Kyle Voska Golf

Tip-Of-The-Month March ’10: Set Up Correctly To Launch Your Longest Drives Ever

HIT YOUR DRIVER FARTHER BY SETTING UP TO LAUNCH THE BALL

Would you like to hit your driver longer, higher, and straighter?  Of course you would, right?  Well, then why are you setting up to drive the ball low and crooked?  You’re probably wondering how I know you’re set up incorrectly.  You may not be, but most likely you are.  Almost every amateur I teach is not set up correctly with their drivers.  It’s truly amazing how golfers would love to hit the ball longer off the tee, yet a large majority are set up to drive the ball into the ground or to hit the big, bad, ugly slice.  

To optimize your distance off the tee, you should be increasing the effective loft of your driver by 2-4 degrees at impact.  Example:  If you have a 10 degree driver, the launch angle of the ball at impact should be 12-14 degrees.  I’m not recommending you to hit up on the ball to accomplish this, but to set up in such a way to allow it to happen naturally.  Today, I’m going to help you do this by going over some of the most common errors setting up with the driver, the causes of this poor set up, and how to fix these errors. 

PROBLEM

Most of the amateurs I see set up improperly with their drivers.  The most common faults I see are playing the ball too far back in the stance, too narrow of a stance, open shoulders, weight favoring their target-side foot, or hands ahead of the ball.  All of these common faults can drastically affect the success rate of a golfer’s tee shot.  Setting up with these faults will tend to either make the swing too steep coming into the ball, or make the swing too much from the outside-to-in.  Not ideal to launch the ball long and straight.

FIX

Setting up correctly with the driver really isn’t that difficult, it’s just a matter of taking the time to do it correctly once you know how.  With your driver, the goal is to fly the ball as far as possible with low spin so the ball rolls after landing.  Here are the keys to set up correctly:

1. Position the ball up in your stance off your left heel or one ball off that heel.
2. Widen your right foot so your stance is wider than your shoulders.  It should be a few inches wider than the stance used for your irons.  With your driver, you may be swinging over 100 mph.  That’s fast.  Setting up with a wider base will allow you to maintain your balance much easier. 
3. Allow your hands to rest comfortably between your arms which will leave them at or slightly behind the ball.
4. Let your arms hang from your shoulders or slightly outside leaving about 5-6 inches of space between the end of the grip and your belt-line. 
5. Weight distribution should be 50/50 or slightly favoring your rear foot.  Favoring your target-side foot can open your shoulders and could cause you to swing too steeply ball.  Common shots from this set up position would be pop-ups, slices, and very low tee shots. 
6. Ensure that your shoulders are square at address.  This is overlooked by many, but very important.  Most have open shoulders at address which also leads to a slice.  Practice squaring up your shoulders by checking to see if they’re parallel to your toes, hips, and target line.

Setting up in this launching position will allow to swing in such a way that you will hit your driver on a slight upswing from the inside.  The angle of attack will be pretty shallow which decreases the side-spin on the ball lessening the chance of a big slice.  This may be a big change for you, but if done correctly, I guarantee you’ll hit the ball longer and straighter. 

Good luck and thanks for reading!

March 23, 2010 - Posted by Kyle Voska | Golf Tips, Slicers Corner, Tips-of-the-Month, UC Class Notes | golf tip, hit your driver farther, longer drives, proper stance with a driver, set up to hit the driver farther