The Driver

Hi,

In a bit of a quandry and would like your input.

Since reading Dr Bob's book earlier on this year, 2006, I am only using my Driver (10.5*) on Par 5's where I can reach them in two.

I played with a good friend a couple of weeks ago. He plays off 3. He was suggesting that I should use my driver on most holes (where permitting) and get it closer to the hole.

I value both opinions.

I get good distance with my three wood (13*) and I lack confidence with my driver. I'm working on fixing this problem with my driver.

What is your course management with regards to the use of the Driver?

__________________
VP

hi nicole
i disagree with liberal use of the driver.
maybe its just me but the extra length of a driver shaft kills my accuracy.
at the moment my 3 ball are playing a long course the par 5''s are 500ys plus but are reachable in 2 with 3wood and hybrid!
weigh up consistent accuracy versus distance.
ita all about percentages

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.

__________________
PCS Class 'A' Clubfitter - www.pcsgep.com
True Length Technology Fitter - www.truelengthtechnology.com
It's live! - www.ShipShapeClubs.com

A new highlight: Golfing the home course on Christmas Day.

I say it too often: If it's golf club shaped, you can play with it.

For the record, I'm a club doctor, not a swing doctor.

I use my driver sparingly. I find that the less I use it the better my score. My driver used to be my best club, but I have been struggling with it lately.

I would play a round with and one without your driver and compare your scores.

James

LP,

Can't tell you what I hit my driver on the fly. My 3 on the fly is over 170m. At this stage I'm not too worried about distance with my long clubs. I'm still working on the first movement of my downswing. After this is fixed, coach and I will be working on increasing club head speed.

I don't hit many fairways. I average 3 - 5 per round. I would only use my driver at most, a few times, per round. To be frank, If I could hit my driver straight, I would be inclined to use it more often.

I don't work much on my long game as I am focusing on my short game.

Jamesh, it's a hard one to decide what to do. Like I said, if I could be consisitently straight with the driver, it would be used more often. I'll give your suggestion a go next round.

Doh!!!!

__________________
VP

Tom Wishon devised a little test to tell you what your longest driving club should be:

Hit groups of 10 tee shots. When you find the club that puts you in the fairway 8 times or more, that is your driving club.

lowpost i respectively disagree.....
depending on the course you can get by going driver and getting off of the fairway. I play well from the rough. I would rather hit driver 8 iron (out of the rough) than 3- wood or hybrid 5 iron from a nice fairway.........now if i was playing at the us open then perhaps i go 3 wood 5 iron......i say go with whatever is going to consistently give you the lowest score on any paticular hole....perhaps a wayward driver on a hole may put you in a bunker...go short of it with a 3 wood....once you start playing more rounds you will go with the best option....unless you play meathead golf or your name is phil....

i always look at risk reward and usually go with the safe play....usually you get less iritated with yourself and it helps on future holes (not just the one you are on).
make sense?

__________________
In My Bag:

Taylormade R7 460 SuperQuad TP 9.5 Degree
Callaway 4-PW X-Tour Irons (steel Shaft)
Cobra Hs9 3 wood
Ping G10 18 degree hybrid
Scotty Cameron Putter Nwport 1.5 Detour
Callaway Xtour 52 degree wedge
Titleist Vokey 54, 60 degree

Titlesit Pro V1


OGIO Flight SS Bag

[quote=vp27519]LP,


I don't work much on my long game as I am focusing on my short game.

Jamesh, it's a hard one to decide what to do. Like I said, if I could be consisitently straight with the driver, it would be used more often. I'll give your suggestion a go next round.

I took lessons all summer working on my long irons, mostly, and it is my short game that improved the most (except for putting which I spent no time on).

I was reading David Leadbetter, and he remarked that on some courses, where people played with only 3 or 4 clubs they beat the course record for lowest score. LowPost42 nailed it by using the longest club you can hit consistently well.

During my last round I was using my 5 iron/hybrid and 4 iron/hybrid off of the tee. I found that those using their drivers were not able to hit it dramatically farther than me and I was often left with a good lie for my second shot.

Having said that, I will be working on my driver later today. There is a good feeling when you blast a nice drive. Some courses are wide open and errant drives can be recovered from, other times it is foolhardy to use your driver.

James

Agree with LP, you should go with whatever keeps you on the short stuff...

At least where scoring is important...

If it's a practice round, all bets are off... you may as well practice as you will...

At my home course, I only have 3, maybe 4 holes where I can reasonably hit driver anyway. So, I go with my 3 metal or 1 iron most of the time.

And, given my lack of accuracy with the driver, taking the driver 4 times means I may miss 3 of those 4 fairways.

I have gotten to the point where I have now taken both the driver and 3 metal out of my bag, for the moment, at least. They will stay in the shed. I have just lost all confidence in my ability to hit the metal woods.

It is really simply a matter of confidence...

Or, a LACK of confidence...

Happy new year...

If your just trying to score and not working on certain aspects of your game, then I would approach it on a hole by hole basis

1) how does the hole set up? is it wide open/tight, a fairway you should hit with either club, is finding the fairway important (not going to effect your next shot), what are the problem areas (left, right etc) can they be avoided with driver,

2) how confident am I in each club. Because if your not confident then you have problems.

My advice go in with a set plan, pick some of the more wide open holes and hit driver see how it works and evaluate from there.

Men like myself always wanna pull out the big gun and smoke one down the middle, theres nothing like it I admit. But theres also nothing like setting yourself up with a very solid shot and leaving a possiblity for a solid par by playing percentages. Personally I go from week to week playing either the 3 wood or driver off tee, depending on which club is more compatable with my swing that day. When im "on" with either club its a beautiful thing to see. My advice....go to the range briefly before you play and see how well your hitting those clubs and that will almost always tell you which one to go with. Its hard to get rid of the ego but Ive been in more than one situation where im the only one hitting a 3 wood or even a comfortable iron off the tee, theres nothing wrong with it! And guess what, Im killing it right down the middle of the fairway while theyre usually looking for theyre ball. Its called course management. Hope this helps, try it.

__________________
Life is easy....Golf is hard
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself......A small bird will fall frozen dead from a bough, without ever having felt sorry for itself-
D.H. Lawerence

Hi Nicole.
As you know i am big fan of doc bob. i haven't used a driver for years, however, i do love my new 13* 3 wood wich i hit 265 yards. i only use my 3 wood on wide fairways and long par 5's , the rest of the time i let my course management dictate my choice of club for tee shots.

Doctor bob once wrote " if you tee up on every hole with your driver , then your ambition is to hit your driver on every hole , not to lower your h/cap.

Happy new year xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Aft

__________________
the dog wags the tail....the tail dosn't wag the dog

So do you only carry 13 clubs then, Aft?

If so, might I suggest a thriver?

I built one for ubizmo a while ago, and it seemed to work out well for him.

A Thriver is a driver-sized head with 3 wood loft. More forgiveness off the tee, with no loss in accuracy. Just a thought.

Hi Lowpost .
To be honest i never have given much thought to having a bespoke driver made. It is diffinately something i will look at in the new year.

Thanks again.
Aft

Thanks all for your advice.

I've decided I'm going to stick with Dr Bob's game plan with an addition of mine.

I'll only use driver on par 5's that I can reach in two. My spin (have been doing since reading Bob's book), I will only use the driver when the wind is favourable and I will consider using the driver when I can reach the par 4 in one.

Cheers

Nicole