How To Hit Your Driver Further

Hitting the driver further is something we all want and dream of.

Unfortunately for most of us, as we begin to swing faster in an attempt to hit it longer, we just end up making your slice bigger or your hook more worse, which is not the ball flight we’re looking for.

This happens mostly because most golfers don’t know where true speed comes from and how to get the most out of their drivers.

Today, that will change for you as we have put together a foolproof checklist to hit rockets of the tee box.

Check out the list and find out what you’re missing.

Hitting The Driver Further Checklist:

The below list focuses solely on improving the fundamentals of the golf swing. Selecting the right golf ball or getting fitted for a driver is great, but it shouldn’t be your starting point.

Perfect the basics; you could hit a 250-yard carry with a shovel.

(Maybe not, but we’re trying to make a point here.)

Everything Starts With Your Setup

Unlike the other clubs in your bag, you don’t want to make contact with the ball on the downswing. Instead, you want to catch the ball on your upswing (follow through).

When you hit the ball with your driver on the downswing, you create additional spin, which makes it harder to control the ball, and it hurts your driver distance. 

Also, when you make contact at this downward angle, the club head is not at its peak speed. The clubhead peaks as it transitions to the follow-through (upswing).

Many golfers hit the driver wrong because of their setup. So, what’s the correct way to set up?

Long Drive Setup:

• • Feet A Little Wider Than Shoulder Width

• • Ball Position Inline With The Instep Of Your Lead Foot (Your instep is the side with your big toe)

• • Tilt Your Shoulders Back (Raise your leading shoulder and drop the other one)

• • Make Sure Your Shoulders & Feet Point Towards The Target

If you do the above, you will encourage an upward strike of the golf ball, which you need to hit the ball high and long.

Don’t overdo the tilt of the shoulders. Just go to where it is comfortable, you’ll know you’ve done too much if you keep falling backward!

Tee The Ball Up Higher

Once you have your setup down, the next step is to tee the golf ball higher.

After all, you’re trying to hit the golf ball on an upswing, and having the ball lower to the ground makes this harder to do. A low tee height will lead to inconsistent shots, resulting in more thinned or low-flight drives.

Not what you want for maximum distance.

Instead, you should tee up your ball so that half of the golf ball sits above your driver’s head.

Make Sure You Have A Solid Grip

A solid grip is essential if you’re going to go after it.

A weak grip falls apart on the slowest of swings, never mind when you’re swinging fast for big bombs.

Ideally, you want a neutral grip. 

This means your left hand will sit at the top of the grip with your thumb on or just right of the center line. The right hand will sit just under the left, with the right thumb pointed down the center line or thereabouts.

When your right-hand drops too far below the golf club, it will most likely result in you hooking the golf ball by closing the face too far at impact.

Likewise, if it’s too far over to the left, it will tend to open the clubface, leading to a slice.

Neutral is key for big drives.

Work On Your Takeaway

Many golfers make the mistake of having a short takeaway. 

A lot of the time, this happens because they either pull the club back too fast or they’re in a rush to try to crush the golf ball into space.

They don’t realize they are losing distance and the potential to gain more speed to their swing.

By slowing your takeaway and making it longer, the clubhead travels more distance, translating to more speed.

Feel like you’re trying to keep the clubhead as close to the ground for as long as possible without overly extending your arms. 

Keep your lead arm straight for as long as possible to create a large arc.

All of the biggest hitters in the world have long takeaways. The bigger the arc of your swing, the longer your drives will become. 

Turn Your Body Fully (Back To The Target)

So many amateur golfers never use their large muscles in the golf swing and instead try to generate speed using their arms or shoulders.

While they are important, they neglect one key movement all the best ball strikers instinctively do.

That is a full turn during your backswing. What does a full turn look like?

Well, your hips and back should be turned away from your target. It’s almost as if the fairway or flagstick said something you didn’t like, and you’re ignoring them…

It will take practice, but the additional length in your backswing and the backup of your larger muscles in the body will result in extra yardage guaranteed.

Obviously, if you’re suffering from any injury that limits your ability to turn fully throughout your golf swing, just focus on the tips you can do in this list.

Use The Ground For More Power

You’ve probably heard of the likes of Rory McIlroy and other big hitters on the tour about using the ground to hit the ball far.

This can be a little confusing, how can you use the ground after all?

They really mean using your lower body to generate more power, which is so often forgotten about as weekend golfers try to burst the ball using only their upper body.

Great ball strikers have a great habit of loading or transferring their weight from the lead to their trail leg during the backswing. 

Once you have loaded this weight, it’s time to start shifting it onto the lead leg and turning your trail hip (right hip for right-handed golfers) through the golf ball towards the target.

We have noticed that they shift their weight just before the backswing has been completed, creating lag.

As you load the weight onto your lead leg, you should explode up and through, feeling your leg straighten through impact.

You need all of your big muscles working together to hit big, not just your upper body.

Work On Getting More Clubhead Speed (Arms & Hands)

Although the big muscles are important, your arms and hands are responsible for most of your speed. The rest of your body gives you additional speed.

Not fully convinced?

Try hitting a golf ball with your arms stiff and with no effort, only using your legs and turn to get the ball going.

Now try standing completely still with little turn but a tone of effort with your arms and hands to get the ball into the air.

You’ll find that the ball will, on average, travel farther just using your arms. Even though the muscles are smaller, they can generate a tone of force.

Try working on really getting your arms going, but keep in mind if they don’t move with the rest of your body, the results will be inconsistent.

Make Contact With The Sweetspot

Hitting the ball farther isn’t just about swinging as fast as possible. Swinging faster than any man alive means nothing if you’re catching the ball off the toe or heel of the club.

As a matter of fact, it has been proved that if you hit just a ½ inch outside of the sweet spot (center of the clubface), you could lose anywhere between 10-20% of the total distance traveled.

For example, if you drove the ball 250 yards in total but didn’t hit the sweet spot. 20% of 250 is 50, meaning you lost 50 additional yards. 

So, if you just hit the sweet spot more often, you could solve your driving problem at more distance.

Try working on hitting the sweet spot at a slower swing speed and slowly build up over time. Before you know it, you’ll be crushing drives at your local course.

Additional Tips For More Distance

There are golfers who have a pretty solid swing and do all of the basics right, but they still don’t have the speed necessary to hit big bombs like the pros. 

In this case, they must work off the course to get that ball further down the fairway and closer to the hole.

Start Gym Training For Explosiveness

Hitting the gym as a golfer is not the same as for a bodybuilder whose sole goal is to get gigantic muscles and drink protein shakes all day.

No, training as a golfer requires a different approach to training.

You can still do some of the more traditional weightlifting exercises, but you will focus on slow, controlled movements down and then exploding up through the second phase of the movement.

For example, if you’re doing a shoulder press, you would lower the weights slowly toward the ground and then push the weights as fast as you can toward the roof.

This kind of training improves your ability to create torque or the explosiveness you need to crush the golf ball.

Not only that, but you should work on your flexibility, too. Almost all of the PGA tour players will do yoga at least once a week.

Use Speed Training Equipment

Speed training equipment usually comes in the form of weighted swing sticks. 

They are essentially golf clubs, but instead of a clubhead, they have a small and heavyweight at the end.

These training aids are easy to use all you have to do is grip and rip it as fast as you can. Once the weight of one stick becomes too easy, you then move on to the next one.

Before you know it, you’ll be one step closer to your maximum clubhead speed.

We’ve included a link below in case you’re not familiar with them.

But you could save money and swing your clubs around like a mad man while increasing swing speed.

That’s entirely up to you…

Get Your Nutrition Down

That’s right, by just eating and drinking right you can add some more distance to your drives. Often people forget that just like every other sport, the right nutrition can improve your performance.

Firstly staying well hydrated is key for producing big bombs down the fairway for the entire round. When you’re dehydrated, you will become tired, lose concentration and your muscles can stiffen up.

None of these translates to peak athletic performance. By staying hydrated, you prevent this from happening, meaning you can stay focused and energetic for the entire round, drive after drive.

But staying hydrated is only one-half of your nutrition. Eating the right mix of foods both before and during your round will give the body the nutrients it needs to succeed on the course.

Before the round, you should have a mix of carbs, protein, and fats to stock up your energy levels. Without this mix your muscles won’t be able to deliver the same pop as usual.

Once on the course, you need to maintain your energy levels by eating foods like nuts, fruits or even energy bars.

You want to avoid, mid-round burgers, or sugary sweets as they will come on fast and drop off faster.

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