⛳️ 3 Tips to Longer Drives (Part 1/3)

It’s Thursday and you’ve got this coming,

⛳️ Part 1 of hitting longer drives without making a technical swing change!

Over the next 3 weeks, I'm going to talk about three things golfers can do to help them hit the golf ball further, without making a technical change to their golf swing.

We’re next up on the tee, let’s go!

ONE TIP
Optimize your angle of attack

Want to watch my breakdown of this tip, check it out here!

Could you make a technical change to improve your golf swing? Absolutely. But the reason I'm avoiding going into technical aspects is that I've observed a few key things that many golfers do, often subconsciously, that have nothing to do with their golf swing itself. These are more related to their setup or understanding of a few concepts that I believe can help increase distance off the tee. So let's get into it!

The first thing is optimizing your angle of attack.

Just to make sure we're on the same page, your angle of attack is measured at the moment the golf club touches the golf ball. It can either be measured in a positive or negative value: positive meaning you are hitting up on the golf ball, and negative meaning you are hitting down on the golf ball. The problem I see is that a lot of golfers with a driver have a negative angle of attack. This often leads to hitting the ball high on the face, causing high launch and high spin, which can significantly reduce how far your golf ball travels.

There are three common mistakes I see that lead to a negative angle of attack:

1. Ball position is too far back: An adjustment that many golfers forget is having the ball far enough forward. Often, golfers hit all their clubs from the same ball position, but with a driver, this position is often not far enough forward. While this may impact club path, for many golfers, if you're hitting it high on the face with a negative angle of attack, moving the ball forward in your stance is an easy fix that can help create a more positive angle of attack.

2. Hands are too far ahead: This is another issue where golfers tend to hit their driver like an iron, with forward shaft lean and hands too far ahead. An easy way to adjust is to think about where the butt end of your grip is pointing. If your hands are too far ahead, that butt end is likely pointing toward your lead thigh. Instead, focus on having it point more towards your belt buckle or belly button.

3. Shoulder alignment: This often relates to players with too much forward shaft lean, but when hitting your driver and trying to launch it high with a positive angle of attack, you want your lead shoulder to be higher than your trail shoulder. I like to remind golfers to adopt a "launcher's mentality," where it feels like their right shoulder is low and their left shoulder is high, which can help promote hitting up on the golf ball.

Keep in mind that these adjustments often come down to the fact that many golfers try to make the same golf swing with all their clubs. However, you cannot have the same setup with your driver as you do with your irons. The ball is on a tee and is meant to be hit up on, so we need to make sure we do that instead of hitting our driver like an iron.

I hope this tip has helped, but remember, it's only the first one. We've got two more coming, and I look forward to delivering the second one to you next week.

🎙️ Have you checked out my Podcast? Find it here

What it feels like making a par on #7 Red at Kingsville, if you know, you know!