luke donald's game

[MK7Golf21]

Im just wondering how someone can have such good iron play but suck with a driver. Isnt it the same swing?

[preny]

He doesn't even close to suck.

No it's not an iron swing - power off the tee is mandatory on the top pro tours.

[MK7Golf21]

[quote name='preny' timestamp='1303795885' post='3186392']
He doesn't even close to suck.

No it's not an iron swing - power off the tee is mandatory on the top pro tours.
[/quote]

ok, maybe suck isnt a good word but his iron play is great and driver is his weakness. Why is that?

[Inochi]

[quote name='Redjeep83' timestamp='1303795045' post='3186376']
Im just wondering how someone can have such good iron play but suck with a driver. Isnt it the same swing?
[/quote]

Not the same swing for me. I have no accuracy with a driver and have no idea where it is going to go. With irons I have a general idea and for the most part goes to the area where I am aiming.

[preny]

[quote name='Redjeep83' timestamp='1303796028' post='3186399']
[quote name='preny' timestamp='1303795885' post='3186392']
He doesn't even close to suck.

No it's not an iron swing - power off the tee is mandatory on the top pro tours.
[/quote]

ok, maybe suck isnt a good word but his iron play is great and driver is his weakness. Why is that?
[/quote]

You could say the same about so many great iron players. Tiger comes to mind...

Iron swings are down into the ball with a divot bottoming out significantly in front of the the ball which is roughly between the feet.
Driver swings are up at the ball, ideally bottoming out behind the ball, and when anyone under 6'7" wants to compete with the long-hitters, they have to use a ton of effort and keep it on that same path which doesn't have the nice focal point of a ball between the feet, as it is teed off the left foot. The longer shaft requires a flatter swing, which recruits different muscles in different ways. There is simply no way to use even a brilliant iron swing with a driver and compete on the PGA tour.

[Eag1e]

I'd like to say I'm about as close to Luke's action as you can get without being a carbon copy, and for me the driver is the only club I never am 100% consistent with. The driver's tougher to get timing down with on the hands, that's the reason. We both use a bit of a handsy timing release and it's fine for the irons because we have weakish grips and rotate through the shot which holds the club square very consistently, but with the driver, the rotation brings our path very inside-out by the time it gets to the left-foot ball position, and if the timing is off, squaring it late leads to a big pushfade and squaring it early leads to a pull. Actually, the setup has to really change for the driver to get it inside enough to lessen the severity of timing mishaps - I have to set up 80% on my right foot, which really lets me get in a position to turn on it. So, no, the swing isn't the same for a driver because the ball position is different and the path that we naturally have has to be drastically changed to narrow the dispersion - and also our swings are not geared for a driver. ;]