Why is my driver such a temperamental *female dog*

[Sats]

At one time, my go to club was the driver- it was reliable and did exactly what I needed it to do. Suddenly, it's the worse club in the bag. I either hit a horrendous top that goes 20 yards and 5 inches high or I have to really manufacture my swing and it over cuts. I can't fathom why either! Had a lesson booked, but then the pro was sick so cancelled and I've got a medal on Sunday! I really don't want to lose the driver as I hate buying a club that isn't useable, but on the same note I don't want it to take up space. Luckily, I have some swing speed so can still compete with 3W/5W and my utility off the tee.

I have fiddled with tee height, set up, grips, consulted the bones and so far nothing...... I have a lesson booked but wondered if anyone else had similar spells with the driver and how did you overcome it?

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Boring reply I'm afraid. Lessons that simplified what I do, simplified what I am thinking. It doesn't mean that it behaves perfectly but I now have a relatively controlled drive (most of the time). It isn't the longest but it gets it up the fairway. The key is to find a couple of trigger points from your lesson that you can fall back on. When it starts to wobble, what can you do that just calms things down?

You need to find that from your lesson. Trying to find it on your own is incredibly difficult as ultimately you can't see what it is you are doing wrong. Equally, little point in me telling you my trigger points as they will be different for you depending on what the issue is.

In answer to the heading. Longest club, hardest to control, overwhelming desire to hit it hard all add up to extra difficulty. If only we could hit driver like a PW

(I should add, consulting bones, sacrificing chickens, promising your first born etc, none of it works. So a friend told me.....)

 

[Deleted member 25172]

At one time, my go to club was the driver- it was reliable and did exactly what I needed it to do. Suddenly, it's the worse club in the bag. I either hit a horrendous top that goes 20 yards and 5 inches high or I have to really manufacture my swing and it over cuts. I can't fathom why either! Had a lesson booked, but then the pro was sick so cancelled and I've got a medal on Sunday! I really don't want to lose the driver as I hate buying a club that isn't useable, but on the same note I don't want it to take up space. Luckily, I have some swing speed so can still compete with 3W/5W and my utility off the tee.

I have fiddled with tee height, set up, grips, consulted the bones and so far nothing...... I have a lesson booked but wondered if anyone else had similar spells with the driver and how did you overcome it?

Story of my (golfing) life. Driver hot as lava or cold as liquid nitrogen. I have the knowledge after a lesson with the driver 2 weeks ago, and the fix actually works, but it only takes one miss for me to get the doubts back in my head as the misses with my driver have devastating impact for my score. A miss with my driver is an automatic reload or hack it out sideways if I'm able to find it.

With the weather we're having now and fairways firming up, I'm lucky enough to have the distance to make my way around with my hybrid off the tee.

Still looking for the magic mechanical fix, but until I find that, I should probably look at my mental state. I play with fear, which grows for each club getting closer to the driver...

 

[Orikoru]

You could try buying a new driver, that always works.

 

[Imurg]

Practically given up on drivers..again..
Driving with my 3 wood turned down to 14°, goes as far as an average driver but with much more consistency....
There's only really 1 hole on my course where the extra length of a Sunday best is beneficial, cant reach the par 5s in 2 so why bother with the possibility of hacking out when the 3 wood finds the shortish stuff more often than not....
Hateful things Drivers.......

 

[Springveldt]

At one time, my go to club was the driver- it was reliable and did exactly what I needed it to do. Suddenly, it's the worse club in the bag. I either hit a horrendous top that goes 20 yards and 5 inches high or I have to really manufacture my swing and it over cuts. I can't fathom why either! Had a lesson booked, but then the pro was sick so cancelled and I've got a medal on Sunday! I really don't want to lose the driver as I hate buying a club that isn't useable, but on the same note I don't want it to take up space. Luckily, I have some swing speed so can still compete with 3W/5W and my utility off the tee.

I have fiddled with tee height, set up, grips, consulted the bones and so far nothing...... I have a lesson booked but wondered if anyone else had similar spells with the driver and how did you overcome it?

Driver is my best club as well as it's the one with the biggest clubface. I did lose it for a month or two about 18 months ago before going for a lesson which fixed it almost instantly. The pro took one look and said "you need to give yourself more space, imagine the driver starts at 12 on a clock, I want you to stop your hands when they get to 5 while it feels like you are pushing your hands away". Worked wonders for me, I was letting my left arm fold in and by keeping it straighter and the feeling of pushing away to give me space meant I was much more consistent again.

So now, if I'm in a round and I hit a bad drive I instantly think of the pushing away while reaching for 5 and it usually rights me.

 

[Lump]

This is something I have to be careful with myself. I have a tendency to swing too much up at the ball (positive angle of attack) when I get a bit too aggressive I can easily clip the top of the ball, results in either a 80yrd top or a knee high missile.
I ended up dropping my tee height massively to assist the feeling of swing more level through the ball.

 

[bobmac]

Can I check something please?
When you say it goes 20 yards and 5 inches high, that sounds more like a thin to me.
A top is when you come down steeply on the ball and drive it into the ground and the ball bounces off the tee.
A thin is when the bottom edge hits the equator of the ball and it goes miles very very low. It used to be called a daisy cutter.
I think it's the latter?

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Driver is my best club as well as it's the one with the biggest clubface. I did lose it for a month or two about 18 months ago before going for a lesson which fixed it almost instantly. The pro took one look and said "you need to give yourself more space, imagine the driver starts at 12 on a clock, I want you to stop your hands when they get to 5 while it feels like you are pushing your hands away". Worked wonders for me, I was letting my left arm fold in and by keeping it straighter and the feeling of pushing away to give me space meant I was much more consistent again.

So now, if I'm in a round and I hit a bad drive I instantly think of the pushing away while reaching for 5 and it usually rights me.

I've been thinking about this for 2 minutes now and I still can't visualise it. Where are are you pushing your hands? What direction? Is the stop at 5 thing so you do not swing too fast, ie without your body?

 

[Orikoru]

I've been thinking about this for 2 minutes now and I still can't visualise it. Where are are you pushing your hands? What direction? Is the stop at 5 thing so you do not swing too fast, ie without your body?

Sounds like he tees off a midday and it takes him another five hours to hit his first drive. Talk about slow play.

 

[SaintHacker]

Practically given up on drivers..again..
Driving with my 3 wood turned down to 14°, goes as far as an average driver but with much more consistency....
There's only really 1 hole on my course where the extra length of a Sunday best is beneficial, cant reach the par 5s in 2 so why bother with the possibility of hacking out when the 3 wood finds the shortish stuff more often than not....
Hateful things Drivers.......

Exactly the same for me. I'm thinking about going for a driver fitting to see if it makes any difference, but then us the cost really worth an extra 20 yards??

 

[DanFST]

With the "over cut" AKA: slice.

Relatively simple, out to in club path or an open face will cause it. (think swinging a free kick). My HC dropped hugely when instead of trying to hit straight balls at the range, I worked on manipulating it left and right, low and high. There's rarely a time that a straight shot is what you need, especially in summer.

 

[Foxholer]

I'd suggest you TRY (it may not work or may even be MORE destructive) practicing, but swinging slower - at least initially. Ignore the inevitable loss of distance...this is simply a 'drill' to establish the correct sequencing in your swing! It's likely to feel a bit strange initially, but you are likely to 'automatically' adjust your sequencing/timing and the 'flow' of your swing - or at least the fault that is causing the tops/thins and slices should become obvious. Once you feel 'comfortable' with the correction at slower swing speed, gradually ramping it up to 'full' speed, while still having it still under control should provide (at least go a long way to providing) a remedy.

 

[Sats]

Can I check something please?
When you say it goes 20 yards and 5 inches high, that sounds more like a thin to me.
A top is when you come down steeply on the ball and drive it into the ground and the ball bounces off the tee.
A thin is when the bottom edge hits the equator of the ball and it goes miles very very low. It used to be called a daisy cutter.
I think it's the latter?

It doesn't travel at all - literally 20 yards if I'm lucky, I'd take a thin over this.

 

[RichA]

*** High-handicap warning - this is not advice - my experience only ***

The driver has lived in the garage for a long time. It's only excursions were the odd trip to the driving range, just to check I was right to keep ignoring it.
A couple of weeks ago, I tried a couple of things I'd seen on YT. I didn't think that it would be possible, but it's back in the bag and surprisingly long and consistent.

Orange tee rather than pink (+1cm, I think), wider stance, left heel lifting slightly on the backswing. It's still a work in progress, but it was like witchcraft.

 

[Springveldt]

I've been thinking about this for 2 minutes now and I still can't visualise it. Where are are you pushing your hands? What direction? Is the stop at 5 thing so you do not swing too fast, ie without your body?

Imagine 12 is straight ahead, 3 is 90 degrees (parallel to the ground), 6 is 180 degrees (hands straight up in the air behind where they started). So when I turn I don't get my hands all the way to 180 degrees (I'm too stiff and was bending my arms to get my hands all the way back there and my chest had stopped rotating) so he was basically getting me to stop overswinging while trying to keep distance. I can't actually make it back to 5 either, I'm too stiff and can only make it to 4 if I keep the pushing away feeling (which is keeping my arms straighter).

I think I was overswinging and having my arms collapse into me which was making me very inconsistent. So the "pushing away" feeling is just keeping my arms straighter.

I'm also crap at describing things. It works for me though.

 

[Orikoru]

Imagine 12 is straight ahead, 3 is 90 degrees (parallel to the ground), 6 is 180 degrees (hands straight up in the air behind where they started). So when I turn I don't get my hands all the way to 180 degrees (I'm too stiff and was bending my arms to get my hands all the way back there and my chest had stopped rotating) so he was basically getting me to stop overswinging while trying to keep distance. I can't actually make it back to 5 either, I'm too stiff and can only make it to 4 if I keep the pushing away feeling (which is keeping my arms straighter).

I think I was overswinging and having my arms collapse into me which was making me very inconsistent. So the "pushing away" feeling is just keeping my arms straighter.

I'm also crap at describing things. It works for me though.

Are you left-handed or is your clock upside-down? Or inside out?

 

[Neilds]

I agree with Foxholer - bearing in mind I am a high handicapper ?
Just go back to basics with a short easy swing, you have fiddled with so much it is no surprise your swing is muddled! I’m surprised you even hit the ball having changed so much?

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Imagine 12 is straight ahead, 3 is 90 degrees (parallel to the ground), 6 is 180 degrees (hands straight up in the air behind where they started). So when I turn I don't get my hands all the way to 180 degrees (I'm too stiff and was bending my arms to get my hands all the way back there and my chest had stopped rotating) so he was basically getting me to stop overswinging while trying to keep distance. I can't actually make it back to 5 either, I'm too stiff and can only make it to 4 if I keep the pushing away feeling (which is keeping my arms straighter).

I think I was overswinging and having my arms collapse into me which was making me very inconsistent. So the "pushing away" feeling is just keeping my arms straighter.

I'm also crap at describing things. It works for me though.

No, I get that now. In fact I can very much relate to it. I am also very inflexible and if I over swing my left elbow bends, or collapses as you put it. I was never aware of this until my son recorded my once, I was mortified. What you think you do and what you actually do...........My version of that is left shoulder under the chin. If I swing with the thought of getting my left shoulder right up under my chin it keeps my arm straight and I can only go back so far. If I don't push my shoulder under my chin I can go back too far, probably swaying rather than turning, my left arm bends and it all goes to pot. Different thought process for both of us but I suspect the aim of both pro's is to get us doing the same, more controlled, thing.

 

[Deleted member 1147]

Without seeing the swing it's impossible to give advice. But when things go wrong for me it often involves a bit of swaying rather than turning. It can lead to fats, thins and miss-timing.

Something to consider perhaps?