By Chad Miller

If you’ve ever seen our popular Business Card or Ball Forward drills, or read our recent blog on how to avoid chunked golf shots with your irons, chances are you’ve improved at hitting down into the ball and taking a divot in front of it for solid contact and piercing shots at the target.

But it’s good to note that while these changes can do wonders for your iron game, the descending angle of attack can wreak havoc if copied with the driver because of the club’s longer length and lack of loft, so here’s a simple drill to make sure you swing UP on the ball to bomb it with the big stick.


Drill your Driver UP

Drill your driver up to increase distance

  1. Tee up your driver like usual and place another peg into the ground about four inches in front of it along the target line about the same height as your teed-up ball.
  2. Place a third tee about two inches behind the teed-up ball along the target line, this one laid flat on the ground.
  3. Hit shots repeatedly in this fashion and try to miss both the front and back tees.

Diagnosis

If you miss the forward tee but hit the back tee (shown at left below) … your body is likely moving too far away from the target or ball, or that your wrists have started to “release” too early, which can create too much dynamic loft at impact and even make you hit the ground behind the ball, neither of which are good for long, consistent drives.

If you miss the back tee but hit the forward tee with these shots (shown center below) … your angle of approach is descending too much, which means your upper body has likely moved too far toward the target or ball, and that you have inconsistent contact, “ballooned” shots with too much spin, and varying trajectory patterns from swing to swing.

If you miss both tees (shown at right below)  … nice job! You’re likely now within a desirable range for angle of approach with your driver (generally anywhere from 2–5 degrees moving UP into the ball for most amateurs is ideal, although many variables determine this), and your face contact, spin rates and ball speed are closer to being maximized for long, towering drives!

Drill your driver up for increased distance


If you have questions about this drill or reasons behind it, as always, consult your local GolfTEC Certified Personal Coach who can help further.

2 COMMENTS

  1. My golf buddy keeps telling me I swing to fast. I have a club head speed of 130 mph and have a bad slice. Every now and then I get it right and hit a straight ball. What can I change

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here