Longest Drive in Golf – Hit Your Driver Farther – Win Longest Drive

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.

If you’ve been battling a hook for a while you understand how frustrating they can be. Everyone else is, more than likely, slicing the ball, and you are playing from the opposite side of the fairway.

But… the hook really is pretty easy to cure. Try this sequence of corrections, and most likely the hook will be fixed in no time. Your goal in correcting a hook is to swing from outside to in.

1. Weaken your Grip – You could be playing with a grip that is too strong. Simply rotate both hands around the grip and towards the target. This will make it much harder for the clubface to close through the impact zone. Don’t over do it, and like everything else, testing is crucial. Make sure to test this, before moving on, unless you are positive that you already play with a weak grip.
2. Move the ball forward in your stance – It is common of players who slice the ball to play the ball forward in their stance. So copy them. If you hook, the result should be a relatively straight ball. (Side Note: Whether you hook or slice, your first goal should be to learn to do the opposite.) Moving the ball forward in your stance should get some things back on track.
3. Aim to the left (to the right if left handed) of the target – Start out with an open stance to the target. This will put that clockwise rotation on the ball that you are looking for. Just open your stance a little bit, and swing along the line of your shoulders.
4. Make sure that you are finishing with your weight on your forward foot – This is the single best solution for the hook. If you hook the ball, chances are that you finish with some of your weight still on your back foot. This causes you to come around the ball with a closed clubface. This is the number one cause of the deadly snap-hook. Finish with all of your weight forward, and you’ll never experience it.

Follow these simple steps and you will stop hitting a hook and be back on track to hit your longest drive.

A greenside bunker 20 to 30 yards from the pin isn’t where you want to be with an approach shot for long drivers. But even the best of us find ourselves there occasionally. The long explosion shot from a distant bunker is one of the hardest shots for weekend golfers to make, if not the hardest.

Below are six tips for hitting a long explosion shot:

1. Close your stance instead of opening
2. Widen your stance a couple of inches
3. Work your feet firmly into the ground
4. Concentrate on just skimming the sand
5. Rotate the clubface open to closed

The keys to this shot are two adjustments in your stance. Since you want to make a long accelerating swing, you need a firm foundation. Widening your stance helps. So does working your feet into the ground. But don’t work them in so much that you can’t move them. In addition, close your stance. Your feet should be parallel. That lengthens your swing and makes it easier to bring the club into the ball from inside the line of play.

Use your sand wedge for this shot and focus on just skimming the sand as you go through the ball. Also, rotate the clubface from open to closed on the downswing, which you can do by turning your right hand over your left through impact. Incorporating these adjustments into your stance helps you hit an accurate shot.

We can’t stop ourselves from landing in a bunker 20 to 30 yards from the green. No one can. But good golfers get out in one. Hitting a long explosion shot will help you do that, keep your scores in check, and trim strokes from your golf handicap.

Pulled shots, like block shots, are high on the list of bad shots and are among the mistakes that keep you from hitting your longest drive. If your spine angle and weight distribution are off at address, there’s a good chance you’ll pull the shot. Putting too much weight on your forward foot at address pushes your spine angle too far forward. It also prompts a swing path that moves from outside the target line pre-swing to inside the target line post impact, resulting in a pulled shot.

Below are five keys to preventing pulled shots:

Address ball as if on an upslope
Shift weight to back foot
Lower your back shoulder
Position your hands behind the ball
Stay behind ball on the swing

Correcting both your weight distribution and spine angle prevents pulled shots. Start by setting up as if you were hitting on an upslope. Then, shift your weight from your front foot to your back foot. Drop your back shoulder slightly so that it’s lower than your front shoulder. And position your hands behind the ball at address. This set-up tilts your spine away from the target and changes your swing path.

To visualize the set up, take an iron from your bag and have a friend step on the clubface. Now match the angle of your shoulders to the angle of the shaft. That sets you up with your spine angle tilted away from the target and your front shoulder higher than your back shoulder. If you keep this image in mind at address, you’ll set yourself up nicely behind the ball. Stay behind the ball when swinging.
By re-distributing your weight and correcting your spine angle, you’ll prevent pulled shots. From this position, your downswing comes from inside the target line and arcs back inside that target line past impact. This results in a square clubface at impact and a straighter flight path. You’ll also gain some distance.

Beating Blocked Driver Shots

Block shots rank high on the list of bad golf shots. If you tend to block shots, you could be swinging too aggressively. If you are, you need to curb your aggressiveness to improve your shot making and improve your game. Once you learn to control your aggressiveness, you can use it more productively.

Below are four golf tips for beating blocked shots.

Better posture, better impact
Less tilt, more coverage
Release the head early
Brace your left side and release

Bad things happen when you’re too aggressive and try killing the ball to hit the longest drive. Over aggressiveness often causes your lower body to outrace your upper body. That forces your upper body to tilt away from the target. When this happens, your back shoulder can drop too far under the backswing plane, leading to a blocked shot. To prevent this, try to “feel tall over the ball,” with your knees slightly bent, and keep your upper body straight during the swing. Better posture means less tilt. Less tilt means better impact.

Lack of head movement also causes blocked shots. It, too, can force you to lose your forward tilt toward the ball. If your head stays down and straight, your hips lunge toward the ball, pulling you out of your posture. But if you turn your head slightly with the shot you’ll have better results. You’ll keep your spine straighter and get the club back in front of your body sooner. When your arms get out in from of your body, they can swing down the line better.

If you block shots off the tee, it may be because you’re swinging too aggressively. Learn to curb your aggressiveness a little. You can then use it to your advantage.

Here is a great tip for you that’s going to end all the doubt you had in your mind about golf setup and where the golf ball goes in your stance. It’s called ball position and it can impact your longest drive more than anything else..

A lot of amateurs, unfortunately, address the golf ball, what I call, backwards. They come in and they put their feet down and try to aim where they’re going, either down the fairway or towards the pin, and then they just stand to the golf club that they’re holding onto. Sometimes their golf setup is too far back and sometimes it’s too far forward.

Other amateurs do this. They like to play all of their shots off their front foot. Some like to play all their shots off the middle of their stance. But let me tell you something, and I think this is really going to help you.

This weekend if you’re sitting around watching TV, watch the tour players and watch how they come up and they grip the golf club first, they take a look at where they’re going, and then they stand to the golf club that they’re using.

For instance, put the butt of the pitching wedge across from your belt buckle, and stand to the golf club with the face square and your shoulders going where you want them to go.

What that does is put the golf ball in the middle of your stance for your pitching wedge. Now, keep that stance with your 7 iron.

Now, the 7 iron is three inches longer than the pitching wedge. If you just stand there and grip it with your shoulders square, look how the golf ball is just starting to move forward in your stance over towards your left heel, and it’s about three inches apart.

Now, pick up your long iron and do the same thing. Keep your shoulders square, don’t move your stance, and grip the golf club. And all of a sudden, the long iron starts to move even further forward.

Lastly, watch this. During golf setup, when you hold your driver in your hand. If you just put the butt of the club across your belt buckle, put the club on the ground the way it was built in the factory and stand across from it with your shoulders square, that puts the golf ball across from your left foot.

It’s not complicated, but remember this: During golf setup, stand to the handle of the golf club. Don’t address the golf ball first, but address the golf club to the ball and then take your stance.

Bobby Eldridge is the Head Instructor for the PurePoint Golf Academy where he teaches “The Simple Golf Swing” theory.