Steve Smith;
Or get a Driver with a 5w loft! lol The driver that Doc built for me is ecentially a 5w with a larger head! Doc tells me it is 14* - where SKG usually marks the loft it has funny text stamping -- it could be read a "SL" or "5L" -- it is a font similar to the writing on the bottom of your checks.
In any case -- I LOVE that driver !! and that is all that really counts.
Amos
Dragonhead
Thanks for that Robert, I will be trying that in the near,but not too near future. Have something else which is being tried first. Thankyou for your input. Will update on progress or otherwise soon. DH
Sounds good DH. As I said,
Sounds good DH. As I said, those were just possible ideas for you. Ironically, though I certainly am not gaining swing speed as I mature (code language for getting older) I actually have found greater success with my 9 degree and an x stiff shaft verses the 10.5 degree drivers I used for many years. I think it is because I generally sweep up on the drives unless I need to purposely flight it lower in the wind. Do keep us posted on your progress. Sounds like fun with the older smaller wood. Likely that shaft is shorter too as they wee typically 42/43 back in the day.
another unusual day on the course
Surge Nation:
Another report form the Ancient Golfer:
Weather was again cool but sunny. As usual, I was playing by myself in the early morning.
I was playing my normal steady "slightly better than bogie" golf - 1 par, 2 double bogies, 3 bogies thur 6 - -then it happened -- a beautiful 3w to the front of #7, with a back pin -- good first putt, sunk the second one from 8' for the par. On to #8 -- hit what I thought was a good 5I, aopeared to be on the front left corner of the green, from the tee. When I got to the green, apparently the ball hit short of the green and bounced dead right! I got lucky and chipped it in the hole for a birdy!!!
On the par 5 #9, I let the driver leak a little to the right -- landed in a grass bunker (used to be a fairway trap, I am told) - got a good lie in heavy grass. From there I hit my 7W low but "hot" and straight. It went about the distance I would normally expect from my 5W, leaving me a 9I to a front pin. pulled the iron a bit, to hole high, 14 feet left of the pin. And I managed to make the putt for birdy!! Hmmmmmmmmm I thought -- What is this ? Me with 2 birdies in a row? Finished the front nine with a 41.
On to the back nine. Again started slow -- 3 bogies and a double thru 13 -- Then a super drive on 14 resulted in my 3rd GIR and my 3rd par on the day. par 3 15, tee shot was just short of the green -- but up and down for par. On 16, the drive went right, but left me a good line to the Green- unfortunatley I pulled the 7W into the bunker - -and took 3 to get out!! but finally one - putted for a double bogie Arghhhh! On 17 (par 5) I hit one of my best drives ever -- 180 yds dead in the center of the fairway, followed by a 175 yd 3W leaving a 7I to a center pin. The 7I was beautiful from club to top of trajectory - dead on the pin. Then it began to drift to the right - came to rest hole high but 14 feet to the right of the hole. Made the putt for my 3rd Birdy of the day!!
#18, also a par 5, was almost like #17, except this time it was a 6I to a back pin. The 6I was slightly pushed - hit the green but rolled off the right side into heavy greenside rough. Again I managed the "up and down" sucessfully for a par - and a back nine 42
final stats: 41 + 42 = 83
3 BIRDIES !! WOWWwwwwwwwwww!
5 pars
6 bogies
4 double bogies, 0 triples or "others"
9 of 14 fairways; 171 yd average drive
3 GIR - and several "near misses"
24 "used putts" -- 10 one-putts plus the chip-in -- effectively 12 one-putts
5 bunkers, 1 Sandy -- actually, only 2 bunkers hit, but it took 2 tries to get out of the first one one, and 3 to escape from the second-- but the 3rd effort was to about 3 feet
All in all, a GOOD round for me -- been a LONG time since I had 3 BIrdies in one round -- I don't get enough GIR these days :<((( Now if only the Ground crew will "work up" the bunkers by Wednesday. Essentially, it was a 1/4 inch of sudt. on top of very firm and base - almost like a harwdood floor -- club to bounce off the sand into the ball -- producing a low "bullet" shot that frequently hits the top of the lip and rebounds back into the bunker.
Keep hitting them STRAIGHT and LONG
Amos
GIR
Three birdies is great Amos!!!
Talking about GIR, when I was playing last Friday I couldn't seem to hit a green to save my life. Ha ha! I only hit 2 the first nine and made birdies on both and shot even par on the front. I would have liked to have blamed it on the wind, or leaves, or SOMETHING, but my son hit 8 out of 9 greens so excuses went out the window. LOL
Funny thing is that we both shot even par on that 9. He is having a little trouble getting putts to fall right now.
The second nine I did hit 3 greens but only shot 2 over par. He hit 8 of nine again and shot 1 under. I'm just not practicing enough right now, and I'm NOT a natural at this game. The only way for me to play very well is to play a lot or at least practice a lot. The one and only part of my game that saves me from disaster is putting.
GIR
Steve:
Thanks for your kind words
Part of my problem with GIR is narrow greens -- they are about 2 or 3 clubs in depth -- but in places only about 20 to 30 feet in width because of the "pinching" effect of the bunkers. With one or two them Wied but shallow! Makes them hard to hit, specially when you are hitting FW or hybrds into them almost all day long!
Amos
GIR
Geash
Wow If I could play as well as you and not practice and only shoot 2 over I would would be happy.
(I'm NOT a natural at this game) IMO its not about how great of swing we have its about knowing how to score ie short game from the sounds of it you have a very good short game.
I played in a pro am last month over at grand vic and shot a 76 from the back tees 6800 yards I made the comment that I thought I had a horrible swing and wonder how I shoot the scores I do and the pro in our group said to me that it works for you and you know how to score.
I am going to put 90% of my practice time into the short game this spring and see what happens.
Pondeli
Another suggestion for hitting to high of driver shots would be that you maybe swinging on to steep of a angle of attack you may need to flatten it out a little.
Just a thought.
Wooden heads ...
You know, I have had all manner of the good ol 460cc titanium thin faced whatever drivers in the last few years. Callaway and TaylorMade have been my choices. Yet, the driver that I have hit the furthest and straightest? MacGregor Persimmon 1 Wood - with a metal shaft. Of course you can't be off much and since it is 40+ years old the face is a bit worn. I know Persimmon is a very good material and compares nicely to Titanium.
Maybe Doc can comment if he can custom build a Persimmon wood with a smaller head if asked nicely.
PS - I just love the look on the younger kids faces when I pull out that "wood" and act like it won't go very far. : -)
Louisville Golf
Louisville Golf still makes and sells them.
Thanks ...
Thanks Mike - have seen the site. Would like to hear what Doc has to stay in general about these types of woods before I make a decision.
Down the middle,
Jon
tee height
Except with the driver, the actual height you set the tee at should not matter. You simply use your accordion set-up to get yourself down to the correct height for where you have the ball set. In fact, it can be a very good practice activity to hit irons off of a high tee and try to keep striking them in the center. It gives you a much better feel of controlling the movement of your body to return the club head at the proper height for where the ball is. It then helps you with taking smaller divots and just picking the ball off the ground. I do this probably every other time I go out and practice on the range. I pull out tees of various heights and hit my seven iron off of them, in no particular order.