Key Tips For Driving The Golf Ball Straighter And Longer

By Ron Patey

Looking to hit your drivers straighter and with longer distance? Follow these steps from golf-industry veteran and teaching professional Chris Bernard.

When choosing a driver, it's best for amateur players to go for one with 11.5 degrees of loft since this angle leads to more consistency.

Positioning your body

Set up with your head behind the ball and your weight centered. You can even move your hands behind the ball a bit for a more pronounced effect. Line up the heel of your front foot with the golf ball, and when you go into the back-swing, shift your weight backward a tad, keeping the back leg's knee flexed and your feet flat on the ground. This move is the beginning of generating more swing power.

Timing the swing

To consistently hit long, straight and high drives. it's imperative that the player stays behind the ball at impact and then moves his or her weight toward the target during the downswing, which must not be hurried. This leads to timing the swing so your weight is behind the ball at impact as it continually shifts toward your target side, which is over the front leg.

At impact, while the body is turned, try to keep your head in roughly the same spot as it was at the takeaway. This will keep your weight behind the ball at the moment of truth, helping you to hit pure drives more often.

Grip pressure 

Remember to use proper grip pressure. Many players believe that strangling the club and swinging harder produces the best results, but there could be nothing further from the truth! The tighter the player holds the club, the less it releases through the ball.

Be sure your swing plane is flat by keeping the club head just over the ground for at least the first 25 percent of the swing. When players lift the club at this time, the tendency is to pop up the ball up on a high trajectory, and the result is a short shot.

Many amateurs tend to get loose with their hands and flip them forward in an effort to get the ball in the air, which defeats the purpose of having the proper 11.5-degree loft. The lead hand should be angled down toward the ball on the downswing. It's like you are hitting the ball with the back of your left hand. If your left hand is moving up on the downswing, contact won't be solid. Keeping the angle starts the ball low and lets it climb naturally through the power you've generated.

Finishing the swing

Finish the golf swing over your front shoulder and don't be in a panic to look up and peek at where the ball is going. When players follow these steps, they'll discover that their ball will land in the fairway many more times than it did before.

Chris Bernard has 40 years of experience in the golf industry. He is the general manager and head teaching professional at Sand Point Golf Course in Braeside, Ontario.

Ron Patey covered the golf industry for 21 years as a special sections editor with Sun Media. During the past five years, Patey has been a golf writer for Examiner.com.