What's the popular opinion about not using a driver while golfing?

I've started golfing a lot and just don't hit my driver as reliably as needed. Is dropping the woods and only carrying irons considered "half assing" it?

I shot 14 over par when it should have been a 9 over par round. 60% of my drives find deep rough, or are short {say as short as a 3 iron would be}. Another 25% are Lost balls by water, OB etc. So about 15% are long and straight. I can hit a 3 iron just over 200 yards pretty much all the time and I only hit the driver about 230 because I have to swing so easily at it {lack of confidence about where it will go if I try to hammer it}.

I just don't want to practice with the driver for weeks and weeks just to include it in my game. I've stopped going to the driving range and now just practice at the golf courses.

What would you golfers do?

P.S. I don't know if I'm going to keep playing golf or not after this year, it's kind of a trial run. {Just one more reason to drop the woods}.

 

I taught golf for 10 years, after I got out of college.

We told people to use their 3 wood. The extra loft on the face of the club gives you more room to miss and still hit the ball straight.

9 degrees on the driver face means you have to be with-in 2 degrees of perfectly sqare at impact, to hit the ball straight.

15 degrees on the face of a 3 wood means you can be off a few more degrees from square at impact and still hit the ball straight.


Most people lower their score by leaving the driver in the bag

My best friend played with his 2 iron insted of his woods. If you are strong and athletic you can hit the 2 iron plenty-far...and never pull out the woods.

I liked my driver, but I had to parctice 3 or 4 days a week to keep it working for me


.

 

And what do you say to people like myself who can't hit their 3 wood for the life of them?

I think people have different comfort levels with their clubs. I favor my PW over my SW anywhere around the green. I favor my Driver over my 3 wood off the tee.

 

If you have decent distance, you can definitely live without a driver. One of the best things to do is break down a hole's distance vs. par. Par 5, 510 yards for example. You've got 3 shots to get on in regulation, averaging 170 yards per shot. If you can hit a longer iron off the tee 200-225 yards, you're ahead of your shot/distance average. And if you don't have a good long iron game, long par-4 holes will give you a lot of trouble. A 450 yarder into the wind and you'll have to surrender a shot. What you're talking about doing is playing a control game--I did it for a while until I finally found a driver that worked--and I would then replace the driver with another wedge. I carry four wedges and use them all. I also hit long irons well thanks to learning with a set of blades growing up. If your game ever gets more serious, and you start playing longer courses, you'll want to reconsider this approach. You can also consider using a 3-wood off the tee, but if you ever decide to look into drivers, make sure you spend the time to do a proper fitting. The differences in loft/shaft/weight combinations are significant and very noticable.

One time I was testing out drivers and the pro handed me one and said "Try this. If you can hit it, you can have it." I hit about 10 tee shots, I couldn't elevate the ball at all and it basically felt like a lead pipe in my hands. He just laughed at me and told me that the driver belonged to Beth Daniel--it was one of her backups. He also told me that he couldn't hit it either, followed by the jokes of how neither of us was man enough...

 

I didn't even think about my 3 wood, I don't carry it or the five, I replaced them both with a 1 and 2 iron even though they have small heads, the swing is still the same.

I don't know if I would have better results with the 3 wood, I have a different swing for the woods and irons. My short game is great I average 1.6 putts per 18 holes and I enjoy chipping since I'm so good at it. I don't want to sacrifice my iron swing in hopes of getting 30-40 more yards off the tee.

What do you mean "never pull out of the woods"?

So do you think it's "hacker style" to play without woods?

 

My only wedges are a standard pitching wedge and a fairly lofty sand wedge.

What's your opinion if you were paired up with a guy who didn't use woods?

I only ask because I feel like an idiot teeing off on a 550 yard par 5 with a 1 iron. That and all of the "Where is your driver? Wait a minute. Hey! Where are you woods? You don't have any?" lines of questioning.

 

I can't figure this out.

How can more loft help the ball go straight? I could see if I was topping it, the 3W would help get the ball in the air but the ball is going off the the sides of the fairway.

 

The driver is harder to hit well because the shaft is longer and the club face is angled lower. The longer shaft typically requires the golfer to swing the club on a flatter plane (slightly more horizontal than the typical near-vertical on the back swing) than the shorter irons. The flatter plane requires a more accurate swing mechanism to hit the ball square. Because the driver is so long, a controlled swing is much more important than a super fast or powerful one.

If you practice a nice slow backswing and don't take it back too far, most golfers can quickly develop a fairly reliable driver swing. Mental confidence in your swing on the tee box is all important. So, I recommend getting in enough practice on the practice range with your driver so that you are 99% sure you are going to hit it straight every time. Try swinging at only 90% of your top speed and power. Use an even tempo throughout the swing. Most golfers are amazed that a 90% swing goes farther than a 100% power swing when they are using a driver.

Also, exagerate the initial straight-back direction of your backswing. Drag the club head straight back along the ground from the ball. This causes the head of the driver to go slightly outside the path of the normal arched flatter backswing. This creates a minor loop effect where the outside momentum of the backswing creates an inside-out momentum on the downswing. This is what gives you a more vertical plane on the driver also (less of a baseball bat type of swing). Watch the PGA pros on TV. It is amazing how vertical their backswings are on the tee boxes.

I am not a good golfer, but these techniques have allowed me to use my driver on most long holes and has made the game a lot more enjoyable for me. Hope it helps.

 

Drivers are the hardest to learn to hit straight on a consistent basis.

I can hit my irons almost dead straight every single time. Same with the 3 wood (reference Mark). In my opinion, if you can get a minimum of 175 out of your 3 iron and land on the fairway you're ahead of the game. You'll have a lot easier time staying in play, than if you shank your drive 250 yards and it lands next to a tree.

 

Hit what ever club gives you the lowest score. Everything else is window dressing. Remember...you don't draw pictures on the scorecard and you don't get style points. The scorecard doesn't care if you used a broom.

 

The additional loft puts more backspin on the ball, which limits the amount of sidespin on the ball. Sidespin is what causes the ball to slice or hook. Modern drivers are set up to spin less and launch higher with as much roll as possible, where a modern 3 wood is set up to actually fly a bit lower and spin more for softer landings on greens or on tight fairawys. Good players use a 3 wood to minimize roll and to more precisely hit a target. A 3 wood is about distance control where a driver is about maximum distance.

Hope that helps.

 

They won't laugh much when you turn in a lower score card at the clubhouse.

 

My wife started golfing, she's terrible, can't hit a wood to save her life, so I tell her this:

'Would you rather try to hit your driver 200 yards and have no idea where it's going to end up (if she even hits the ball), or would you rather hit your iron 125 yards and KNOW where it's going to be ?'. (she's not much of a hitter)

I'm the same way - on a GOOD day I can drive 325 - but those days seldom happen, so I am content with hitting my 2 iron 225 yards or so and have it be right down the middle of the fairway. I also have to qualify that by saying my driver is an old Taylor-Made from 15+ years ago, I can't see paying $300+ for a club I would rarely use, because I don't golf as much as I used to. I golf for sport/exercise, not score.

 

no driver for me.hitting a 3 is hard enough. i carry a 3 5 7 woods. i also carry a 1 iron for emergencies. i really dont use the 3 all that much because i hit the 5 so well. i'll take 190 in the fairway over 250 in the woods.

 

My brother is the same as the OP, he never takes his driver out of the bag. I think it's only there for show. He only uses his 2-iron. He hits it straight every time so he doesn't see the need to change.

As for me, I'm like the john daly grip it and rip it types, I have more fun getting up there and hitting the crap out of the ball. For that same reason, I'm not too bad at recovery shots. I have been fooling around with my stance and tee placement and lately I've been getting 70% of my drives in the fairway. Honestly, its all a matter of feel. Golf is one of the most unique sports in the way that no person plays the same way. What one person finds works for them may work terribly for someone else.

 

So here we are with an actual golf thread but the suddenly quiet golf expert developed Carpal Tunnel from all his announcement posts?

WTF???

 

If you can hit a 1 iron and not a driver, something is up. The pro who gave me my first lesson was an excellent mid and short iron player. He told me not to use so much practice time on my driver. He asked me how many times I would normally use a driver in a normal round and how many times I would hit a mid to short iron. I told him I would probably use my driver about 10 times and my mid to short irons about 40 times. He told me then to practice my short to mid irons 4 times as much as I did my driver. My handicap dropped from 14 to 9.

This may be only for me but I found that most people who have trouble with their driver are not getting a good hip turn. They are pushing the hips forward instead of starting their turn early enough. There are plenty of articles out there on proper turns. It seems to be much more important because it gives better control and higher clubhead speed with less effort. It also improves the swingline and helps keep the ball straighter.

I am not a long knocker so I did not rely much on my driver. My average drive would be somewhere between 250 to 280 yards. Only very rarely with a good roll or good wind behind me could I come close to 300 like so many people claim they hit all the time. Pros, yes but that is more of a dream for the weekly golfer. Now that I never seem to have the time to get out to the golfcourse I would probably be very happy to hit bogey golf. Before it was around 76 to 79. That was before..................

 

Who Chase? I think he's an F1 Rookie Consultant now.

 

BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA !

Here is the real deal: Get the drivers out of your bags and SLOW DOWN your entire swing about 70%. Your ball will travel straight and far. Most people try to kill the ball and are scared to death to hit slowly...I mean REAL slow. Go try it. You will crap your pants, impress your friends and feel like Bob on that male enhancement commercial!

 

I still can't believe how well that worked... It had some part in that impressive 8 iron shot over the fence...

 

That is very true - let the CLUB do the work. I'm guilty of trying to 'Daly' it, but still, I use a 2 iron most of the time.
(and... I have a 1 iron and a 0 iron, but don't pull them. Much. I also have a 68 degree lob wedge, but it stays home).

The other thing I do is when I go to the range, I hit a small bucket of balls, and I only hit 18 balls per club (for the 2-3 clubs I hit).
Reason being, if you get a bucket, and spend all of it on one club, after about 20 balls, you get tired, you get sloppy, you get frustrated.... so don't get the large bucket - get a small one and just work with 1 or 2 clubs, not just one club, and don't spend all day hitting.

 

so peters gives advice at 2:51am.... you go try it out and come back to post at 3:02am??

 

.............The stuff of legend!!!

 

Noah lives on a golf course!

So do my folks. The first thing I do every time I go see them is say hello, go straight out the back door with my 8 iron and PW and pepper the flag stick!

 

It ain't the arrow it's the injun....

There's nothing wrong with it, but frankly it's better to practice and hit the driver knowing in a pinch you can take out the 3 wood for the go to shot.

Work on your swing instead, take a lesson and practice practice practice.

Most golfers have an outside to in swing, which makes it easier to square up the shorter shafted clubs and hit decent shots. Work on coming from the inside and you'll hit every club well.

A couple or three years ago I worked on changing my swing from my natural draw to a fade. I weakened my grip (both Vs pointed to the left [incorrect] shoulder), which opened my shoulders across the target line and positioned the ball farther away from me. I would cast the club, hold on for dear life (not release my hands) and cut across the ball. Very successful, every shot faded about 15 yards, but I lost about 1-1/2 club lengths and hit a very high ball. If I wanted to hit the left side of the fairway, I had to aim one hole left and cut it back.....but every ball went left to right.

Three weeks ago I had enough of this, consulted the local pro, and did the opposite. I positioned the ball nearly a foot closer towards me, strengthened my grip (pointed the Vs to the right shoulder), positioned the ball off my right (rear) foot and started to swing from the inside again. I had to teach my hands to release again. Needless to say I was hooking the **** out of everything 30-40 yards left, but after swinging every day (actually evening with my post prandial cigar) and gradually getting my grip back to neutral and positioning the ball back to center I started hitting a draw again. I also gained about 1-1/2 club lengths back. Where I used to hit high cut driver 4iron/utility on the par 5s to get on in 2 I now hit driver 8 & 7 irons pin high.

The moral of the story.......practice practice practice