The beginners obsession with the driver?

[Lost_Cause]

Maybe it just me, but I can’t help but notice the beginners obsession with the driver. Be it at the driving range and you see someone with all new clubs/package set, the driver comes out first or if you look on any of the big Facebook groups for buy/sell/swap it’s always full of “I’ve just started golf last week, need a cheap driver”, or even here and people just starting out and asking for bag building advice where they usually stipulate “I need a driver, irons and putter”. You then watch them hit, or should I say attempt to hit it and it’s comedy gold, like something you’d see on you’ve been framed, if they do manage to connect with the ball it’s never straight, and arguably not long either, sure everyone has to learn to hit it at some point (or do they?) but why does it seem to be the club that everyone is obsessed with?

I only started playing back at the start of this year and my beginner set driver never left the bag, since then I’ve upgraded and the new driver currently resides in my garage and hasn’t seen the course (tbh I could have saved myself some money and excluded it from my purchase from the pro shop). I watch my friends step up to the tee, and the big gun comes out, 3 balls into the trees later they concede, tee up the 4th ball and hit a 3 wood/4 iron and score a lovely 9-10 for the hole... the worst part is they don’t seem to learn from this and on the next tee box out comes the driver again (if you are adamant in using it, at least get some lessons and learn to hit it... at least that’s what runs through my head each time).

Has anyone else noticed this “I need a driver” phenomenon with beginner golfers and why do you think it’s such a prevalent thing within the beginner mentally when first starting with golf?

 

[Crow]

Distance has always been an obsession in golf, but much more now than ever before.

Which club (theoretically) hits the ball the furthest?

 

[clubchamp98]

It’s all they talk about on the TV.
How far the pros can hit it.
Lines on the fairway at 270 yds and 320 yds.
It’s the best shot in golf when you smash a driver.
I was cat1 for over 30yrs and never really mastered it .
Good some days , but others it stayed in my bag.

 

[ScienceBoy]

I got to 11 handicap without mastering the driver, it was a 3 off the tee machine even at my best. A hybrid or my 3 wood was far better option or even an iron on shorter holes where it would leave me 130 or less in.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

I got to 11 handicap without mastering the driver, it was a 3 off the tee machine even at my best. A hybrid or my 3 wood was far better option or even an iron on shorter holes where it would leave me 130 or less in.

Snap - got to 6 using a persimmon 3 wood long after metal woods and big headed drivers came on the scene. I just kept it straight and steady and my driver stayed in the bag and was never taken out. Don’t actually know why I bothered carrying it.

 

[Sekiro]

The game (as portrayed on TV) is all about the driver off the tee, most people new to the sport will have only seen it on the telly and they want to drive it like DeChambeau or McIlroy.

 

[Beedee]

When I started playing about 20 years ago I thought I'd practice my driver really hard and then once I'd got that I'd practice the other clubs really hard (I know I know). The result was that I was a 28 hcp who could hit a very reliable 250 straight down the middle. This would get me shed loads of abuse for being a bandit from people who didn't know the rest of my game. Unfortunately the rest of my game was so bad that the only reason I was a 28 was that it couldn't go any higher at the time.

I was popular in Texas scrambles tho.

 

[YorkshireStu]

As a relative beginner I got the driver out at the range, as how else would I learn in time to use it? My first rounds were all with my 3 hybrid off the tee but with the confidence I built up I’ve made the transition to mainly using the driver where the hole dictates it.

 

[jim8flog]

Many years for me with no driver in the bag in fact no woods at all in the bag but that was not as a beginner.

When I first started the pro advised a 4 wood only until I could hit the ball reasonably well.

 

[Siolag]

It’s perhaps because new golfers will try and do what they perceive other golfers do. They’ll use a driver as that’s the club “you should use”. They’ll also think that unless you are getting the ball miles off the tee you won’t score, and will maybe be terrified of the idea of going out for a round and not smoking the ball 250 yards, not realising that the Biggest difference is actually from about 50-100 yards in.

I was in an athletics club for years and the number of people that would say they “aren’t fast enough” always amazed me, as they’d generally be faster than our slowest. And even if you are the slowest/shortest hitter in a club, who cares.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Always makes me laugh when someone rocks up at the range and pulls the driver out straight off. In a lot of other sports you'd warm up properly and build up to the main event but somehow people think they can get their balls grab the driver and expect it to work.

Not really a surprise newbies are hung up hitting drivers when all the main companies promote distance and the gains their nearest model will game. There is a place for a driver but learn the basics, get good fundamentals and then learn how to hit a driver and don't be afraid to keep it in the bag if it isn't working

 

[YorkshireStu]

Always makes me laugh when someone rocks up at the range and pulls the driver out straight off. In a lot of other sports you'd warm up properly and build up to the main event but somehow people think they can get their balls grab the driver and expect it to work.

Not really a surprise newbies are hung up hitting drivers when all the main companies promote distance and the gains their nearest model will game. There is a place for a driver but learn the basics, get good fundamentals and then learn how to hit a driver and don't be afraid to keep it in the bag if it isn't working

Totally agree. Every range sesh should start with a good bash with the wedges!

 

[Diamond]

At the range I work my way up to the driver. But with a 0730 start this Morning it’s 0630 alarm, out and driver off the tee.

 

[golfbluecustard]

My 19 yr old who's new again to golf, despite doing junior academy a decade plus ago then playing rugby and cricket instead went to play 9 holes with a friend today, his first course other than the par 3 course and the range, it's a small driving range set of holes.

He's using my old set and i helped him pack a pencil bag, leaving the driver out and putting in hybrid 22 and 3 wood !!! Huge protests followed along the lines that some of the holes are 300 + yrds how can I get that far without the driver....

3 wood 8 iron, Hybrid 7 iron the possibilities are endless but as has been said in seems ingrained in newbies that you'd be lost without a driver ...

GBC

 

[Crow]

Always makes me laugh when someone rocks up at the range and pulls the driver out straight off. In a lot of other sports you'd warm up properly and build up to the main event but somehow people think they can get their balls grab the driver and expect it to work.

Not really a surprise newbies are hung up hitting drivers when all the main companies promote distance and the gains their nearest model will game. There is a place for a driver but learn the basics, get good fundamentals and then learn how to hit a driver and don't be afraid to keep it in the bag if it isn't working

My first shot at the range was always driver.
We don't have a warm up area at my course and before the first hole was remodeled it was a long par 5 and driver was needed to stand a chance of getting home in three, I found it a useful exercise to replicate that pressure on your first shot at the range.
Once I'd hit that first driver though I was straight down to short irons.

 

[howbow88]

Smashing a driver straight down the middle is great though, no? I can't really blame beginners for wanting to get to a point where they are capable of doing that.

 

[ScienceBoy]

Smashing a driver straight down the middle is great though, no? I can't really blame beginners for wanting to get to a point where they are capable of doing that.

There are few feelings in golf like it.

The other way is pretty boring, iron off the tee, then another iron and then a wedge. Few new golfers want to do that as there are no examples suggesting its the way golf can be played, no pros do it on TV and when they play with their golfing mates they probably see driver after driver off the tee.

As a beginner the fastest way to get a “good” score is with a driver in hand, a quick blast down the middle(ish) and then a punt up by the green means a chip and a putt for par! No one tells them they could do the same with two irons more often than they do that with a driver and a ropey short iron.

 

[IanM]

Modern drivers are big.

It's harder to miss the ball with it ??

 

[Chico84]

It’s like the game of golf as a whole - it’s mercurial. Some days you play well, others you are ready to sack it all in and give up.

The driver is arguably the hardest club to hit well but when you do it feels amazing and so you chase that feeling again. And inevitably slice it into the bushes next time round.

 

[ScienceBoy]

Modern drivers are big.

It's harder to miss the ball with it ??

My last round with any forumites proved it is very possible to miss...

Not been able to show my face since