Driver Set-Up And Distance Tips

Golf Monthly

In this video, PGA Professional Katie Dawkins offers some driver set-up and distance tips to help you hit the ball further off the tee.

Transcript

00:00 One of the biggest problems that people tend to have when they are trying to hit the ball

00:07 further with their driver is that they're not setting up to it properly.

00:11 When it comes to setting up to the ball with the driver it's really important the ball

00:14 is positioned opposite the inside of your front heel.

00:17 The reason for that is we want to collect the ball on the way through to that finish.

00:22 So with an iron we are up and over the ball we're going to hit down on it.

00:26 With the driver we want to be settled behind the ball because we want to be sweeping it

00:30 or collecting it off the tee.

00:32 So making sure that your zippers or your buttons on your top aren't straight up and over and

00:36 your spine isn't straight up.

00:38 We want to ever so slightly settle that behind the ball.

00:41 So this just means settling a little bit of weight gently onto this back foot here.

00:47 So it drops your back shoulder a little bit away.

00:50 This arm stays very relaxed it's a good idea just to swing it back on the club and from

00:54 there you'll be able to swing right the way through to that photo finish that's so important

00:59 when you're trying to get a bit of distance and get that ball soaring down the fairways.

01:03 So with getting yourself into this really decent setup position we want to make sure

01:08 that we've got that weight gently settled on the back foot.

01:12 So you've every single tee area on the course you've got a nice little upslope even be it

01:17 a shallow one so you can stand on that and give yourself that feeling of being able to

01:21 settle onto that upslope.

01:24 So just set up on an upslope set up where the ball would normally be and just wiggle

01:27 yourself and settle that weight gently onto this foot so the shoulders end up perpendicular

01:32 to the slope.

01:33 What you can then do when you come onto the actual tee area is you can stand there set

01:37 up to your ball and just settle again and almost reignite that feeling that you had

01:43 on the slope on the tee.

01:45 Probably one of the biggest faults that I see is lack of body rotation and lack of wind

01:49 up in the backswing when it comes to the driver.

01:52 The swing it seems to be powered solely by the arms going up and down.

01:56 Usually this is down to poor posture.

01:58 People are just sat like this at address rather than in an athletic position.

02:03 Being in an athletic position means that we can rotate and wind our body up and turn our

02:07 back to the target.

02:09 When you're not in that position your body can't turn because you're not in balance.

02:13 If you're not in balance you'd probably end up falling over.

02:16 So as a result our arms go straight up and straight down.

02:19 The ball ends up carved down the fairway.

02:21 It feels a lot of effort yet the distance just isn't there.

02:25 So making sure at the top of the swing that you can feel a turn.

02:30 So you're turning that left shoulder under your chin.

02:33 That lovely rotation.

02:35 And that will give you a lot more power and generate a lot more speed off the pub face.

02:39 [Music]

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