Help me hit a driver!

[webber]

My 3 wood to LW is fine. I’m hitting the ball good I’ve got no issues. I’m hitting my driver all over the map lots of shots left, and to the right.  The spin axis is in an acceptable range with all other clubs but driver, but then when I get to the driver, the spin axis is off the map 12+ degrees.  Here is a link to a trackman report I would value anybody’s insight into what they’re seeing. You should be able to pull up some swings as well.  
 

https://web-dynamic-reports.trackmangolf.com/?r=a3be0fcb-99b9-4a98-8992-c5c461451d70&dm=c&nd=true&op=true&sro=false&do=true&to=true&vo=true&cdo=true&ot=c&ov=d&mp[]=ClubSpeed&mp[]=ClubPath&mp[]=FaceAngle&mp[]=FaceToPath&mp[]=AttackAngle&mp[]=BallSpeed&mp[]=SpinRate&mp[]=Carry&mp[]=Total&mp[]=Height&u=Us&v=dispersion&sgos[]=c6df51fe-cab6-4f51-b42c-12d4eb8990a2&sgos[]=3f115d36-c4b6-443f-be23-e4e14446c070&sgos[]=e91cea91-5e46-4cf5-82a6-0ae1ab699150&sgos[]=b88582b8-8f4b-4e02-943f-75e8a43ca2c2&sgos[]=1b3d62d6-4bec-42ca-a1ed-6284c43fe775&sgos[]=19c1ef26-a904-4cda-9b3b-b220709dec64&sgos[]=4a6ece2c-a691-4036-8900-c21bb85adfff&sgos[]=c1606443-2d56-4f19-b2a2-696e696f658a&sgos[]=23f22752-9bc9-4929-a213-b3033dcd85e5&sgos[]=ef1c0d9b-13e9-49e8-8ae8-92fe131d0a2d

[GoGoErky]

Post videos of your driver sing from face on and down the line.

 

as a reference post the same for a 7i

[LukeDonaldsTiger]

5 minutes ago, GoGoErky said:

Post videos of your driver sing from face on and down the line.

 

as a reference post the same for a 7i

You know there’s DTL video in that Trackman report?

[GoGoErky]

All your swings have to same issue, you’re just able to manage the compensations in the other clubs better than with your driver.

 

You rock back on your heels to start the swing and all you really do from there is swing the arms and don’t get any upper body rotation and end up on a false turn with a ton of arm over run. You end up moving your hips closer to the ball in the downswing and stall out and have to really throw the hands at the ball to hit it. This requires a lot of work to be consistent. Your ball position is the same with every club, should be moving back in the stance a bit as you go from driver to wedge.

 

fix your setup so that your hip joint in in line with your ankle. Stand 2-3” away from a wall and bend at the waist til your butt touches the wall. Thats roughly what you want in a setup.

 

your grip is pretty strong too, guessing that’s been done to compensate for what the ball was doing and trying to fix the flight?

 

Learn how to rotate the chest and hips properly while setting the wrists around p2 for your irons and wedges and between p2 and p3 for the longer clubs.

 

until you fix these things your driver is going to be an issue

[Canada8888]

lots of your numbers are great ...smash at 1.49, spin axis of 6.5, 300 yards off the tee  etc

 

you can change your swing (lots of work...best for winter?) or just pick a different start line as you intent (best for now?) 

 

[wagolfer7]

If your not looking to rebuild the swing, I think just trying to get your weight left sooner will be a big help with longer clubs, especially driver.  Your really loaded up on the trail side at the top of the swing, making it really late to get weight pressure more to the lead side early enough. 

 

Padraig step drill on YT would be a good way to get a feel for it. 

 

You can see that your left heel is still of the ground at the top. 

  

[webber]

7 hours ago, GoGoErky said:

All your swings have to same issue, you’re just able to manage the compensations in the other clubs better than with your driver.

 

You rock back on your heels to start the swing and all you really do from there is swing the arms and don’t get any upper body rotation and end up on a false turn with a ton of arm over run. You end up moving your hips closer to the ball in the downswing and stall out and have to really throw the hands at the ball to hit it. This requires a lot of work to be consistent. Your ball position is the same with every club, should be moving back in the stance a bit as you go from driver to wedge.

 

fix your setup so that your hip joint in in line with your ankle. Stand 2-3” away from a wall and bend at the waist til your butt touches the wall. Thats roughly what you want in a setup.

 

your grip is pretty strong too, guessing that’s been done to compensate for what the ball was doing and trying to fix the flight?

 

Learn how to rotate the chest and hips properly while setting the wrists around p2 for your irons and wedges and between p2 and p3 for the longer clubs.

 

until you fix these things your driver is going to be an issue

 

Thanks!  Tell me how you really feel!  JK good tips I'll give them a try.

[me05501]

My driving improved a lot when I started focusing on the quality and location of my contact. 

 

I got some impact stickers and practiced with them pretty regularly. The visual feedback helped me learn to *feel* where I was striking the ball.

 

That sounds very simple, but I went years having only a vague perception of "good" or "bad" contact without connecting that to high/low/heel/toe or center. Having developed that feel I rarely need to use the stickers anymore. 

 

Learning to get center contact helped me improve my setup and dial in the tee height that works best for me. 

 

I'm still working on adding speed, but not at the expense of finding the center of the clubface. 

 

[joedizzy1978]

The biggest difference between the other 12 clubs and your driver is the tee height.  The manner in which youre hitting up isn’t allowing the face to be managed well with path.  I suggest you have sessions where you hit balls off the deck.  You’ll struggle at first, but youre a good enough player to manage over time.  As you start seeing success (complimentary path to face) tee the ball up .25 inches off the ground and attempt to take the same swing.  The different strike location on the face should elevate the dynamic loft.  Finally, tee it up where the top of the ball is level with the crown of your driver.  If you get down and look, you’ll see a minimum of .75 in. between the center of your club face and the equator of the ball.  First, attempt to take similar swings to the first two scenarios and allow the higher strike point to increase the dynamic loft.  If youre seeing path and face stable, attempt to elevate the sweet spot to the equator.  Through this process, you’ll begin to notice that the body plays a role in controlling the club head exit.  Yours tends to leave the ground vertically after impact but not enough in….hence the club face problems.  The current tee height promotes the issue while hitting it off the deck and off a lower tee discourage it.  

[grantc79]

On 5/5/2025 at 11:28 PM, webber said:

My 3 wood to LW is fine. I’m hitting the ball good I’ve got no issues. I’m hitting my driver all over the map lots of shots left, and to the right.  The spin axis is in an acceptable range with all other clubs but driver, but then when I get to the driver, the spin axis is off the map 12+ degrees.  Here is a link to a trackman report I would value anybody’s insight into what they’re seeing. You should be able to pull up some swings as well.  
 

https://web-dynamic-reports.trackmangolf.com/?r=a3be0fcb-99b9-4a98-8992-c5c461451d70&dm=c&nd=true&op=true&sro=false&do=true&to=true&vo=true&cdo=true&ot=c&ov=d&mp[]=ClubSpeed&mp[]=ClubPath&mp[]=FaceAngle&mp[]=FaceToPath&mp[]=AttackAngle&mp[]=BallSpeed&mp[]=SpinRate&mp[]=Carry&mp[]=Total&mp[]=Height&u=Us&v=dispersion&sgos[]=c6df51fe-cab6-4f51-b42c-12d4eb8990a2&sgos[]=3f115d36-c4b6-443f-be23-e4e14446c070&sgos[]=e91cea91-5e46-4cf5-82a6-0ae1ab699150&sgos[]=b88582b8-8f4b-4e02-943f-75e8a43ca2c2&sgos[]=1b3d62d6-4bec-42ca-a1ed-6284c43fe775&sgos[]=19c1ef26-a904-4cda-9b3b-b220709dec64&sgos[]=4a6ece2c-a691-4036-8900-c21bb85adfff&sgos[]=c1606443-2d56-4f19-b2a2-696e696f658a&sgos[]=23f22752-9bc9-4929-a213-b3033dcd85e5&sgos[]=ef1c0d9b-13e9-49e8-8ae8-92fe131d0a2d

 

I have similar issues when I try to swing up on the driver a lot. I typically draw everything but I CANNOT hit up on it with a draw with a driver consistently. I'll get the occasional hook but a much more common block when I try to hit up on it with a draw with the driver. 

 

Unless you really like to cut the ball hitting up a lot on the driver makes it much more difficult to control the face. 

 

If you really want to hit up on it and gain the extra 10-15 yards then learn to hit a power fade. 

 

Or just do like I did and give up hitting up on it and start hitting the driver level (feel like hitting down) and you'll lose a club of distance but have so much more control. 

[MonteScheinblum]

Stuck on right side, dropping right shoulder too much and too early.

 

That right there is literally causing 5-8 more residual issues.  

Edited May 11 by MonteScheinblum

[dsmil]

8 hours ago, MonteScheinblum said:

Stuck on right side, dropping right shoulder too much and too early.

 

That right there is literally causing 5-8 more residual issues.  

I would try this from Monte. I implemented this a few rounds ago and I’m driving the ball unbelievably. 
 

I’m similar to you where the rest of my clubs are solid but my driver has been finishing too far right. I was dipping my rear shoulder early in an effort to hit on the ball and I think my path was coming too far from the inside. Now I’m staying in left side bend longer (more like my iron swing) and my path/face has shifted left. Your ball speed and spin numbers look good so I think everything just needs to be shifted left and when the path moves left, the face often moves with it.

Edited May 11 by dsmil

[MonteScheinblum]

9 hours ago, dsmil said:

I would try this from Monte. I implemented this a few rounds ago and I’m driving the ball unbelievably. 
 

I’m similar to you where the rest of my clubs are solid but my driver has been finishing too far right. I was dipping my rear shoulder early in an effort to hit on the ball and I think my path was coming too far from the inside. Now I’m staying in left side bend longer (more like my iron swing) and my path/face has shifted left. Your ball speed and spin numbers look good so I think everything just needs to be shifted left and when the path moves left, the face often moves with it.

Not uncommon.  I see it on my lesson tee all the time.  Bad driver, good everything else.  The “hit up” narrative has killed a lot of golfers.  
 

It’s the equivalent if you did a test of 1000 golfers.  Had them hit drivers normally.  Then had the same thousand hit driver on a gram of cocaine.  Well guess what, most will hit it father….then people will say more is better and 1.2 g is lethal.

 

Some of you may chuckle and say that is ridiculous, but this is what people have done with hit up.  I’ve had people on my lesson tee tell me everything but driver is good, they are hitting up 7-12* and when I say that’s bad, I hear, “The more you hit up, the farther the ball goes.”

 

When they find out the tour average is down 1 and the LPGA average is only up 2, they want to assault the previous guy who told them to hit up…..more and more.

 

Yes, there is absolutely some benefit to hitting up a a few degrees and it’s better than down 5, but like most things on the swing, golfers and dare I say instructors go extreme and that’s why people are afraid of lessons.

 

There is nothing wrong with exaggerated feels for a short time to solve an extreme issue, but you need to know the end game.  “Feeling “ like you hit up isn’t the worst idea in the world if you’re steep and down 5, but up 5+ is just as bad or worse (for some).

 

My running joke, you don’t solve constipation by drinking the water in Mexico. You just stop eating so much cheese.

[webber]

19 hours ago, MonteScheinblum said:

Stuck on right side, dropping right shoulder too much and too early.

 

That right there is literally causing 5-8 more residual issues.  

Should I try to get to my left side in transition or should I try to stay more centered going back so I’m not excessively loaded on the right?

 

Also my left foot isn’t flared out as much at address but when I replant it it’s usually more flared out and pulled in slightly closer than where it started like my stance narrowed a bit. 

[MonteScheinblum]

1 hour ago, webber said:

Should I try to get to my left side in transition or should I try to stay more centered going back so I’m not excessively loaded on the right?

 

Also my left foot isn’t flared out as much at address but when I replant it it’s usually more flared out and pulled in slightly closer than where it started like my stance narrowed a bit. 

Transition.  Staying centered tends to nit work out for most unless it’s a flighted wedge 

[mizunotpz]

20 minutes ago, MonteScheinblum said:

Transition.  Staying centered tends to nit work out for most unless it’s a flighted wedge 

Sorry, but I dont understand. Do you recommend staying on your left side in the backswing with driver, or more traditional: swing back into your right heel and then in the downswing right heel to left front foot?

[MonteScheinblum]

4 minutes ago, mizunotpz said:

Sorry, but I dont understand. Do you recommend staying on your left side in the backswing with driver, or more traditional: swing back into your right heel and then in the downswing right heel to left front foot?

You work to your trail foot early and back to the front foot late and in transition 

[mizunotpz]

1 minute ago, MonteScheinblum said:

You work to your trail foot early and back to the front foot late and in transition 

Yes ok, like AMG Golf has talked a lot about, the recentering.

[golferdude54]

3 hours ago, MonteScheinblum said:

Not uncommon.  I see it on my lesson tee all the time.  Bad driver, good everything else.  The “hit up” narrative has killed a lot of golfers.  
 

It’s the equivalent if you did a test of 1000 golfers.  Had them hit drivers normally.  Then had the same thousand hit driver on a gram of cocaine.  Well guess what, most will hit it father….then people will say more is better and 1.2 g is lethal.

 

Some of you may chuckle and say that is ridiculous, but this is what people have done with hit up.  I’ve had people on my lesson tee tell me everything but driver is good, they are hitting up 7-12* and when I say that’s bad, I hear, “The more you hit up, the farther the ball goes.”

 

When they find out the tour average is down 1 and the LPGA average is only up 2, they want to assault the previous guy who told them to hit up…..more and more.

 

Yes, there is absolutely some benefit to hitting up a a few degrees and it’s better than down 5, but like most things on the swing, golfers and dare I say instructors go extreme and that’s why people are afraid of lessons.

 

There is nothing wrong with exaggerated feels for a short time to solve an extreme issue, but you need to know the end game.  “Feeling “ like you hit up isn’t the worst idea in the world if you’re steep and down 5, but up 5+ is just as bad or worse (for some).

 

My running joke, you don’t solve constipation by drinking the water in Mexico. You just stop eating so much cheese.

What do you think of driver off the deck as a drill and finding the best ball position for it and then playing it half a ball to a full ball forward off a tee?

 

It’s not that much of an adjustment and it wouldn’t be that negative of an attack angle.

[MonteScheinblum]

14 minutes ago, golferdude54 said:

What do you think of driver off the deck as a drill and finding the best ball position for it and then playing it half a ball to a full ball forward off a tee?

 

It’s not that much of an adjustment and it wouldn’t be that negative of an attack angle.

Like most ideas that are good as relates to the golf swing, that’s gonna be good for a lot of people and not for some.  It’s still a trial and error process. You just have to direct all the trial and error at the root cause.