Let’s kick off with “The Big Stick”. The one club in the bag that is most obsessed over by golfers and in many cases, the shortest-lived club in your golf bag. So why this obsession with the Driver? Peer pressure, ego, manufacturer marketing, unrealistic goals are among the top reasons for changing out a driver in my experience.

Let’s break it down. The Driver is the longest club in your bag (unless you use a long putter), it has the biggest club head, with the flattest face attached to the lightest shaft. Everything about the design of this club speaks distance, and with aggressive manufacturers R&D every golfer wants that extra ball speed.

The evil flip side to this is how difficult it is for the average golfer to get the results that they want out of the Driver. For the most part, the average amateur golfer will have a high left to right ball flight with the Driver which robs them of their distance and forces them to adjust alignment further left to compensate for this movement on the ball – not a good idea to correct a fault with another fault.

In order to maximize on your Driver, the first thing to understand is that it is unlike any other club in the bag; it’s, big, long, light and has a flat face that is not easy to square up at impact. It also requires a different set up and different swing dynamics to effectively hit the ball long and straight.

So how can you get more consistency and distance out of your Driver?
Two factors play an equal part here –
1. Swing Dynamics. Hitting a ball off a tee requires a different set up to hitting a ball off the ground. Squaring up a flat face attached to a long shaft requires different swing dynamics. Get yourself a few professional lessons to learn how to set up and swing for the distance and direction you are looking for. You will be surprised how much it helps your game.
2. Fitted Equipment. With all the options between club-head, shaft, and grip out there, buying the correct driver can be overwhelming and in most cases you will walk out with the club the salesman wants to sell you, not the one that will work best for you. Get yourself fitted correctly for your equipment. Just by knowing your club-head speed you can narrow down your option from 1000+ to about 100.

If you’re still having some trouble after reading the article, come in to the academy and let me have a look, high chances are the issue can be corrected quickly!

Some Inside Scoop – 2019 Driver lineup (NB* Names of the below are yet to be confirmed 100% by the manufactures).
Mizuno ST 190
Ping G410
Cobra King F9
TaylorMade M5 & M6
Callaway Epic Flash

Anokh Jai,  AT.C
Head Teaching Professional
Total Golf Solutionz