full swing
“Driving the Golf Ball with Confidence, Accuracy, and Consistency”
The three most important elements to the game of golf is:
- Driving the golf ball in play.
- Putting the golf ball with consistent speed control (distance).
- Pitching the golf ball with loft.
Let’s concentrate on what I consider the MOST important aspect to the game of golf, DRIVING THE GOLF BALL IN PLAY. This area of the game is the #1 confidence builder in golf. As you probably know and have experienced, your score adds up quickly if you hit your tee shots out of play.
Here is a bold proclomation for you -if you read this article/special report every time, just before you play a round, your friends will think they are playing with Joe Durant. Joe has led the PGA Tour in driving accuracies for the past two years. So far this year, he is averaging 79% of the fairways every time he plays 18 holes of golf.
If you are going to change the way you drive the golf ball you will need to implement the following four fundamentals:
- THE PICTURE
- PROPER DRIVER
- CORRECT TEE HEIGHT
- CORRECT SWING PLANE
1. THE PICTURE
If you can see it, you can have it. Before you take your driver, or any club for that matter, out of your golf bag, you better start seeing what you want the golf ball to do during its journey down the fairway. Of the millions of words my mother (the first female to teach at a golf school in the United States) passed on to me, the one phrase that has stayed with me all of these years is THE PICTURE. You need to have a mental picture of how you want the ball to fly through the air and where you want it to wind up. When you have a driver in your hands, you have to pick out an exact area you want the ball to land on. IF YOU DON’T SEE THE PICTURE, YOU ARE IN TROUBLE.
Important Tip: During the course of a round of golf, you can find yourself driving the ball well, but all of the sudden you are faced with a difficult driving hole. Shortly after I turned professional, I played a practice round with Tommy Bolt the 1958 U.S. Open Champion. We came to great par four, 435 yards long, water down the right side of the fairway from the tee to the green, out of bounds markers down the entire left side of the fairway from the tee to the green. After I teed my golf ball up I said to Tommy , “What do you do here with O.B. left and water right?” Tommy looked me straight in the eye and said “Son, if you see the water and the O.B. markers, you better go find another line of work.”
That stuck with me to this day, and I wanted to pass it on to you. Don’t worry about the challenges, just think about what you want the ball to do. I have benefited immeasurably during my career, and I want you to benefit from this as well.
2. PROPER DRIVER
Now that you can see the picture, let’s see if you brought the correct brush to paint with. If you are still trying to buy 20 more meters every time you walk into a golf shop. It is time to stop-NOW! If you own a driver where the grip is new, has a graphite shaft, and is metal then you own what it takes to send the golf ball straight down the fairway.
Let’s back up a foot or two. The loft on the golf club will play a major role in how accurate you are. If you are struggling with your driver you might consider buying a driver with at least 10-12 degrees of loft. The less loft a driver has the more you are apt to slice and hook the ball. If you are driving the ball well you can buy a driver with less loft.
An important side note: If you are driving the golf ball short, low and to the right the shaft might be too stiff. If you are driving the golf ball too high and to the left the shaft might be too weak.
Another item to consider if you have small hands, have the club repair shop regrip all of your grips with either a junior grip or a small grip. If your hands are large, have the shop regrip you clubs with oversize grips.
Bottom Line – worry about getting the ball in the fairway first, and then focus on distance generation. Chances are, you own the equipment right now, that will give you the fairway shots you’re looking for. Remember – It’s the swing, not the equipment. The equipment can help once you have a good swing, but you’ll never FIX your swing with an equipment upgrade.
3.CORRECT TEE HEIGHT
The tee height does not seem like such a big deal, but it plays a huge roll in whether or not you drive the golf ball consistently down the fairway. Something so simple can often be the biggest challenge.
The two major mistakes are teeing the golf ball too low or teeing the golf ball too high. You may have heard that golf is a game of opposites. This is a perfect example. Let me explain why. If you are constantly swinging your driver too vertical into the ground in the downswing, you probably tee the golf ball to low. Almost all golfers with a vertical driver swing fear swinging underneath the golf ball so they tee the ball low in hopes of catching it square. For those of you with this challenge, the next time you are on the golf course, tee the golf ball up a little higher and sit back a little bit more on your heels and keep your weight there in the downswing. After your shot has landed, look down to see if your tee is still in the ground. If you are always conscience of leaving the tee in the ground, you will not pop your tee shots up anymore.
If you are topping your tee shots to the right you might have the ball teed too high because you are trying to hit the ball on the upswing. The next time you go out to play, tee the ball down a little. After the golf ball has landed, make sure your weight is on your left foot and meaning you have transferred your weight correctly.
4. CORRECT SWING PLANE
With this final tip I feel confident you will be on your way to driving the golf ball straighter and with more consistency. The golf club in your bag that swings the most vertical, (up and down) is your sand wedge. The golf club that swings the most horizontal (around you-baseball swing) is your driver. The mistake I have seen most amateur golfers make is that they swing their driver like their sand wedge and they swing their sand wedge like their driver.
A couple of things to remember when you are addressing the driver:
- Chin up
- Turn your right shoulder in the back swing level
- Swing the golf club around you/not up and down
- Leave the tee in the ground after you hit the ball
When you are ready to begin your backswing, keep your swing thoughts to a minimum. Just think about swinging more horizontal.
At the beginning of this special report I promised you would drive the ball more with more consistentency, confidence, and more accuracy if you read this article every time before you tee it up this summer. This stuff seems simple, but give it a try and send me an email letting me know the results. You will get some tremendous results.
If you would like to get more indepth golf instruction via golf videos then be sure to follow one of our links in this article.
Happy Golfing-
Bobby Eldridge
Head Professional-PurePoint Golf
Click Here to see The PurePoint Golf Full Swing DVD
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