“Driving is for show, putting is for dough.”
You’ve heard that saying a million times, but it’s actually wrong.
That saying is true when it comes to the professional game because everybody on the tour can crush a golf ball off the tee with ease.
But when it comes to the weekend warriors, newbies, and average golfers around the world, this common phrase does not reply.
What good is it having a fantastic short game if you’re hitting your second shot from the trees, or after taking a drop from a water hazard, or from the tee box again?
All the one-putts in the world won’t be able to save the scorecard of a terrible driver.
Ask yourself, have you ever played with a scratch golfer who couldn’t drive the golf ball consistently?
Getting off the tee safely is important, and the only way to do so is to practice.
Below, we have listed out some of our staff members’ favorite golf swing drills and driving range tips that will have you attacking fairways in no time at all.
Enjoy!
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Roll It Back Drill
Many golf swings go wrong in the first phases of the swing. Golfers don’t tend to pay attention to their takeaways, and as a result, their takeaways are not smooth and, well… suck!
When your takeaway is not consistent, it means the golf club path is always going to be off slightly, which will lead to bad shots.
Getting a consistent takeaway gets your swing off to a good start, which will help you with your consistency over time.
How To Do The Drill:
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- Set up to hit your driver as normal.
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- Place an additional golf ball behind the driver’s head.
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- Your driver’s head should be sandwiched between the golf balls.
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- Start your backswing, but focus on rolling the ball back with your driver.
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- Doing this will help gain a smoother & more consistent backswing.
Headcover On The Ground… Swing Path Drill
Once again, a headcover would be ideal for this drill, but feel free to use anything available: foam block, driving range basket, or a flat-screen TV if you’re brave enough.
The most powerful ball flight/shot shape you can hit with a driver is a draw. More often than not, people struggle with hitting a slice, and their swing path could be to blame.
Coming over the top is when your club head slices across the ball from an out to in swing path.
To hit tasty bombs, you want to swing from in to out so the driver’s head feels like it’s getting further away at and after impact.
How To Do The Drill:
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- Place the headcover slightly to the right of your ball.
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- Position it between your ball and the edge of the driving range mat.
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- Set up to hit your driver as normal.
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- Swing at the ball without hitting the headcover.
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- When you hit the headcover, you came over the top.
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- When you don’t hit the headcover, but the ball still slices, it could be your clubface angle that’s the problem. (Don’t worry, we have a drill for that too!)
Control The Face Drill
Having a perfect swing path, weight transfer, and position means nothing if your clubface is too open or closed on impact.
Oftentimes times, golfers are too concerned with the motion of the swing and powering through the ball without paying attention to controlling the clubface.
All the best drivers in the world may have different swing paths or setups, but they all strike the ball with a squared clubface.
This can be one of the hardest aspects of the swing to get right for most golfers.
How To Do The Drill
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- Set up to hit your driver as normal.
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- Start with ¼ swings and strike the ball.
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- Your focus is solely on hitting the ball straight with a square face.
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- Once you’re confident, move to a ½ swing and do the same.
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- Repeat this process, working your way to a full swing.
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- Stop at whatever stage you can’t consistently hit straight shots, and don’t go any further.
Headcover Under Arm Drill
A lot of issues can pop up throughout your driver swing because of of your arms becoming disconnected (too far away and not in sync) from your body and rotation.
When your arms don’t move with the rest of your body (unless you’re an elite-level player), you will end up with inconsistent shot shapes and trajectories.
Top golfers eliminate any unnecessary movements and look very compact, with their arms staying tight to their bodies.
This helps them to keep producing the same swing time after time, turn your hook into a draw, and this drill can help you achieve this, too.
How To Do The Drill:
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- Set up to hit your driver as normal.
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- Place a headcover, towel, or sock under your trail armpit.
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- Try to keep it under your armpit as you complete the backswing.
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- Turn your upper and lower body in together so the headcover doesn’t fall.
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- Hit 10 with the headcover, then 10 without it.
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- Don’t panic if they don’t go as far as usual, swing changes take time.
One Foot Back Drill
As we talked about in earlier drills, to get a powerful draw on the golf ball, you need to swing from in to out.
By swinging in to out, we increase the likelihood of this happening.
This drill, in particular, is something you can do on the golf course when you’re having a bad day on the golf course.
No headcover, towel, or basket is required.
How To Do The Drill:
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- Set up to hit your driver as normal.
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- From this position, take your trail foot and move it back.
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- The toes of your trail foot should be in line with the heel of the lead foot.
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- Now, just swing normally.
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- From this position, you can swing in to out easily.
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- Hit a few from this setup and replicate the feeling with your normal setup.
Hitting Up On The Ball
The driver is not like the rest of the clubs in your bag because you need to hit up on it.
Plenty of weekend golfers lose so much distance and put tonnes of spin on the golf ball, making it difficult to control even on their best days.
This happens because they approach the swing in the same way as their irons. Players who struggle with their driver tend to have a solid iron and wedge game.
But for two very different clubs, you need two different swings and or approaches. Hitting up with the driver will result in more distance and improved accuracy.
How To Do The Drill:
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- Position a headcover or towel in front of your golf ball.
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- Don’t have it too close or too far away. About 5-7 inches in front.
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- Set up to hit your driver as normal.
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- When you clobber the headcover, you’re hitting down on the golf ball.
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- When you miss or slightly graze the headcover, you’re hitting up on the golf ball.
Shifting Weight Drill
To get any sort of distance with your drives, you need a proper weight transfer.
Golfers get this wrong all the time they either don’t shift weight at all, shift to the back but never shift forward, overshift, or hang out on their lead leg too much.
Whichever one of the above it is for you will result in inconsistent distances and accuracy.
In one hole, you might crush it 250+ yards, and in the next hole, you barely hit 200 yards
The golf swing should feel like one fluid motion without getting stuck or feeling off balance.
How To Do The Drill:
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- Set up to hit your driver without a ball.
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- Setup as normal except for having your two feet together.
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- As you begin your backswing, move your trail foot back. (Imagine doing a side lunge)
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- Follow through as normal. (Do this 10 times)
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- Now, do it going the opposite direction.
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- Set up to hit your driver without a ball.
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- Bring your lead foot back to your trail foot.
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- Swing as normal, and on your downswing, move your lead foot forward. (Imagine a side lunge towards the target)
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- Now practice swinging normally, trying to replicate the same feel from doing the above.
Pushing From The Back Drill
Okay, to hit big bombs like your favorite professionals, you need to generate lots of power.
When shifting your body weight back and forth, the key part in terms of gaining maximum distance is shifting all your weight from your trail leg through the ball into your lead leg.
Many golfers believe they are shifting their body weight properly but leave more on their trail leg than they think.
Since your trail leg is your strongest leg, you should be able to generate lots of power to help you crush the ball down fairways.
How To Do The Drill:
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- Set up to hit your driver as normal.
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- Feel like there is no weight on your lead leg.
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- It should feel like all of your weight is in your trail leg.
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- Swing as normal.
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- On your downswing, push as hard as possible, shifting all the weight to the front.
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- Don’t worry about where the ball is going this is a power-building drill.
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- Once you get the hang of it, try to replicate that feel with a normal setup.
Standing On A Golf Ball Drill
Okay, so this is the last drill of the day, and it’s focusing on shifting all that weight from your trail leg to the front.
As you already know, perfecting this phase of the weight transfer can be the difference between hitting a 200-yard drive or a 250-yard drive.
How To Do The Drill:
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- Set up to hit your driver as normal.
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- Position a ball under the heel of your trail foot.
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- Swing as normal and feel your ball rolling slightly.
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- This will help you to work on lifting your heel on your downswing, which will ensure proper weight transfer.
Conclusion
The only way to get better at golf is to hit golf balls and lots of them. The above golf drills will help you structure your practice sessions, improving your golf game.
By working on your swing fundamentals and not just blasting through range balls, you will begin to play golf better than before.
However, don’t neglect to work on your short game and completely ignore the putting green.
Why You Need To Use Technology To Practice Properly
Technology is becoming more and more integrated with the game of golf with every year that goes by.
And if you’re not using any form of technology to improve your practice time, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to improve quickly.
For many golfers, they can do drills and blast through balls but will still need a coach or lesson to tell them what’s going wrong.
After all it’s easier to spot a mistake someone else is doing than with our own swing.
Launch monitors and golf simulators can act like the middleman. They’re not an instructor and can’t explain or suggest drills to fix your mishits, but they can show you what’s the cause.
For example, you could be trying to fix a huge slice and for months you’ve been trying to fix coming over the top as you’re sure that’s the issue.
One swing on a launch monitor and you find out that your clubface is always open at impact. Now you know it’s not a club path issue but a clubface issue.
So you can start working on squaring up the clubface saving you months maybe even years of wasted practice sessions.
Nowadays some launch monitors are extremely affordable and most driving ranges have simulators installed in their bays, so you have no excuse really.
But probably the most cost effective and readily available game improvement tech is your phone. Every golfer has one but barely anyone uses it for practice.
Setting up and recording your swing can help you understand where your going wrong. Especially since you can swap the video mode to slow mo to have a proper look.
But basically you should be using tech in some shape or form if you’re trying to get serious about golf.
Have a look at our post, Top 7 Best Drivers For Mid Handicappers.