Getting Off The Tee: Widen Your Arc to Swing

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Fighting the driver is a recurring-problem (that-) I run into with amateur-golfers all-the-time. If you’re the guy who avoids the driver at all costs, there’s a good-chance that your delivery is too steep/narrow.

When I say “steep/narrow”, I mean the club-head isn’t out in-front of your body enough or is too-close in-proximity to your body.

Frequently, I witness golfers battling driver-issues to such a high-degree that they ditch the big stick entirely and replace-it with a long-iron/hybrid type-of club on the tee. Despite the fact that replacing the driver with a long-iron saves you shots on tighter/narrower-holes and in the short-term, you’re setting yourself up for a long, uphill battle playing the game we all love by leaving the head-cover on your biggest-club.

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Rather than opting to play every par-4 & par-5 that you come across with a tee-ball whose distance is capped-at however-far your longest-iron or non-driver (-club) travels/goes, you’ll be much better-off tomorrow than you are today thru learning how to deliver the club-head into the slot (more-) optimally. Once you have success with this, your driver will be back in play in no-time.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; the execution of your full-swing(-s) shouldn’t change much-at-all from shot-to-shot and regardless-of club-selection. If you’re hitting a stock 7-iron, that golf-swing shouldn’t feel any different than the swing you just made with your driver.

Sure, it’s reasonable to-expect a different feeling with the 7-iron when you contact the ball, at-impact, but your take-away, back-swing, transition, downswing, and follow-thru should more-or-less mimic the feelings that you produce with the driver. As many of us know, it’s never fun being the guy who’s hitting lots of bad-shots off-the-tee.

Ultimately, enough mounting-issues with your driver puts you on a path of avoidance. If you’re one of many-players who is constantly fighting slices/mishits with the driver and longer-clubs in-general, you might benefit from a couple of simple drills to address these problems.

If you hit lots of high-slices/pop-ups with the driver and prefer hitting your irons on tee-boxes, I’m willing to-bet that your downswing is too-narrow. In other words, your club-head during the downswing is traveling from high-to-low too much and on a (club-) path that could be just as problematic.

Although any golf-ball that flies from left-to-right for righties and right-to-left for lefties (a.k.a. a slice) is the result of an angled club-face that’s open in-relation to the club’s path at-impact, learning how-to rid your driver-game of its poor-contact problems comes-down to (first-) addressing problems with the angle of your club’s shaft in relation to the ground as you deliver the club-head during the downswing.

Again, while it’s impossible to-hit slices with a club-face that’s angled closed/shut to the club’s path, you probably ended-up ditching the driver because you couldn’t strike the ball in the center of the face; and not-because you weren’t capable of finding some method to-calm down your slice thru falsely manipulating the club-head at/prior-to impact. In other words, it’s possible to-implement band-aid fixes or less-than optimal-solutions to achieve a straighter/less-violent ball-flight/slice by manipulating the club-head with your hands or by some alternative-method that isn’t reliable.

In simpler terms, not all good-shots or results are the product of consistent/reliable inputs. If you’re hitting sky-high spinners (/slices) off-the-tee (or even topping the ball sometimes), it’s true that the angle of your club-face isn’t where it needs to be in relation to the club’s path. Or, maybe your typical driver-slices/mis-hits result-from more of a club-path issue than a club-face issue. However, it’s very rare to-find constant-slicers hitting slices that become magnified as they move their way up through the bag, from wedge to driver and not vice-versa, who repeatedly find the center of the face.

Building off of my previous-explanations related-to the origins of your slicing/mis-hit issues with the driver, it’s important to recognize the fact that those of us who are perpetual-slicers with the driver are also executing iron-swings with the same underlying-concerns that oftentimes fail-to reveal themselves until we reach the longest-club(-s) in-the-bag. In other words, the shorter the club is, the easier it is to-hide the mistakes we make during the course of our golf swing.

Although you may be able to hit a 7-iron relatively straight and w/out much of a slice compared-to the driver, this doesn’t mean that your iron-swings are free-of errors. For the sake of clarity, let’s just say that you can save a 7-iron (-swing) 3 out-of every 4 times/swings using your hands or thru some-other (unreliable-) method that won’t hold-up as you work your way up through the bag (-to your driver). If you make that same-swing with your 4-iron, you may only be able to save-it 60 percent of the time; or 3 out-of every 5 times.

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Proportionately, that same-swing with your 9-iron produces a good-result/non-mishit/slice 5 out-of every 6 swings. But, and as I touched on, your inability to-exercise control of your slice/mishits as you add length to the shaft occurs due to the basic-principles of hitting shorter-vs.-longer clubs.

If you play a lot and have good-hands (/hand-eye coordination), you may be able to-groove bad-habits while concealing the issues in your steep/narrow arc better than most. But, recurring-inequities in how (poorly/adequately) you strike the driver compared-to how effective/ineffective you are with the irons is more-about the inadequate-width to your swing than your potentially problematic club-path/face-angle; which only takes into account the time immediately before impact and at-impact. More specifically, you need to learn how to apply the circular principles that are inherent to any sufficient swing-plane; with respect to the ground.

One-thing that a circle cannot-be is linear. In golf as well as in life, nothing is perfectly linear. While a ruler might be the closest-thing to-linear or straight, even that isn’t perfectly-straight. Like anything else (-is), the ruler is inherently comprised-of some-level of human-error; however small that/those error(-s) may be. In an effort to bring this topic back-to where it belongs, don’t try to fix your slice/mishits with the driver by obsessing over club-path and face-angle. Sure, understanding the face-to-path relationship is key to-maintaining a consistent ball-flight.

Before that even becomes relevant-to hitting better-drivers, however, you must hit the center of the club-face. And, your inability to strike the center of the face (of-) which is evidenced by your topped tee-shots/pop-ups/mishits/slices, exist because you aren’t wide-enough on the takeaway/back-swing and you’re too-narrow/steep on the downswing. So, and I know it took awhile to finally arrive at this point, but now we have to learn how-to widen our arc.

As The Golden Bear used to-say while referencing the potential-issues in his takeaway, you’ve got to-picture/visualize razor-blades above your hands in relation to the ground as you’re standing in your setup-position over-the-ball. Like Jack, Rory uses this advice for his own takeaway in an effort to keep the club-head low to the ground as he starts his motion/swing.

Sure, you can afford to pick the club-up off-the-ground with your irons on the takeaway/backswing. Why? Because we’re trying to-make contact with the ground after-the-ball with our irons in most instances. With the driver, think “low and slow” in order to keep the club-head lower to the ground on the takeaway/backswing and to maintain quality-tempo/rhythm (which is the slow-part; that also affects timing; and timing is everything at-impact).

If you rush your takeaway; you’re lifting the club-head off the ground too quickly in most cases or the club-head is settling too-far behind your hands/body in relation to your imaginary target-line at-address.

To-practice this low-and-slow takeaway with your driver-swing; a swing that produces more of a rotational/circular effect throughout-it, place one-ball on-the-ground that’s directly behind your club-head. The ball should be positioned on the ground so that the back of your driver-head strikes the ball during your normal takeaway.

After making numerous swings in this above-manner, be sure to check where each ball ends-up finishing behind you. If one-ball is located on-the-ground 8-feet behind you and another is located at 5-feet, you need to work-on the consistency of your takeaway. Every ball should be located in close proximity to each-other. Performing this drill simply reinforces the low-and-slow (and well-timed) takeaway that’s adequate for hitting well-struck drivers.

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Now, I want you to setup to a golf-ball like you normally do/would before hitting-it; but with a ball in your trail-hand (right-hand for righties) and no-club of any kind. After doing that, I want you to perform a golf-swing with your trail-arm; or the same-arm/hand that’s holding the ball. During this trail-arm only downswing, I want you to let-go of the ball in your hand in a fashion that mimics the motion of an under-hand/arm throw. If you can picture a pitcher throwing from the stretch-position and not the wind-up/face-on position, your body should be oriented just like that; which also mimics that of a golfer.

Like any softball-pitcher (whose-) releasing the ball under-hand (and) towards home-plate; only you’re not performing this drill with your body facing the target, you should throw the ball at your intended-target nearly as-hard/far as you can. If your under-hand toss flies too-low; or not as far as you’d like, while also traveling off-line; you should try to-maximize the distance/height of your throw. The higher, and (the-) farther, that you can toss the ball under-hand, the better you’ve prepared yourself to-make solid-driver swings.

With the driver, we want to sweep the ball off-the-tee. To achieve that, you need to have your dominant/trail hand more underneath the grip at-impact. If it’s not, then you’re increasing the chances of delivering the club-head too much from high-to-low into the back of the ball.

Although we dove into lots of detail here, we can simplify the message by remembering to-add width to your driver’s backswing and to stay-behind the ball during the downswing and at-impact. By staying “behind” the ball during the downswing in-relation to the target, you’ll be in better-position to-sweep the ball off the tee. To sweep the ball off-the-tee, your trail hand, at-impact, needs to-be positioned more-underneath the grip as opposed to on-top of it.

Mix-in the takeaway-drill with the underhand toss-drill, and in a short-matter of time, you’ll be making center-face contact all-day with the driver. Remember, we can’t perform the driver-swing in a linear fashion; as we’re not chopping wood here. Chopping-wood may work to a degree with our chips/pitches/short-to-mid-irons, but to-hit the driver well we have-to think wide to let it fly.

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Besides being a diehard Philadelphia sports fan, Jack is an experienced PGA associate teaching professional and a former Division 1 college golfer at Lehigh University where he graduated in 2015. Along with golf, he loves playing and watching tennis, paddle, pickle ball, and ping pong. He’s a big believer in using other sports to draw parallels/comparisons to golf-related fundamentals. Jack is a huge Philadelphia 76ers fan which he readily admits can be extremely difficult these days amid the organization’s failure to deliver on their promise of bringing a championship to the city of brotherly love in recent seasons. Jack insists that success on the golf course is much like building championship habits in a team atmosphere. Dynasties don’t merely think they can win; they know they can. Before diving into the technical, he understands that the six inches between the ears ultimately separate champions from mere mortals. Or, if you’re Jack, you ride around in a cart rocking solely Greyson attire and the Miguel Angel Jimenez cigar hanging out of his mouth despite not having the Spaniard’s silky smooth tempo to back it up!

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In case you haven’t heard, power is a popular topic in golf these days.

The pros are hitting it farther than ever before – thanks to a combination of technology and improved physical fitness – and plenty of amateurs are launching big drives, as well.

However, despite so much focus on tech and fitness, those looking for added power should still look to the fundamentals of the swing as a starting point.

This article is going to focus on one of those fundamentals – the shoulder turn. Making a great shoulder turn has long been an important part of playing good golf, and that remains true today.

Whether your current shoulder turn leaves something to be desired, or you just want to make sure you don’t fall into any bad habits, we hope this article will help.

Before diving into the details of how you can make a full shoulder turn in your swing, let’s talk first about what it is that this shoulder turn is going to do for your game. When you turn your shoulders nicely away from the target, you benefit in a few ways –

#1 Added Speed

A big shoulder turn will put your hands – and the club, by extension – farther away from the ball at the top of the swing. That means there is more room between the club and the ball, and that extra room translates into more time for acceleration.

If you have always felt like you had the ability to create more power in your game but just couldn’t make it happen, it may be that a poor shoulder turn has been holding you back.

#2 Improved Consistency

Using the big muscles of your body to control the swing, such as those in your shoulders, back, and core, is a far more consistent way to move the club.

If you allow your small muscles to do too much of the work, the path of the club and the pace of your swing are likely to be inconsistent.

Of course, every golfer would love a consistency boost, and making a better shoulder turn is a great way to make that happen.

#3 Timing Mechanism

Along the same lines as the consistency point, using a good shoulder turn will help your timing, which will in turn help you strike the ball better throughout your rounds.

Once you are comfortable using a big shoulder turn, you will find that it acts as the foundation of your swing and you will rely on it to keep everything else working properly.

The points above should make it clear that working on your shoulder turn is worth your effort. There are no guarantees in golf, of course, but a better shoulder turn has the potential to transform your level of play.

To start working on a good shoulder turn, you first need to have a solid stance in place.

Your feet should be wide enough to make it easy to balance your body throughout the swing, both back and through. Also, make sure you have plenty of flex in your knees, and keep your back in a strong, flat position.

Without an athletic stance as a starting point, turning your shoulders properly will be nearly impossible.

Speaking of your stance, there is one key element that needs to be specifically highlighted. At address, your chin should be up and away from your chest, rather than tucked down with your head bowing toward the ground.

Keeping your chin up provides a path for your left shoulder (if you are a right-handed golfer) to take as you swing back. If you had your chin down, the left shoulder would run into the chin and something would have to give. So, practice taking your stance with your chin up but your eyes still looking down at the ball.

The number one problem that golfers run into when trying to make a good shoulder turn is a lack of time. Of course, this is a self-inflicted problem, as there is no shot clock in golf.

Players who are in a rush to get through the swing and send the ball on its way struggle to make a big shoulder turn. If your current swing tempo is quick and rushed, slowing yourself down may be the biggest challenge you face in this process.

As you practice your swing with an improved turn, keep reminding yourself that there is no hurry. The only point during the swing where the club needs to be moving quickly is at impact – everything else is just building up to that point.

So, during the backswing, give yourself as much time as you need to make a big turn in a comfortable manner. With plenty of practice, you should gradually get more and more comfortable with the right timing for your swing.

We’d like to offer one word of warning here on timing – it’s likely to be difficult to get it right on the course, even after you make progress on the range. The urge to rush your swing will likely come back once you take your new and improved motion to the course for a round. Be aware of the tendency to rush on the course and intentionally slow yourself down to stay on track.

Our last piece of advice related to your shoulder turn and hitting powerful shots is not to force the action.

You don’t need to feel like you are swinging as hard as possible in order to add power. Rather, you just need to dial in your technique and execute your big shoulder turn over and over again. The big turn will set the stage for a powerful shot but overdoing it from an effort perspective could rob you of balance and lead to disappointing results.

As you improve your technique, simply trust that technique to deliver the power you desire, while remaining under control and focusing on making clean contact on the center of the face.

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Drive for show, putt for dough. We’ve all heard that before. We were also taught to believe that practice makes perfect.

Well, I’m living proof that neither of those adages are true…for now. As I rebuild my game, I constantly struggle with hitting the ball left, due to coming over the top. Because of this, all the practice I do means nothing. If I can’t learn a technique that changes this move, practice will do me no good.

The same goes for the PGA Tour. They have their share of long ball hitters, including the now protein shake enhanced monster we know as Bryson DeChambeau.

A post shared by Bryson DeChambeau (@brysondechambeau) on Oct 7, 2020 at 8:31pm PDT

Let’s just put this out there right now: There is only one player in the world doing what Bryson is doing. And that’s Bryson himself. So the roster of stars from DJ, to Rory, down to the who’s who of the PGA TOUR, don’t need to worry about beating him at his own game.

Why you may ask? Because Bryson is human, and he’s bound to slow down.

Yes, believe it or not, Bryson is human, just like us. We don’t always swing the same swing. We don’t always hit it off the screws. We don’t always make perfect contact with our irons. Heck, that’s noticeable every weekend on TOUR, and even with his expanded power and puffed up physique, it happens to DeChambeau.

A post shared by Bryson DeChambeau (@brysondechambeau) on Aug 14, 2020 at 1:35pm PDT

So what are TOUR players supposed to do now, with the “Scientist” quickly becoming “The Incredible Hulk”? They should worry about themselves, hit as many accurate shots as they can, with as much distance as they can simultaneously muster, and try to do that consistently in hopes that they’ve given enough to win.

Why? Because Bryson won’t always win, and it won’t necessarily help your game. And to be honest, chasing distance is a fool’s errand. Chase accuracy, chase consistency, chase building an arsenal of shots that will bring lower scores across a multitude of scenarios. Get the right gear that’s built right for you, and then do it again as you improve, and again.

Sure, I love a monster drive that blisters the fairway. But when the wheels fall off, it makes no difference if you were me last weekend swinging with desperate abandon or a pro like Bryson DeChambeau on the big stage. We’ll be the same exact golfer at that time: a lost golfer.

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While there is a lot of variety in the game of golf, you do see some shots come up more than others.

Obviously, you hit your drive off the tee quite a bit, as many par fours and par fives will start with such a shot. You also use your putter on nearly every hole, and you probably hit plenty of shots with your wedges – both for full swings and for chips/pitches.

It’s important to build your confidence in as many of these common shots as possible, since they are used so frequently.

With that said, you also want to be capable of producing some other types of shots which may not come up as often.

Golf is unpredictable, after all, and you really never know exactly what you are going to face when you begin each round.

One such shot is the sensational (but rare) driver off the deck shot.

To be clear, this is not a shot you should expect to use very often. If you are capable of hitting it properly, however, it just might come in handy from time to time.

Before you bother practicing this difficult shot, it’s worth discussing when you could actually use it on the golf course.

If it isn’t really going to come into play in your game, there isn’t much point in wasting valuable range time on this skill.

We have identified three potential opportunities to hit your driver off the desk, and we’ve listed them below.

This is probably the first scenario you imagined when thinking about using your driver from the fairway. If you have a long distance to cover to reach the green, but nothing between you and the target other than short grass, it might be worth giving it a go with the driver.

This is a particularly desirable plan if the ground is firm and fast, meaning you’ll get plenty of bounce and roll after the shot lands.

Hitting a par five in two and knocking in an eagle putt is one of the best experiences you can have in golf and hitting your driver properly from the deck might make it happen.

On a typical breezy day, you shouldn’t need to resort to playing your driver off the deck in order to advance the ball toward the green. However, if you are playing on a day with particularly heavy winds, and you are playing a shot directly into that wind, reaching for the driver could be a smart play.

Obviously, this is a shot you would expect to fly low, so you’ll be able to reduce the effects of the wind and advance the ball nicely toward the green.

This last option is one that will hopefully not come into play very often.

If you find yourself in the trees with a clean lie, you might be able to use your driver to play out of trouble and back into the fairway (or even up to the green). Most likely, you would not be using a full swing in this kind of situation, but rather an abbreviated swing that ‘punches’ the ball low and out of the trees.

In this case beware of any rocks or roots that might be present in your swing path as they may cause damage to one of the expensive clubs in your bag.

It’s certainly possible that you’ll come up with other opportunities to use your driver off the deck, but these three are a good starting point.

Let’s get down to business at this point – how do you hit your driver off the deck?

The first thing to understand is that you need to resist the urge to help the ball off the turf. You’ll look down at address and feel like you need to scoop the ball up at impact because your driver has such little loft.

Resist this feeling and commit to hitting through the ball just like any other shot. If you try to help the ball off the ground, you’ll almost certainly top the shot and it will roll weakly along the turf.

Also, it’s usually best to swing across this type of shot slightly from outside-in. This kind of approach will help you make clean contact, which is not an easy task when hitting a driver from the fairway.

To achieve an outside-in swing, try setting up with your feet slightly open to the target line, and the ball toward the front of your stance. Then, as the swing begins, do your best to swing the club back along the line formed by your feet.

When all is executed correctly, the ball should start just a bit to the left of your target (for a right-handed golfer) and gentle fade back to the right as it flies.

With some practice on the range, there is a good chance you’ll get somewhat comfortable with this shot. Sure, it’s never going to be the easiest shot to hit, but you will hopefully get to a point where you have enough confidence to use it on the course.

When that happens, be sure not to force it – you don’t want to pull this shot out of the bag just because you have it as an option. Rather, you should turn to easier options first, and only go for the driver off the deck when you are sure it is the best possible choice given the situation at hand.

Is it necessary to know how to hit your driver off the deck in order to lower your scores and play good golf? Of course not.

This is not a skill that is required in this game, and in fact, you’ll rarely see professional golfers turn to this shot.

With that said, it’s always good to have options, as you never know exactly what kinds of situations you’ll face on the course. Give this shot a try on the range sometime and see how it goes. If you seem to be getting good results, add it to your repertoire and pull it out of the bag when the time is right.

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