Cant hit a wood

hello all,

First post so to start off with, great site people, have been helped greatly by advice on this site..

Next i have an annoying problem, i have recently taken up golf (about 3 months) and am being helped by a friend who plays off 3, everything is going really well, the major problem i'm having is hitting my woods off the tee, i usually use a 3 iron and can hit the ball straight around 250-280 yards, when i try to use a wood however, 3 or a 5, i hit a fade about 20 yards off centre maybe more at times, i dont understand why i am doing as i hit my irons without a problem, i have tried various woods i.e steel, graph, reg flex etc etc but i have the same outcome with them all, any thoughts from anyone......?

any advice would be much appreciated
thanks
colby

The woods are designed to hit the ball a little different from the irons. So using an iron swing with a wood will cause the slices.

WOODS:
* Get ball position forward (about the front heal)
* Take the club back as low, slow and as long as you can as your first move using your shoulder rotation (you will feel a big pull/streach in your leading side of the back, if you don't, you are rotating your hips too much back with the shoulders).
* Arms and hands work together - setting to the top and releasing at the bottom smoothly. (this is the big difference from an iron - where you can get very steep in the arms, and agressive in the release in the hands)
* Shoulder rotation through impact is as big as you can stay in control with the hands. So find your ballance in power in the rotation and the ability to keep up in the timming of the hands to get the club back to square.

Start out hitting easy 3/4 drives using this new method. Get your shots to go straight first, then start to add power in the rotation. Re-time the hands to go with the new power. After a while, you will get the new timming and feel that will just simply become the right feel for a driver/wood off the tee.

__________________
I'm a golfaholic, no question about that. Counseling wouldn't help me. They'd have to put me in prison, and then I'd talk the warden into building a hole or two and teach him how to play. ~Lee Trevino

If you can hit that far and that reliably with irons, why do you care about using woods anyway?

If you can hit your 3i farther than Tiger can hit his 2 iron, then you should be looking a XXstiff shafts, not regular flex.

I play with a guy the other week who hits his 3 iron about 250 yards. He just uses that off the tee. the other day on a 440 yard par 4 he used a 4 iron from the tee and a 9iron to the back of the green. I used a driver and and a 7 iron.

thanks for the advice guys,

been up to the range and things are slowly getting better, a lot more practice and im sure i'll be hitting my woods fine in no time, just for the record the reason i want to be able to hit my woods aswell as my irons is not for more distance, but so that i can use every club i have incase of any situation i come across, the flight and roll of the ball hit with a 3 wood i believe is different to that of a 3 iron (correct me if i'm wrong), plus to me there's no sweeter sound or feel than hitting a nice shot with your wood off the tee....

thanks
colby

If I could hit a 3i 250-280, I would toss my driver in the lake.