hitting the driver advice

[Miner23]

Good morning my fellow golfers looking for some advice for off season. I just finished my 2nd year of being a serious golfer played 74 rounds of golf this year and even though i made significant improvements from last year and achieve some of the goals i made for myself at the beginning of the year i wanna get better especially getting longer with the driver. Im 34 years old 6'4 290 pounds a big boy we can say with a club head speed of around 100mph according to indoor simulators but i would say my average driving the ball would be anywhere between 225 and 240 yards thats it. I see guys half my size my size hitting it 30 or 40 yards pass me when i golf with them. I dont wanna hit it 350 but maybe 20 or 30 more yards longer would be nice does anyone have any advice. Thanks

cheers

[vecchia scotia]

Have you. had many lessons? From your description it sounds like technique is hampering you.
Also, getting fit for the right shaft and loft would not be a bad idea.
After that, its practice, practice, practice. For me, hitting the driver is very much like putting. Lack of confidence feeds through to your stroke/swing so spending time at the range allowed me to trust that i could hit my driver just fine. Needs to be targeted practice though, not just lashing ball after ball

[Doba]

Most of the time the number 1 cause for loss of distance is backspin, either too much not not enough. If you dont want to spend the $100 at a place like TXG, just go to golf town and spend the 40.

[SmoothBomber]

As a big boy, you have a lot of natural power based on length of levers and size of your swing arc. ONLY 100mph swing speed likely means a lot of inefficiency in movement. Im about your size...6-3 290 with long arms and effortlessly get a controlled 275avg with my fair share of 300+ drives. My super safe bunt swing goes about 240-250. Not bragging, just saying that if you play an effortless gravity swing and SWING WITH MASS utilizing your size, you can get much better results while working a lot less. I always recommend throwing clubs but you can check out gravity golf on youtube or Mike Malaska or even Torontos own Sean Clement...they all teach physics perfect swings that focus on balancing out opposing forces and not internalizing force (no strain or muscling it).

That said, what was mentioned about shaft flex is correct as when playing softer shafts my ball tended to moon with excessive spin and get zero roll for 250 total yards with exact same swing and swing speed.

[Jasonp]

For all you saying spin yes its possible but wont rob you of that much distance unless your spin is way out of wack causes it to balloon or to fall out of the sky.

I swing aroubd 109mph and the difference between 2000rpm of spin and 3000rpm of spin is about 4yards if that. Now if i was getting over 4k that would cause moonballs.

[johnnybiarritz]

What driver do you play: Loft, Shaft with flex? What ball?

Hard to tell with limited information. Would be easier if you could post a video of your driver swing. Generally speaking, you probably hit the ball too low with not enough spin, that's the most common problem. But there could be a number of other things. A lot of stores do a full bag set analysis and fitting for relatively cheap, $100-$150. It would certainly be beneficial to do that. It's not the precision fitting you can't some places, but it's fair.

[Jasonp]

As a 2nd yr golfer this is almost forsure a swing issue not equipment. Take a few lessons.

[Weirfan]

do you hit the ball right, left, low , high ?

what driver loft and shaft model and flex are you currently using?

can you post a vid of your driver swing ?

at 6 foot 4 and 290 pounds you are obviously not a slim guy, I mean no disrespect by this, I am short and stalky with a pretty big upper body and thick chest which means I have to swing accordingly and the natural move is a bit of an over the top swing. I'm also near 60 years old so not overly long anymore but can still hit it 250+ on average and regularly get it out there more. I've needed to set up so I can clear and get through better. a guy with your length and size should easily be getting 250 +

[Jeffc]

Go get fitted on a launch monitor and a lesson. You should be pounding it at your size/age.

[Mr22putt]

OP...at 100 mph with a correct swing....your average carry s/b 240 yards.......and about 260 yards total on a firm course.

Sounds like you might have some swing flaws and not max'ing out you driver distance.
Is you typical driver shot a high fade/slice?....that's a distance killer.

[Mike Wierd]

I'm a recovering high ball driver hitter. Got fit, went from 10.5* to 9* loft and a lower spin driver. Went into the fit expecting 10-15 yards increase. Went from 235 - 258 off the tee. Go hit some balls in the sim. You'll find the issues pretty quickly.

[Miner23]

What driver do you play: Loft, Shaft with flex? What ball?

Hard to tell with limited information. Would be easier if you could post a video of your driver swing. Generally speaking, you probably hit the ball too low with not enough spin, that's the most common problem. But there could be a number of other things. A lot of stores do a full bag set analysis and fitting for relatively cheap, $100-$150. It would certainly be beneficial to do that. It's not the precision fitting you can't some places, but it's fair.

My driver is 2016 M1 stiff shaft 10.5 degree driver head and I play taylormade burner balls. I’m left handed and out of 10 drives I’ll slice 5 to the left and 5 down the middle usually. Like I said I’m still a beginner have a 15 handicapped but hitting long irons into the green gets old.

[bdybldr]

First lessons, second have your clubs TLT'd.

[mstram]

On a scale of 1-10, how tightly do you hold the club ? .... nearing impact ? ... and being a lefty how tight with your left hand ?

Video your swing, check your setup against any of about ~10,000,000 youtube videos, also about as many vids on how to fix a slice :

- usually incorrect setup - for you probably aimed way right (to "compensate" for the slice ... which only makes it worse

- tight restricted grip - again often to "control" the slice - which kills your club head release, and spreads tension up through the arms and shoulders, killing free motion

- "ball bound" / "hit instinct", another "motion killer"

- steep downward angle of attack (think "ping pong / table/outdoor tennis "chop shot"), vs shallow, ascending path

Youtubers recommended - Monte Scheinblum Paul Wilson, Clay Ballard, Shawn Clement, Zach Allen

[SmoothBomber]

Youtubers recommended - Monte Scheinblum Paul Wilson, Clay Ballard, Shawn Clement, Zach Allen

Just make sure you pick one and stick with that because they teach different swings and swing methods. Even with different grips (in Paul Wilson's case). Mixing and matching different swing concepts from different teachers is where youtube kills the uninitiated. The key to one swing can be considered a swing killing mistake for another.

Out of that list I would recommend Sean Clement most. Based strongly in Kineseology and how we are wired for movement. About as effortless as a swing can get. Make sure u watch his grip vid because if you try his swing without a strong grip you will slice or push the ball a lot even with pure contact. Anyone u look at is a package deal. mixing and matching is recipe for confusion and disaster if you havent studied movement at at least an undergrad level.
That said, other gravity guys would be great too and these won't contradict one another too much but rather describe the same thing in slightly different ways...i.e. gravity golf, 2-6 golfer, or even Mike Malaska....all those are very closely related).

As for this list...
Monte is aimed at mid-low handicap players who have decent moves already and whose bodies wont let them do it wrong by now. He teaches feels which are very helpful but the problem for a beginner is when he says to dump early, they will dump early and cast whereas a player with thousands and thousands of balls hit will keep their proper sequencing and even improve it with this counter intuitive feel.

Paul Wilson in a nutshell: looks effortless but actually works pretty hard. His swing model is based around the one armed robot. One of few teachers teaching to grip club more in palm of left hand ala Jack Nicklaus.

Clay Ballard: solid scientific info. Dives deep into minutia.

Don't know much about Zach Allen