making contact

Hey guys, just picked up golf two weeks ago, have been to the driving range twice. I just got my driver in today and started practicing with it in the back yard with the wiffle practice balls, its a Ping TISI tec 10degree loft. I seem to be having a hard time making contact with the ball, and Im pretty sure im coming over top of the ball most of the time. I get some pretty good sparks when I come over top of the ball and obviously it doesn't go far. Also, I have a real bad slice which I think is in part of my hips are coming faster on the down swing than my arms so when i make contact with the ball the club is open a lot. My swing seems to be messing up on the backswing so when i come down the club is not near where it was in the address. I try real hard to think to keep my left arm straight, keep eye contact with the ball, and start rotating the hips on the downswing. I don't think my grip is all that good either, I started with the interlocking grip but have large hands and from reading online I have seen that the vandon grip would be much better, these grips just don't feel comfortable. I have realized that golf is a much harder sport to become even alright at and it will not happen overnight, I would just like to learn some drills and techniques that will allow me to make contact with the ball more often.

Thanks,
Pete

hi pete
welcome to the site
have you heard the saying "rome wasnt built in a day"
first of all i am not a killjoy LOL
forget about hitting your driver for now!
you need to learn the fundamentals check out the lessons on this site.
ingrain the fundamentals correctly now and you will improve quicker.
learning how to grip correctly is your 1st requirement without it you will be going nowhere fast.
good luck

I agree with slater.

Driver is the wrong place to start.
Pick up a 7 or 8-iron, and start practicing.

I'm willing to bet, that 99% of beginners would score better taking only 7,8,9,PW,SW and putter to ANY course, than if they tried to hit long irons, woods and driver.

The key thought in golf is not "how to get closest to the pin in every shot", but "how to safely get to the pin in the amount of shots available".

Learn to get good ball contact and play it on the lawn instead of in the woods. That'll help your game the most!

__________________
//Mox
2008 bag:
Mizuno MX-500 460cc 10.5* Fujikura Tour Platform 26.3 stiff. (about to be replaced by MP-600 10,5* UST Proforce V2 stiff)
Mizuno F-50 3w 15* Fujikura Tour Platform 26.3 stiff.
Wilson Deep Red 5w 18* Graphalloy Fatshaft stiff
Cleveland HALO 3i hybrid 22* graphite regular
Mizuno MP-60e forged 5i-PW True Temper Dynamic gold R300 steel
Mizuno MP Black OX raw haze 50/6 GW, 54/9 SW, 58/10 LW
Heavy Putter B3-M
Titleist NXT Extreme

Just a 'Devils Advocate' thought:

If you're learning, why not learn with the driver? It's the most 'telltale' club in the bag - any mistake, and your ball flight shows it.

In fact, it could be said that you could learn to swing quite well with a 7 iron and a driver. Start with the 7. When you're striping it all over the place, use the same swing for your driver (to show you where you need refinement).

Again, just playing the Devils Advocate here.

hey lowpost
stop playing devils advocate! LOL
its the quickest way i know of mashing your brain up!
sound fundamentals are required to hit any club correctly
leave the stress of trying to hit driver till they are ingrained.

The reason you are advised to learn with an "easier" club than the driver is that you will quickly become disillusioned if 95% or your shots are ****.
Then you either invent an awful swing to compensate and get semi-ok results or you quit the game.

Hey guys, thanks for the responses so far. I need to just start practicing with the irons, I was only using the driver because it came in before my irons, which haven't come in yet. I think one problem I am having with my driver is that my lie angle is to high and I pull back on the club during my swing so when I am hitting the ball I am hitting it with the end of my club and the top of the ball with the bottom of the club. Thanks again for the replies so far.

Pete

do yourself a favour, go see a pro at your local course and get them to give you a lesson, it did me a world of good and i discovered that a very slight alteration to my stance and grip were extremely beneficial.

the first lesson will be with a 7 iron only, and from there you will need to pactice what he teaches you, with only a quarter/half swing for a few hundred balls.

i could't believe how much my game changed after 1 half hour lesson. he told me not to use my driver, but went to a course and tried to use what he had taught me with the iron, and it worked with the driver, hitting far straighter and with more loft and getting +200 yards.

trust me the lesson will take away lots of the frustration out of the game, i am certainly gonna have more lessons.

Sounds good - in fact why not just give them a one iron!

hey guys my irons came in last night and me and a buddy went to the range today. I didn't even look at my driver, just started with a wedge went down to a 7i then a 5i. I am making good contact with the ball, I just need to start working on aiming correctly making sure that my shoulders and feet are pointed where i want it to go. Still going to be looking at lessons but this is a great confidence build up.

Thanks again
pete

Don't stress about the lie angle on your driver, Pete. The low loft tends to assuage any ill effect of being too toe up. Now, you'll still bring some balls to the hook side, but most folks don't have that problem with a driver.

Hey Vett,

First of all do yourself a favor, take a group of lessons from a PGA professional in your area, or attend a golf school, just a basic one to familiarize yourself with your eqipment and then take it to the course and so that you can have some right direction and dont develop any bad habits, that take so long to get rid of. If you practice correctly you will play correctly and have a lot more fun with it.

There is a really good book Called the "7 Laws of the Golf Swing" by nick bradley.. Its honestly one of the best books ive read on the game..

i also suggest to get the 5 fundamentals by ben hogan.. EVERY golfer has this book..

I also suggest to get the Greg Norman Secret to teach you correct wrist angle during your swing..there on ebay for like 8 bux and are a super investment to get the correct wrist angle and lagged position on the downswing. It will teach muscle memory which is very important..without this you will never really get the "feel" of the correct wrist position a pro feels on his swing..If you could only get one item from the list it would be this one then,..

You could be topping the ball from looking up too fast. Always keep the head down and still..NEVER hit the ball with your hands, don't try to "throw" the clubhead to the ball with the hands..I am not sure, but I can almost guarantee you that this is why your topping..

A good way to get rid of that tendancy to try to whack the ball with the hands is to(when you got your grip figured out) to take the right first finger and thumb OFF the club.. On the left hand the most pressure will be with the last 3 fingers(middle, index and pinkie) the forefinger and thumb should just be rested(use the thumb and forefinger on the the left hand almost like "pinchers" comming together on the shaft)..Anyway by doing this excercise you will get the feeling of the hands being used as a whole and using the body and the hips to get the club back to the ball rather than the hands... the right hand is the greatest killer to the golf swing, there must be 50% less pressure on the right hand than the left hand..I think you get the idea of what im saying lol.., ben hogan once said he wished humans had 3 or 4 arms to hold the club..

Get a couple of lessons or buy a good dvd that you can study. I will be hung for this comment but I think you should learn to hit your driver and not just mid irons. The problem I see with hitting only the midirons is you can have a bad swing and get decent results. You will ingrain this "bad" swing into your muscle memory and will be harder to break out of it when you want to swing the big stick. All fundamentals are important but if I could tell you one thing to learn first it would be to bring the club down from the inside. Groove this swing path. Until you get rid of your over the top move you will struggle. I am not a pro.....this has been my experience.........good luck !

I would take a look at learning, then practicing the "pump drill." Once learned, this drill will cure alot of poor swing issues for anyone.

http://www.johnpallotgolf.com/tip_052005.asp


I know there are better instructions out there on how to do this drill. If someone has some of those links, please provide them. GJS