Why You Can't Hit Driver Straight - STOP Doing This!

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Transcript Summary-

So take a look at this drive at the 18th at Canary Golf Club. It's super narrow, isn't it? You really need to know how to hit a driver straight here. So many members are slicing or hooking the golf ball, and they don't know how to correct it. In this video, I'm going to show you how to learn to hit a driver straight. I'll give you five simple things to consider. You won't need all of them; maybe just one or two, or a combination, will have you hitting the ball so much better. I absolutely promise you.

Before I get into the video, if you're new to the channel and this is your first lesson with me, please consider subscribing. I release videos like this every single week to help you improve your game. Plus, you'll never have to remember a thing because I'll always include a free downloadable practice guide in the description box below.

Step One:

Before we work on your direction, I want to make sure you’ve got the strike right. I say this because Greg, a recent student of mine, had a big slice, but his problem was also poor contact. Sometimes he’d hit it low on the ground, other times it would sky up in the air, and occasionally he’d get that beautiful flight, but it was really inconsistent. What we did to change this was improve his setup.

It's very simple. With the driver, you want to hit the ball on the way up. The easiest way to achieve this is to do two things: get the ball position right. First, place your feet together so the ball's right in the middle of your stance. Then take a little step toward the target and a big step away. This sets the ball position perfectly.

Greg’s issue was that his club was coming down steeply into the golf ball. This steep angle meant he either hit the ball low or sky-high, and only occasionally got it right. To fix this, we changed his setup. I want you to do the same. Take a club and place it down the middle of your sternum. Greg was setting up with the shaft pointing toward the middle of his stance, which is fine for irons, but not for drivers. Instead, point the club toward the golf ball, which angles your shoulders slightly and helps you hit up on the ball rather than down.

Another tip: when you’re setting up, ensure you can see the track or dot on the underside of the ball. This means you’ve got a tilt in your shoulders, allowing you to strike up on the golf ball. This setup change helped Greg with his strike, and I’m sure it will help you too.

Step Two:

We got Greg’s strike sorted, but he was still slicing. So what creates curvature? It’s two things: path and face. I asked Greg which part of the ball he thought he was hitting when he sliced it. He thought he was hitting too much on the outside, but in reality, all slicers hit the outside of the ball.

If your clubface is open to the path, you create spin that curves the ball to the right. To fix this, you need to visualize striking the inside of the golf ball. This changes your swing path and helps reduce the slice. Just like in soccer, if you want the ball to curve, you hit it with an angled foot to create spin. The same principle applies in golf.

Step Three:

Tom, another student, had a slice problem. We got him set up correctly, but he needed something simple for the course. I told him to mark the inside quadrant of the golf ball. This mark helped him focus on striking the right part of the ball, which adjusted his swing path.

If you hit the outside quadrant, you slice. But if you focus on the inside quadrant, your swing path changes, and you start hitting straighter or even drawing the ball. This simple focus point helped Tom improve his swings significantly.

Step Four:

With an inside path but an open face, the ball will still go right. Tom needed to control his clubface. Most slicers throw the club away on the backswing, opening the face. I told Tom to keep his clubface controlled in the first part of the swing. By taking it back calmly, he kept the face square and in control. Practicing this helped him create a draw instead of a slice.

Step Five:

Controlling the clubface and understanding its orientation is crucial. Many golfers have no idea where the clubface is during the swing. I can feel where the clubface is because I've developed that skill, and I want you to do the same. Here’s a simple drill: close your eyes and put your hand out. Feel the orientation of your palm. Do the same with a club, spin it around with your eyes closed, and find square. This develops your feel for the clubface.

Spend time working on one or a combination of these steps, and I promise you'll learn to hit a straight driver just like Tom and Greg did. If you enjoyed the video, give it a thumbs up and share it with a friend. For more on your irons, check out the video right here and don’t forget the free practice guide in the description. Have a wonderful golfing week!

Full Transcript- so take a look at this drive at the 18th at Canary Golf Club what do you think Super narrow isn't it you need to know how to hit driver straight so many members here are slicing the ball hooking the golf ball they don't know how to do it they don't know how to correct it in this video I'm going to show you how you can learn how to hit drive stret I'm actually going to give you five simple things you can consider you will not need them all maybe one or two or combination of one or two will have you hitting that ball so much better absolutely promise you so before I get into the video look if you're new to the channel your first lessons of mine please consider subscribing at least videos like this every single week to try and help you improve your game plus you never have to remember a thing I'll always put a free download practice guide in the description box below so step number one and before we work on your direction I want to make sure that you've got a strike I say this because Greg a recent student of mine had a Big Slice on him but the problem was he also had poor contact sometimes you hit it low on the ground some of it would Sky up in the air and then occasionally it would be that beautiful flight but it was really inconsistent what we did to change this was first of all improve his setup it's very simple now with driver you want to hit the ball on the way up the easiest way to achieve this is to do two things you get the ball position in the right place first of all feet together so the ball's right in the middle of your stance take a little step towards a Target and a big one away this sets the ball position up now this is crucial and this is what Greg wasn't doing Greg the reason why strike was so bad and I see this with so many golfers is they his Club was coming down quite steeply into the golf ball like this now look at this if he strikes the ball there's no Loft in the club the ball goes low if he strikes it and the ball comes off the top of the club he strikes it and the ball goes super super high every so often he saves it and he hits it okay all I did to completely eradicate that was change his setup I want you to do the same check yours take a club put it right down the middle of your sternum here now Greg was set up like this with the shaft completely with driver almost pointing at the middle of your stance where you probably have an iron but I want you here to point this club towards the golf ball here now what this done it angles your shoulders a little bit more this way and provides a better way look rather than coming down now you're now starting to come level or even slightly up on that golf ball hugely hugely beneficial the other thing you can do which could be even simpler when you're playing is I've got one of the true track balls from Callaway here and when I look above that ball I can see the two dots on the ball but when I go like this I can now see the track or the Little Dot on the underside of the golf ball this proves now that I've got some form of tilt in my shoulders and I can now look strike up on that golf ball here look I can so set up correctly first it will make dri so much easier get that's what helped with Greg in his strike and I'm sure it's going to help you let's move on to step two so we got Greg strike in the go golf ball but he was still slicing it now why what creates curvature just two things path club path and face now I asked Greg Greg you're still slicing it just have interest what part of the golf ball here from the back this side here or this side are you hitting do you think when you slice it oh definitely I'm I'm hitting too much here face is open and I'm hitting it there that's why it's curving over there and I said no actually all slices basically hit this side the outside of the golf ball and it's really yeah your ball sets off to the left and curves to the right he says well what causes the curve he says well if your Club face is open slightly to the path you get like if look at this here if my face is square I'd hit it straight left but if I open the club face I create look this spin this spin is what curves the ball over to the right hand side this is why you're slicing it and it say wow really so I said yeah so what we want to do is is you've now got yourself set up in position I want you to start to make some swings now where you're actually striking it look on this side of the golf ball so suddenly now what do you think he did he started to make better movements rather than in a sense try and stop his slice swinging this way to try and stop it going over there he started now to make much much better swings because he start to visualize a completely different movement if this was you know football or soccer you call it in the in the US if I want a ball to curve this way I'm hitting look this side of the golf ball with my foot angled to create spin yeah this is ultimately how you get rid of any form of slice that's all we did that simple understanding completely changed the whole approach to his game so that is Step number two you get yourself set here take your posture start to visualize that club attacking look on a uh a swing Circle that hits the inside of that golf ball and you're going to start to get much more maybe even a draw shape on that

driver just like that beauty let's move on to step number three so step number three You Now understand that curvature on a golf ball is created by two things the path the club is traveling so the path strikes the ball on the outside here with an open face you produce that type of spin that curves it over to the right hand side and if you path the club too far to the right with a close face you create look this type of curvature it is as simple as that now Tom a recent student of mine he came with a slice now we got him set up as we've talked about earlier got him set up correctly then I he just wanted something simple to take to the golf course so I said to him look get a mark and put it on an inside quadrant the great thing about driver you can do this right it's a fixed t-shot put a mark on the inside quadrant of this golf ball here this is the part you want to strike because you're striking the outside quadrant I want to really exaggerate the feeling the chances of you hitting there are really slim but this is your focus point it did two things it got him clearly into a better setup the other thing you got him doing here look is this most people who slice like I say are coming this way suddenly now he started to create a swing Circle that came look down the correct line to strike this inside quadrant here versus look this would strike the outside quadrant so just putting a Mark gave him a real simple Focus point but we couldn't stop there because remember this is Step number four if you've got an inside path but the face is aiming over there as you do it where's the ball going to go probably into those trees right so I needed him to kind of fix the second thing which is Club face now all I did with him is look look at your Club face now as you swinging the club away right what you're doing is you're throwing the club away as you throw it away like this you've lost complete control over it that face is opening up like this so when you come back down the face is wide open you might hit this quadrant but it's going to go over to the right so I did just one thing with him once he's got that kind of visual all I did was say look you see all the best players doing this concentrate on looking after that club face in the first part of your swing keep it nice and calm because if you keep the whole thing calm when you get to the top you're in a better place to come straight back down the line but if you throw it away the face is lost so focus on the inside quadrant then as you look down the Fairway take a movement do a few swings just like the best players do controlling that face look here backwards and forwards take do a few little rehearsals and when you're ready just pull the trigger

that's an absolutely beautiful high draw why because I'm focusing on the inside quadrant I've looked after my club face and that is going to help me create that draw now clearly Tom didn't do this in one ball like I've just done there he started off in step by step he had to get the feeling and the visual of striking this inside quadrant he then needed to kind of take his time even when I said take it calmly on the way back he still swung it back too fast taking it calm he felt really slow motion on the way back here but that is what really helped him control the club face let's just focus on one final thing for the last student of mine so before we move on to step number five which I think is probably the most important because it helps you with your ions too remember you don't need all of these you know just a combination even the understanding could really help you start to hit those Fairways more consistently with your driver okay but this final bit is super super important see your ability to control this club face and the orientation is huge so many people who are slicing or hooking the golf ball do not have any idea where that face is that club is traveling 100 miles an hour here's the thing though I know where that faces I can feel it I've developed that skill I want you to do the same and the simplest way to do this is this all I want you to do is this I want you to close your eyes for a second put your hand out here now I know that my palm is facing this way yeah with my eyes closed I know my palm is facing this way why because I can feel this but here's the other thing and you I want you to do this test now grab an iron or a driver look at this I'm going to keep my eyes closed I'm going to spin this club around like this so I don't know where it is but I'm going to find where square is right there makes sense look at that completely Square why is that useful because knowing and being able to feel where square is I'm able to control that club all the way back and all the way through it's it's a skill that most of the people I coach initially do not have and they can create beautiful swings but they do not ride that club back to square you can do this in the comfort of your own home spin a few clubs around keep your eyes closed and start to play around what you'll feel is the weight of the club it will slightly different but that level of feel and awareness you then start applying you can start to bring that awareness into that swing I now can feel when I open my face at speed I can feel when the club's starting to close down it's what gives me the skill to hit the ball straight I want you to develop that skill it will take time so be patient but it is absolutely huge okay so spend time now working on one or a combination of one or two of these things and I promise you you will learn how to hit straight driver just like Tom and Greg did I hope you enjoy the video if you did give it a thumbs up maybe share it if one of your friends and if you feel like you enjoy this video and you maybe want to look at something on your irons check this one out right here free practice uh guide in the description box below but until next week have a wonderful golfing week.