Read this.. for longer drives and to improve your overall golf game!
Whenever I hear golfers talking about hitting the ball farther, I hear about things like buying the latest driver, using the hottest new shaft, creating as much lag as possible on the downswing, keeping a flat wrist at impact, etc. The list goes on and on. While these things help you, simply put, hitting the ball far comes down to three things:
1) Sweet Spot Contact
In theory, five yards is lost for every quarter of an inch that you miss the sweet spot on your driver. That means if you miss the sweet spot by as little as an inch, you could lose 20 yards on your drive. All of a sudden you’d be hitting 2 clubs more for your next shot in to the green. It’s harder to shoot lower scores that way!
One of the best ways I have ever encountered to improve your ball-striking is to keep your head as still as your flexibility allows during the swing (it’s ok to move it some). What this effectively does is it will keep the vertebrae where your shoulder, neck, and spine intersect roughly in the same point in space during the swing.
This vertebrae is a key measurement to the ball and moving it around too much makes it more difficult to get consistently good ball strikes. Both PGA Tour Hall of Famer, Johnny Miller, and Guinness World Record Holding Long Driver, Mike Austin, talk about this. But regardless of whether a relatively still head is a part of the type of swing method you use, make sure you are consistently hitting the center of the club face. It makes a big difference.
2) Custom Fit Equipment
One time I was trying out a few new drivers on the range and out on the course. There were two in particular that looked very similar and were hard to tell apart visually, however, they differed in length, loft, weight, and flex. This is also important if you want to hit your driver straight. I hit them both the same accuracy-wise, but I literally hit one 50 yards farther than the other. Consequently, on the same holes, I would have to hit a 9-iron in to the green having used one driver, and a 5 or 6-iron in to the green with the other driver. You can imagine that it is a heck of a lot easier to shoot lower scores with the 9-iron.
To maximize your distance, it is very important to get a driver that is custom fit to your particular swing. While you can get “fitted” through a variety of manufacturers, at your golf course, or at a local golf store, I highly recommend using someone that is PCS-certified (Professional Clubmakers Society). You can be sure that anyone that has this certification has a very thorough background on being able to fit golfers of different sizes with different swings in to a driver that will help them get the absolute most out of their distance potential.
3) Swing Speed Training
Once you are using a swing method that gets you hitting the sweet spot consistently on your custom fit clubs, the next major thing you can do to hit the ball farther is to increase your swing speed. For every 1 mph you can increase your swing speed, you will carry the ball 2.5 yards farther. When you consider that every day golfers swing 70-95 mph, Tour pros swing 105-130 mph, and the professional long distance drivers swing 135 mph to upwards of 150 mph, it’s easy to see why people hit the ball different distances.
Unfortunately for many golfers of all levels they don’t realize, don’t believe, don’t know how, etc that they can do increase their speed. However, the good news is that given the right guidance and training, it’s actually quite easy to learn to swing faster. This is especially true if you are not already doing anything for your speed. Increase your usable swing speed and you will hit longer drives.
Jaacob Bowden is one of the world’s foremost experts on increasing golf swing speed. His Swing Man Golf web site (insert custom affiliate link here) was built around both the knowledge he used to increase his own swing speed by 26 mph in 37 days while training for the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championships, and also what he has learned about golf that took him from average length hitting 14- handicapper to Professional Golfer and Long Drive Champion. To learn more information about what Jaacob can do for you and your game, visit Swing Man Golf.
Mental golf training can be 5-6 times more efficient than practicing on the driving range. The purpose of this technique is to go straight into your unconscious mind by bypassing your conscious mind. The unconscious is the part of the mind that controls our habits and behavior.
You know how your mind is full of negative mind chatter that tells you can’t do this or that, and is constantly putting you down? Well, since the affirmations are subliminal, they bypass your conscious mind and go straight into your unconscious mind, where there is no resistance!
The brain picks up any messages that get through to it, and immediately uses them to build new thought patterns and behaviours. The complex movements of the golf swing will become a natural habit as driving a car. Once your unconscious is trained your golf game will work on autopilot without thinking. The new AmazingGolfMind subliminal mental audios focus on improving the subconscious mind. By listening 3-4 times a week you’ll improve your game much faster than hitting hundreds of balls on the driving range.
Here’s the free video what explains how subliminal mental golf audios work:
Is this a new concept? It is a new concept for regular golfers. Tiger and the top tour pros use subliminal mental training for a long time. Tiger is said using subliminal messages since he was 13 and he hits one of the longest drives on tour.
You can watch the free video here and get a free short game audio directly after watching the video:
Golf tips in sports magazine often say that your first shot is the most important on every hole. So do some PGA pros. While this idea is debatable, one thing is certain, finding the fairway more often cuts your golf handicap down to size. In other words you’re better off being 10 yards short in the fairway, than 20 yards longer in the woods, that’s just smart golf.
But even if you play smart, you still need the right driver. Without it, you’re in trouble. Too long a driver is just as bad as too short a driver. But the right size driver helps you hit more fairways, lower your scores, and score well. But choosing the right driver isn’t easy, as I tell students in my golf instruction sessions. You need a good plan to do it right. Below are five elements to include in our plan.
Check Out The Loft
You’d be hard-pressed to find a PGA pro using a driver with less than 10 degrees loft. Why—because the key to distance is high launch and low spin. The longer the ball is airborne, the more likely you are to hit the longest drive. Since balls are designed to stay airborne longer, you want a driver that maximizes this technology. Higher loft also increases your chances of hitting straighter shots. If you’re using a driver with 12 degrees of loft, try one with 13 or even 14 degrees of loft.
Get The Right Shaft
Shaft technology lets you choose shafts that hit the ball higher, straighter, and/or longer, and that provide better responsiveness. Key considerations when choosing a shaft are torque, stiffness, and length. Shafts that are too stiff cause distance and control problems, as I see with students in golf lessons. Stiff shafts also hamper responsiveness. Longer shifts have the potential for longer shots, but are harder to hit straight. Choose the shaft torque, stiffness, and length that let you to make a consistent, repeatable swing.
Size Matters
Size matters when it comes to clubheads. PGA pros are switching to larger and larger clubheads these days. These larger clubheads, as you’ve probably read in magazine golf tips, have more “miss area.” This is called Moment of Inertia (MOI). The bigger the clubhead, the higher the MOI. In other words the bigger the clubhead, the more forgiving the clubhead. So think big when selecting a clubhead.
Offset Offers Advantages
If you slice or hook—and more than 75 percent of us do—consider a driver with an offset clubhead. Many offset drivers also have closed face angles to further help a slicer hit the ball. Some even add weights in the heel to help the club rotate closed toward impact. Offset drivers are great for the average player.
Don’t Forget Grip
Last but not least is the grip. Since it’s the only point of contact with the club, you need the right size grip. Most clubs come with standard size grips. But not every player’s hands are standard. In fact, I see all sizes of hands in my golf instructions sessions. Hundreds of grips exist in the market. Almost all can be fitted to your hand size. Take advantage of this flexibility and get the right grip.
Loft. Shaft. Clubhead. Offset. Grip. All are key elements in a driver. Develop a plan that includes these elements before buying a new one. And don’t get side tracked by all the hype surrounding drivers. On the tee it’s better to be in the fairway 10 yards short than in the woods 20 yards longer. That’s just smart golf. You’ll be surprised what smart golf does for your golf handicap.
Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros.” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.
Fact: Over 90% of golfers will never be able to compete with you if you can do 3 things relatively simple things (disregard putting for now).
Stay out of troublewith your driver (notice, I didn’t say smash the ball 300 yards down the center of the fairway).
Hit 70% of the greens you face from 150 yards in (in other words, learn to control your 8 iron and down).
Chip the ball within 20 ft of the pin, almost every time (regardless of what you may think, this is not that tough).
That’s it. So that’s what I’m going to focus on over the next few weeks.
What are these tips?
I’ve decided to release 10 tips regarding the above items. They’ll be released once a week, for about the next 10 weeks. They have been designed in response to a growing number of questions about how to truly lower a handicap. And it’s my honest belief that the above 3 items are the best places to start, if you want to truly score better.
These tips are meant to be a guide to help you lower your scores on the course through means that most people don’t practice. The goal here is for you to round out your game, and for you to take advantage of the fact that I mention above.
How will these tips lower my Score?
Pretty simple really. The tips were designed to be released only once a week, so you could focus on that particular tip for 7 days, incorporate it into your game, and move on to the next.
That’s the way you get better at anything, right? Implement 1 step or change at a time. Reading an entire book on golf won’t do anything for your game if you don’t implement any of it. That’s why I designed “The Simple Golf Swing” the way I did, because it’s easy to implement. So the key will really be implementing just one step to your game per week.
Tip #1 – Staying out of Trouble with your Driver
So what is it that’s really causing problems with your driver? Is it a slice, a hook, or just flat-out inconsistency? Well the good news is that, regardless of what problem you are fighting, there are a few things to incorporate into your game that really will help you. If you’re the golfer that’s saying right now, “I’ve battled a slice for 25 years”, then this is not going to be the undisputed end of your problem. But you CAN reduce the slice or hook, which will help you score better. So here the first tip is.
Swing Easy. Nothing can be better for your game than learning how to swing the club easier and more fluid. If you go to the range and concentrate ONLY on swinging easy, it will revolutionize your ability to position yourself for a good approach shot when you get onto the course. You will make more consistent impact with the ball, and it will reduce the amount of side-spin you naturally place on the ball because the club head won’t be traveling as fast or with as much force. Again, I know you’ve heard it before, but I ask you to concentrate on this for 1 week. And if you can’t physically practice it, visualize it at the office (visualization works great).
Switch to a low spin ball. Lower spin off of the tee means that the ball is going to go more straight regardless of how whether your ball moves right or left. I recommend the Titleist DT SoLo, the Precept Laddie, or the Maxfli Noodle. You can find these balls anywhere from $13 to $20 per dozen, and they will play a large role in reducing the side spin that you naturally place on the ball.
I realize that this all sounds over-simplified, but it’s not. If you are having problems controlling your driver, switch to a low-spin ball, and start swinging easy. When you are on the range, ALL you should be thinking about is swinging the club easy. Incorporate this into your game this week, then next week we’ll discuss how to get some more distance with your driver.
David Nevogt writes golf instruction material that helps golfers of all levels reach their full potential and lower their scores. David is the author of “The Simple Golf Swing” which guarantees to have you shooting 7 strokes lower in only 1 week from today.
There are so many drivers on the market today that you often get confused over what you should own. So, let me give you some pearls on what to think about when hitting a golf driver and what will help you in the future when you go to purchase a driver.
For starters, for the ladies, they don’t give you a lot of choices. They give you a Lady’s Shaft with a ten- or twelve-degree loft head on it.
So, if you’re a little bit taller that the average height and you’re strong enough, make sure to get the next shaft up, which is usually an A shaft, it’s a Senior Shaft. It’s nicknamed a Senior Shaft. It’s a little bit longer and it’s a little bit heavier, but you should be able to handle it.
Now, for the weekend golfer, the amateur, that’s maybe a hundred shooter that’s not very strong, there’s a shaft out and it has an R on it. It’s called Regular.
Now, that covers a large group of people. It covers the newer golfer that’s not very strong, all the way up to lady players that are good, long, and strong hitters when hitting a golf driver. So, that R Shaft fits in all of those categories.
The next step would be the real good players, maybe the 7 or 8 handicappers and lower, and the younger players. The shaft has an S on it which is what you will need to hit the longest drive for your club-head speed.
Now, these letters that I’m telling you, L for ladies, A for seniors, R regular, S stiff, that’s the flex in them.
What this means is that when hitting a golf driver, if your speed of swing is fast enough, that makes the shaft flex at the right point.
And lastly, for the real good players, or the young and strong players, some shafts have an X on them. That means that it’s really tough to bend. You have to be really strong.
Let’s talk a little bit about the head. The loft on the head ranges anywhere from six degrees to twelve degrees, and all that means is that how much loft is on the face of the golf club. The more loft, the more backspin. The more backspin, the higher it goes.
The flatter the face, the less loft, the more it will curve left or right. So, if you have a driver that’s, let’s say, a 12 and you slice it all the time, you’ll probably want to find one that says 14.
If you have a driver that says 6 1/2 and you’re a great driver of the golf ball, keep it. But if you curve the ball, make sure that you get a driver that has more loft, not less loft.
The grip: 99% of the grips come in a standard size. So, if you’re a lady with real tiny fingers and hands, make sure that you get a Junior Grip.
If you’re a man that has real tiny fingers or hands, get the Ladies Grip.
If you’re a real strong player and you have large hands and you hook the golf ball, get a Regular Grip or a Jumbo Grip.
But if you get a Regular Grip, get it built up.
So, I think that may give you some insight into what’s out there. I’m a big fan of graphite. Unless you’re a real young, strong player stay away from steel. It’s too heavy. And the performance of graphite these days is just incredible.
I think that gives you some information that you may not have been aware of and it’ll help you select your driver the next time you’re looking for one.
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Bobby Eldridge is the Head Instructor for the PurePoint Golf Academy where he teaches “The Simple Golf Swing” theory.
