12 Easy Tips To Hitting A Driver Straight

Finding it a problem hitting a driver straight.

Have a look at these 12 tips which we think will solve your problems.

Hitting a driver straight will help you to get so much more out of your golf game and add to your enjoyment. If your ball is not on the short stuff, it makes it that much harder to score well as you will always be playing a recovery shot. So try these 12 great tips on hitting a driver straight and you will greatly increase your chances of becoming a great driver of the ball and lowering your scores dramatically.

1. You Must Tee The Ball Up Correctly

To enable the club to swing through and hit it on a very slight upward stroke, the ball needs to be teed high enough, promoting a strike that is from the centre or towards the crown of the face. This helps to create a rainbow shaped flight on the shot and helps you hit more long drives. The general rule when placing your driver behind the ball is that the equator of it should be level with the top edge of the face of your driver.

2. Make Sure The Club Head Is Sitting Correctly

Ensure that when you are addressing the ball that the entire sole of the driver is sat flat on the floor showing the natural loft of the club to the ball which will help you hit your driver straight and produce a better ball flight.

3. Check You Have The Correct Loft & Shaft Flex

This is vital for optimizing your ball flight and reducing backspin which will result in more long drives. Visit a pro or golf center and have your swing speed and launch angle measured. This will ensure that the driver you are using suits both your build and your swing. Having your driver fitted to you will encompass these two factors and make you a much more consistent driver of the golf ball. You will never consistently hit the driver straight or hit long drives if it does not suit you.

4. Measure Your Carry Distance

If you know your overall carry distance with a good drive plus a distance that will allow for any roll on the ball, by careful use of your course guide or Golf GPS System, you will be immediately eliminate any hazards that will be facing you from the tee. This allows you to swing more freely and with confidence as you know the likely finishing position for your ball. If there are severe hazards at your optimum driving distance, use a fairway wood or rescue club. Minimize the danger.

5. Practice With Your Driver

One sure way to get better at hitting your driver is to practice, practice, practice. When you are hitting it consistently enough on the range, (remember to note down how far you hit it) then you can take it to the golf course with confidence.

6. Don't Worry About Others - Play Your Own Game

If you are playing with other golfers you should always remember that you are playing against the golf course and not against your playing partners, unless it is match play. It is all so easy to get sucked into trying to keep up with others who may hit the ball further than you off the tee. Try and avoid this and play your own game. Hit the fairway consistently and you will come out on top.

7. Don't Try To Steer The Ball

To help gain extra yards off the tee give up control of where the ball might go. If you try to steer the ball down the fairway you will find that your swing will become slower with less flow and energy to it. Always ensure that you free-wheel to a complete finish to hit consistent and long drives.

8. Importance of the Glove & Grip

It is vital you create great traction between yourself and the club. When the ball is struck off centre the club will try to twist in your hands which will change the angle of the face often giving a worse result. Make sure that you change your driver grip and your golf glove an a regular basis to optimize the traction which again will lead to more consistency and better results with your driver. This applies to the grips an all of your clubs. Always clean your grips regularly and if there is any sign of wear, replace them immediately. If you only play once a week, changing your grips annually should be enough, but if you play several times a week, they should be changed more than once per season.

9. Focus On A Target

If you move your target with the driver to a point on the horizon or anything that your brain clearly knows is impossible to reach, this will enable you to commit to the drive fully and gain better yardage.

10. Eliminate Any Body Tension

If your body is tense, this will cause a reduction in club head speed which means less distance. Have a pre shot routine. Walk slowly to your ball and calmly settle into your set up position. make sure that all your subsequent movements are also slow until you finally begin your swing. By doing this you will keep yourself relaxed and tension free.

11. Always Check The Wind

You should get into the habit of tossing grass into the air to double check the wind direction. The benefit of this is that it will confirm that you are choosing the correct aim or line to take and help you commit fully to the drive in hand with more confidence.

12. Always See Your Ball Finish

We all have off days and will never always hit the driver straight. So is vitally important that you should always see your ball finish. How many times do you see players turning away from the shot in disgust when they hit a bad one. The result is they then fail to get a line on it or see where it finished. The likely and all too common result is they lose the ball ending up taking 3 off the tee costing more unnecessary shots. Never rely on your playing partners to watch your shot for you.

I hope that you enjoy these 12 tips on hitting a driver straight and hope that one or more of them might really suit your game and fast track you to becoming a more consistent and better driver of the golf ball.