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The importance of driving

long&straight

long&straight

Blind Shot
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I got out for a round of golf at Brown Deer CC (site of the old US Bank Championship) this morning before work and could not hit one straight drive. I was hitting out from under trees on every hole that I used the driver on. Could never get into a rhythm. Par 3's I was hitting them pin high and having a good time. After 3 in the woods you would think I would just aim right, since I was slicing it all day.

I guess it is time to go hit a bucket at the range to figure this thing out.

rant over.
 
I agree that it is very important and something that I am seriously working on right not myself.

On a lighter note, maybe you need to change your forum name? :laughing:
 
mcook77 said:
I agree that it is very important and something that I am seriously working on right not myself.

On a lighter note, maybe you need to change your forum name? :laughing:
Click to expand...

SLAM...ouch
 
long&straight said:
I got out for a round of golf at Brown Deer CC (site of the old US Bank Championship) this morning before work and could not hit one straight drive. I was hitting out from under trees on every hole that I used the driver on. Could never get into a rhythm. Par 3's I was hitting them pin high and having a good time. After 3 in the woods you would think I would just aim right, since I was slicing it all day.
I guess it is time to go hit a bucket at the range to figure this thing out.
rant over.
Click to expand...

Good driving is a must. Always better to hit from the short grass, but a good iron player can recover on those missed fairway days. It is times like this where it is good to hit the range and for me, it would be time to have my teacher join me there. I do very little as far as trying to fix problems on my own. I about always include my teacher.
 
Were you all over the place, or doing one thing over and over?

I feel for ya though.. Been trying to clear out a pretty healthy slice in my driver this year.
 
Welcome to my world, dude.
 
It's amazing how much a bad driving day can mess with your mental game.

Technically speaking, good driving shouldn't matter as much as it does when it gets in your head!
 
Had the most frustrating time yesterday.

I was CRUSHING drives. I mean, absolutely blasting them. However, they'd just clip a branch and die. They'd leak just right over a tree line.

How is this for bad luck? I actually hit the 150 yard marker on the fly with one of my drives. It was a white pole. So, instead of getting another 15-20 yards of run it bounced backwards about 10 yards. What the heck????

I halfway expected to hit a bird with one of my drives.
 
I feel like with me its one thing or the other. If I am hitting good drives then my iron play suffers, or vice versa. Lets not even get into my putting..
 
My whole game is built off driving the ball well. If I do I will usually score real well and if I don't my scores reflect it. My strong part of my game is iron play and it bails me out but there is nothing worse than standing on a tee and having no clue where it is going. That has been my driving fault lately. Had a lesson last week with my instructor and we noticed a small fault that was a pretty easy fix and of course I bought a new Cleveland TL310 with a Miyazaki shaft and that didn't hurt either. lol:banana:

I just hope the honeymoon never ends with the 310.
 
No matter how you want to say it, if the second shot is a punch out of the trees, you can have the greatest short game in the world and you will still lose strokes on an 18 hole round. Playing from trouble wears you down pretty quickly.
 
DawgDaddy said:
No matter how you want to say it, if the second shot is a punch out of the trees, you can have the greatest short game in the world and you will still lose strokes on an 18 hole round. Playing from trouble wears you down pretty quickly.
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+1 Yesterday, was having a great round going. -1 thru 11 holes. Three holes and 4 balls snapped hooked out of bounds left later.... good round over. :banghead:
 
SFCoach said:
How is this for bad luck? I actually hit the 150 yard marker on the fly with one of my drives. It was a white pole. So, instead of getting another 15-20 yards of run it bounced backwards about 10 yards. What the heck????
Click to expand...

I actually had that happen to me on the first time I was out this year, and the ball came off of it funny and ended up in a creek 20 yards to the right of the pole. I think I might have been pretty upset if I had been keeping score, but I never keep score on my first couple of rounds at the start of the season while I get back into the swing of things.
 
I have been trying to get myself to make a driver decision on the range during warmup. Normally I can get a feel if it's even worth pulling it out of the bag before the first hole. Of course I fail at making that decision all the time, but it's the thought that counts. I did manage to leave it in the bag for a whole round and just use my 3W instead and I believe it saved my round.
 
I'm having driver issues this season as well. I never seem to know where it's going... and when I try to hit a draw, I end up hitting a fade. My shots that do go down the middle tend to be high and short, while the ones that I actually hit well are usually pulled to the left.
To me, there is nothing more frustrating. Golf is just not near as fun when you aren't hitting the big stick well, not to mention it seems to rub off on the rest of the clubs in my bag.
Unlike others, if I'm not hitting my driver well, my 3-wood is usually worse. I have no backup plan!
 
the_paulo said:
It's amazing how much a bad driving day can mess with your mental game.

Technically speaking, good driving shouldn't matter as much as it does when it gets in your head!
Click to expand...

No kidding. I played 9 Weds night without my driver and it was brutal. I teed off with my M2 Mashie, hit everything relatively straight, but 25 yards short of my driver.
 
mcook77 said:
On a lighter note, maybe you need to change your forum name? :laughing:
Click to expand...

HA! Can I get a moderator to change it to long and right!! Good call!!
 
We were just talking about this the other day hear at work, about how it would improve most high handicapper's scores to just leave the driver at home most days. Unless you hit driver really well and your score is the result of bad putting or whatever else. It is better to hit hybrid/5 iron to a par 4 or to hit hybrid/hybrid/5 iron/SW to a par 5 than it is to take a big number hitting the ball out of bounds or into the woods and hacking out. The fastest way to improve your score is to be disciplined and not try to hit that driver on every par 4 or 5. I am a low handicapper and you would be surprised how many times I grab a hybrid or a 4 iron to tee off on a par 4 or even a par 5 if the fairway is just too narrow to hit driver or 3W. Especially important to not go too far into trouble, stay short of a bunker or other hazard, or if you go too far right or left you are dead. Try playing to the yardage marker at 150 sometime with a par 4 tee shot or with your second or even third shot on a par 5. Instead of trying to hit that driver and risking having to make a miracle shot just to get back in play leave yourself back a little. If you practice that 150 shot until you can do it in your sleep all you have to do is get to that marker and you have it made. There are very few golf courses that don't allow you to do this, and if you are playing a golf course that forces you to hit 250 yard carries just to play it then you need to either move up to a closer tee box or go somewhere else to play, because you are not doing yourself any favors by trying to hit shots you are not able to pull off a high percentage of the time.
 
Thankfully the best part of my game is my driving which tends to give me confidence throughout the bag. I do hit it rather long and usually can hit it straight and a controlled fade if need be. Heck the other day I drove a 320 yard par 4 green pin high. The problem with that is I struggle with my putter on a normal basis.
That being said. I will occasionally have those days where my driver just is not there at all and it throws a wrench in your whole day because you are mad at yourself for not hitting the ball well. Just work on it, you will get back to normal.
 
pjcedog said:
We were just talking about this the other day hear at work, about how it would improve most high handicapper's scores to just leave the driver at home most days. Unless you hit driver really well and your score is the result of bad putting or whatever else. It is better to hit hybrid/5 iron to a par 4 or to hit hybrid/hybrid/5 iron/SW to a par 5 than it is to take a big number hitting the ball out of bounds or into the woods and hacking out. The fastest way to improve your score is to be disciplined and not try to hit that driver on every par 4 or 5. I am a low handicapper and you would be surprised how many times I grab a hybrid or a 4 iron to tee off on a par 4 or even a par 5 if the fairway is just too narrow to hit driver or 3W. Especially important to not go too far into trouble, stay short of a bunker or other hazard, or if you go too far right or left you are dead. Try playing to the yardage marker at 150 sometime with a par 4 tee shot or with your second or even third shot on a par 5. Instead of trying to hit that driver and risking having to make a miracle shot just to get back in play leave yourself back a little. If you practice that 150 shot until you can do it in your sleep all you have to do is get to that marker and you have it made. There are very few golf courses that don't allow you to do this, and if you are playing a golf course that forces you to hit 250 yard carries just to play it then you need to either move up to a closer tee box or go somewhere else to play, because you are not doing yourself any favors by trying to hit shots you are not able to pull off a high percentage of the time.
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+1 for dropping knowledge. I agree with everything you say........ BUT I was raised a little old school with the idea "You drive for show and putt for dough".
It seems this arguement has been popping up a lot lately here on THP.
 
Well said pjcedog! I have put a big focus on course management and typically only hit driver (except when getting used to the new one) on par 4's greater than 375 or par 5's that I can reach in 2. Although it sure sucks to go with the 3 or 5 wood and hose up that tee shot!!
 
Snap Hook said:
+1 for dropping knowledge. I agree with everything you say........ BUT I was raised a little old school with the idea "You drive for show and putt for dough".
It seems this arguement has been popping up a lot lately here on THP.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the +. Now, regarding 'drive for dough and putt for dough' as I refer to it which is what you see on the PGA tour today - I can hit a driver really well and sometimes I am just as accurate with my driver as I am with a hybrid or a 5 iron - but not always. I would not expect the average handicapper above 10 - 15 to be able to do the same, certainly not a 20 or a 30.
 
SFCoach said:
Had the most frustrating time yesterday.

I was CRUSHING drives. I mean, absolutely blasting them. However, they'd just clip a branch and die. They'd leak just right over a tree line.

How is this for bad luck? I actually hit the 150 yard marker on the fly with one of my drives. It was a white pole. So, instead of getting another 15-20 yards of run it bounced backwards about 10 yards. What the heck????

I halfway expected to hit a bird with one of my drives.
Click to expand...

I did it last saturday on a par 5, a double dog leg so I hit a hybrid off the tee, and was planning to just hit another hybrid to be inside the 150. Wrong, hit the 150 stake on the fly and came backwards about 10 yards and left about 20. Needless to say I promptly hit the approach into a green side bunker and bogied the hole.
 
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