Thread: The Driver
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Old 12-24-2006, 05:49 PM
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Re: The Driver

Just a few Q's:

How far do you carry your driver?

Are you often 180+ yards from the hole after your tee shot?

Do driver shots end up in the junk more often than not?


If you answer the last question No, then start hitting driver.

The first question is about maximizing your distance. If you're not carrying the ball 230 yards or more, I'll wager you need more loft on your driver (10.5 isn't enough).

Whether or not to hit driver is a course management thing. Where does driver leave you? 200 yards out? 150 yards out? 100 yards out? 30 yards out? Rough, fairway, or flirting with sand?

It's said that we should play the hole from green to tee. Where's the pin located? Where should the ball be to offer the best angle to it? On par 4's, this tells us where to try and place our tee shot. Where is the trouble? How far out do I want to be for my second shot? This dictates what we hit off the tee.

Lets take a 330 yard par 4 for example, with no trouble in front of the green, a sand trap at 200 yards (from the tee) and we'll assume 10 yard gaps between clubs with a 7 iron being the 150 club.

So, to layup to the 150, we'd hit our 180 club off the tee (the 4 iron). We certainly wouldn't hit 3 iron (might roll into the trap with 190 carry), or our 5 wood (might land in the trap @ 200 carry), or our 3 wood (may not fully clear the trap at 210 carry). So the option is carry the trap with our driver (220 yards carry) or hit 4 iron. If we flush the 4 iron, we're not in the trap, and if we miss it a little bit, maybe we're playing a 6 instead of a 7.

In other words, driver is a perfectly acceptable play here, with the 4 iron being safer. You're still hitting a mid or short iron into the green.
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