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

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

00:08further with their driver is that they're not setting up to it properly.

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

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

00:18The reason for that is we want to collect the ball on the way through to that finish.

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

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

00:30or collecting it off the tee.

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

00:36your spine isn't straight up, we want to ever so slightly settle that behind the ball.

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

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

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

00:54And from there, you'll be able to swing right the way through to that photo finish that's

00:58so important when you're trying to get a bit of distance and get that ball soaring down

01:02the fairways.

01:04So with getting yourself into this really decent setup position, we want to make sure

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

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

01:18one.

01:19So you can stand on that and give yourself that feeling of being able to settle onto

01:23that upslope.

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

01:28yourself and settle that weight gently onto this foot so the shoulders end up perpendicular

01:32to the slope.

01:34What you can then do when you come on to the actual tee area is you can stand there, set

01:38up to your ball and just settle again and almost reignite that feeling that you had

01:43on the slope on the tee.

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

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

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

01:57Usually this is down to poor posture.

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

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

02:07back to the target.

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

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

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

02:20The ball ends up carved down the fairway.

02:22It feels a lot of effort, yet the distance just isn't there.

02:25So making sure at the top of the swing that you can feel a turn, so you're turning that

02:31left shoulder under your chin, that lovely rotation.

02:36And that will give you a lot more power and generate a lot more speed off the pub face.

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