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Re: I can't seem to ever Drive Straight or Far!!!Help me
To the OP: I can certainly relate to the "I stink" part. I've been playing five years and I still stink, although I stink *less* than I used to. So there's hope.
It's impossible to know what may be going wrong without knowing more about your particular swing, but here are some guesses, worth what you paid for them...
1. If you are "crowning" the ball with your driver, i.e. catching the ball on the top of the driver rather than the face, it's possible that the ball is simply teed too high. More likely, you are swinging down at the ball at too steep an angle, so that at impact the club face is still angled down. One thing that can cause this is a lot of bending of the left arm in the backswing, like a baseball swing. I don't know if you're in North America, but a lot of guys who played baseball as kids will instinctively try to swing the golf club in a similar way. It doesn't work well, and results in a kind of chopping motion down at the ball, possibly crowning it, just as you've described. So one thing you might try is keeping that left arm straight, all the way back and down. It doesn't have to be rigid, but there shouldn't be much more than a little "bowing" at the elbow. The left arm determines the radius of the swing, and you want a nice big circle.
2. The ball position also affects the angle of impact. If you are crowning the ball, it could be that you are setting up with the ball too far back in your stance (i.e., away from the target). With the driver, you should set up with the ball roughly in line with your left heel; some play even more forward than that. Experiment. There's a lot of conflicting advice about ball position and setup, which means that there's more than one way that works, for some people at least. So you have to find out what works for you. You could try swinging the club without a ball, and try to see where the bottom of the swing arc is--the point where the club is closest to the ground. Or have a friend stand in front of you and tell you where the bottom is. With the driver you want to hit the ball at or a bit after the bottom of the swing arc, so you position it accordingly. If you hit the ball at the bottom of the swing arc, you'll tend to get a lower ball flight. Move it a bit forward and you'll be hitting it on the upswing and will get a higher ball flight. Tee height will have to be adjusted. From the sound of it, you're a casual golfer and don't want to spend a lot of time grinding at the practice range. But it's worth a visit or two, to experiment with these things and find out what works for you. And if you do go, bring your own tees and use them, if possible, rather than using the rubber tees they have. That way, you'll reproduce the way you actually have to hit the ball on the golf course.
3. With the irons it's a little different, because you want to hit the ground *after* the ball. That way the club head strikes the ball on a downward trajectory, which is essential for making good contact with an iron. I don't think you could be denting the tops of your irons, but you could still be chopping at the ball with a baseball swing, so once again try keeping that left arm straighter. Make a bunch of practice swings that graze the ground, and find out where you tend to contact the turf. That's the bottom of your swing arc and you want to set up with the ball just behind that.
There's a lot more stuff about hip turn and weight shift, and you've already had some good suggestions. But in my view the first thing is to figure out what's happening at impact and work back from there. For example, if you find out that the bottom of your swing arc is way back by your right (rear) foot, then that means you're shifting your weight way back and getting stuck there. I did this for a long time, and had great difficulty correcting it. You simply won't hit the ball well that way. But I'd suggest starting with the fairly simple things already mentioned, then come back and tell us how you're doing.
To the OP: I can certainly relate to the "I stink" part. I've been playing five years and I still stink, although I stink *less* than I used to. So there's hope.
It's impossible to know what may be going wrong without knowing more about your particular swing, but here are some guesses, worth what you paid for them...
1. If you are "crowning" the ball with your driver, i.e. catching the ball on the top of the driver rather than the face, it's possible that the ball is simply teed too high. More likely, you are swinging down at the ball at too steep an angle, so that at impact the club face is still angled down. One thing that can cause this is a lot of bending of the left arm in the backswing, like a baseball swing. I don't know if you're in North America, but a lot of guys who played baseball as kids will instinctively try to swing the golf club in a similar way. It doesn't work well, and results in a kind of chopping motion down at the ball, possibly crowning it, just as you've described. So one thing you might try is keeping that left arm straight, all the way back and down. It doesn't have to be rigid, but there shouldn't be much more than a little "bowing" at the elbow. The left arm determines the radius of the swing, and you want a nice big circle.
2. The ball position also affects the angle of impact. If you are crowning the ball, it could be that you are setting up with the ball too far back in your stance (i.e., away from the target). With the driver, you should set up with the ball roughly in line with your left heel; some play even more forward than that. Experiment. There's a lot of conflicting advice about ball position and setup, which means that there's more than one way that works, for some people at least. So you have to find out what works for you. You could try swinging the club without a ball, and try to see where the bottom of the swing arc is--the point where the club is closest to the ground. Or have a friend stand in front of you and tell you where the bottom is. With the driver you want to hit the ball at or a bit after the bottom of the swing arc, so you position it accordingly. If you hit the ball at the bottom of the swing arc, you'll tend to get a lower ball flight. Move it a bit forward and you'll be hitting it on the upswing and will get a higher ball flight. Tee height will have to be adjusted. From the sound of it, you're a casual golfer and don't want to spend a lot of time grinding at the practice range. But it's worth a visit or two, to experiment with these things and find out what works for you. And if you do go, bring your own tees and use them, if possible, rather than using the rubber tees they have. That way, you'll reproduce the way you actually have to hit the ball on the golf course.
3. With the irons it's a little different, because you want to hit the ground *after* the ball. That way the club head strikes the ball on a downward trajectory, which is essential for making good contact with an iron. I don't think you could be denting the tops of your irons, but you could still be chopping at the ball with a baseball swing, so once again try keeping that left arm straighter. Make a bunch of practice swings that graze the ground, and find out where you tend to contact the turf. That's the bottom of your swing arc and you want to set up with the ball just behind that.
There's a lot more stuff about hip turn and weight shift, and you've already had some good suggestions. But in my view the first thing is to figure out what's happening at impact and work back from there. For example, if you find out that the bottom of your swing arc is way back by your right (rear) foot, then that means you're shifting your weight way back and getting stuck there. I did this for a long time, and had great difficulty correcting it. You simply won't hit the ball well that way. But I'd suggest starting with the fairly simple things already mentioned, then come back and tell us how you're doing.
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