Driver off the deck, yes or no?

[Captain_Black.]

So have you ever tried it?
I must admit, I have never tried it, as I do hit my fairway woods & hybrids pretty well so I don't suppose I've ever felt the need to try it.

But, I have played with players in the past who have done it with varying degrees of success.
Ranging from a very low fade / slice to a lovely lowish bullet that went miles.
One guy I played with hit driver off the tee on our 530 yard par & driver off the fairway to the middle of the green, missed an Eagle putt, but walked off with a birdie 4.

 

[Bazzatron]

I cant hit it off a tee.

 

[patricks148]

i think it was easier with older driver as the sweet spot was more in the middle of the club, new driver its higher up the face as you are supposed to hit up and through the ball. when i my Mizuno 630 driver i found it very easy to hit off the deck, similar with my TM SDLR. i can still do it with m2 but it needs to be sitting just right, ie on a slight upslope on a mice tight lie. will always be a slight fade but low and running.

 

[Orikoru]

At the driving range I have. Went better than I thought, but that's off a perfect lie of course. I wouldn't bother on the course. Logistically speaking, with my swing speed, it's virtually impossible that it would go any further than a 5 wood, since it would launch too low and hit the ground too soon. I've not even used a 3 wood in years for the same reason - even 13-14° was too low for me. I can't see the use of doing it unless you really needed to hit under a low-hanging tree branch, but still had a perfect fairway lie somehow.

Those that can do it, are likely swinging it over 105mph I would say.

 

[bobmac]

As long as it's sitting up a bit, absolutely
2 swing thoughts.....head still, smooth

 

[Imurg]

I've tried it and........nah..not for me.
Interestingly, on Iona's video with Georgia at the Old Course, Georgia hit driver off the deck and gave Io a a lesson on how....
She tried and it went about 5 yards further than her 3w....
I think, at our swing speeds, there's little to gain and much to lose by trying

 

[HPIMG]

I love a driver off the deck and that’s what helped fix my recent problems with my driver. I was really struggling to launch it and took it back to off the deck them small tees and now I am hitting it well after working my way upto the pink castle tees.

 

[PaulMdj]

Couple of our + handicap golfers use it to great effect, seen a couple of high handicappers try it in a comp with “nothing to loose” went 10-20yds

Never tried it myself off the fairway, although mini driver is a weapon sat up in 1st or 2nd cut as bobmac described.

 

[garyinderry]

In the winter my go to shot is a driver off the bristled mat. I just aim left and hit a wafty cut pretty much every time.
It doesn't go as high and it doesn't plug so I lose less balls.

 

[Pin-seeker]

Would be interesting to see a Pro hit 5 off the deck with driver,then 5 with 3w.
Wouldn’t contemplate doing it myself,I only use 3w off the tee or if it’s sat up nice in the first cut.

 

[Slab]

Done it twice in a scramble comp
Worked once, crashed the 2nd time

 

[Springveldt]

Never tried it. With my steep swing I'd be worried about snapping the head off the thing.

 

[jim8flog]

Back in the day when driver had heads the size of current 3 woods then yes.
With current large heads no.

 

[Pants]

A canny senior that I played a few times would often go driver, driver, driver, putt. Feeling that he might get an advantage by using a more up to date driver with more distance, he bought a new one. Extra distance off the tee certainly but couldn't use it off the fairway. He ended up carrying two drivers!

 

[The Fader]

I hit the green on a par 5 at Hartlepool GC earlier this year - driver, driver, driver!!

To be fair it was teeing up on the fairways due to the horrific wet winter conditions!!

Can probably count the number of other times I've tried it on the fingers of one hand. 0% success rate

 

[Voyager EMH]

I could hit driver from the fairway (or nice lie in the rough) up to 2008. That was the year my Taylormade R360 was confined to history.
Since then, a 460cc head has the sweet spot far too high on the clubface to make this possible for me.

I have never hit any club from any deck when playing golf on a golf course.

 

[HeftyHacker]

I've used it a few times, to varying degrees of success.

When it's bad it's bad (topped or sliced) but when it's good it's a great feeling.

The best one I've hit was on the 17th at St Anne's Old Links, I'd pulled my driver left into the rubbish, made a hash of the recovery but found the fairway and had about 280 yards left in into the wind so thought why not?

I hit it well and it probably never went more than 20feet in the air but on a burnt out links course it just ran... And ran... And ran... To about 12ft from the hole.

Obviously, I missed the birdie putt.

 

[RichA]

I can't do it.
One of our older members uses his driver for any shot over about 160 yards. His HI is 10.

 

[DeanoMK]

It's something that I often try, it all depends on the lie, sometimes it comes off really well.

In a match I played earlier this year, where I was giving the guy 5 shots, it was his go to shot, was the best 18 handicap I've ever seen

 

[CountLippe]

Interestingly, something I see used to better effect by high handicap seniors than low handicappers. This appears to defy logic.