To Drive or not to Drive....

I’m a 15 hc, down from 19 at the turn of the year of 27 in March 2010… so I’ve done ok at getting cut. I hit a good ball (not always in the desired direction) and have a decent touch around the greens although my putting can be streaky. I miss too many greens when in a good position. I have plenty to work on but I think my aim of single figures by the time I’m 30 is definitely achievable (I am 28 a week on Monday), baring injury and marital strife…

My problem is this… I NEVER hit my driver in medal play it always the 3 wood or if I’m being uber conservative an iron on long par 4s and play them as par 5s. This has served me well and my best round playing this way is 82, which occurred in a medal playing off the whites. As a result I am pretty confident I can reduce my handicap further playing this way.

I’m not going turn this in to a willy measuring contest but lets say more often than not playing with 10+ hc my 3w measures up favourably with my playing partners drivers.

BUT… in the last few months, a number of people have been encouraging me to use my driver more, despite its waywardness – folk I play with may relay the drive I hit down to whatever hole that must have been ohhhh xxx yards, but I always think about the 1 that went OOB, 2 that left me stymied in the trees or even the few that was 70 yards away and a 100 yard full shot would have been preferable. These people are generally those that don’t hit it as far as me. One person even suggesting I had a complex about hitting the driver that would always be there unless I hit now…

In order to add this dimension to my game, I am going to have to improve my consistency with the driver, and therefore I am going to need to spend some serious time on the range, probably to the detriment of other aspects of my game…

I think I should press on hitting 3w, working on my iron play and rhythm, and as ever try and improve my short game and putting…I think I can get to single figures with a 3w, after all I’ve played with a few single figure golfers who hit driver the same distance and my 3w or less.… Leave the driver for do or die match play situations and ‘devil may care’ bounce games…

What you esteemed golfers think?

Rossa, really refreshing to see someone actually use course management to better their handicap.
I use driver 3-4 times per round max. The other times I hit something which puts me in the safest position but also an optimum distance where I can play a full shot in.

So many people are unaware of the benefits of actually thinking about where you put your tee shot to maximise the chances of success with their second shot so I'm glad you are thinking sensibly and I'm sure with that attitude you'll reach single figures and can join the rest of us at laughing at the hackers who hit driver at every opportunity who lose the head when they waywardly strike a ball into the gorse,munch,trees, rough or pond.

The second shot is probably the most important shot in golf, but people are obsessed with distance and the driver that their second shot is often from a more difficult place or position than it would be if they had the brain cells to think of positioning off the tee.

Well done Rossa and fully agree with SR thoughts, but have one caviat. You obviously hit a good 3-wood and compare well against your playing partners driver distance. I am one of the players that would be well behind my partners if I used the 3-wood on long holes. I would probably be playing many par 4's as 5's. So I made sure that I had lessons with the driver which gave me a certain amount of consistency and confidence. Yes I will still blast the odd drive OOB or block it into the cabbage, but that can happen with a 3-wood too.

I would get some lessons booked with the driver and forget about the range, as that can be detrimental. By all means do the range thing, once you've been sorted, but I believe you can only get cut so far, unless you start using it now and again.

Well done Rossa, all very sensible stuff.

I would advocate that you learn to hit your driver as there will be times when you'll need it. However, using a combination of your brain and your 3w, you'll score well.

For example, a 380yd par 4. Assuming it's a flat hole and no wind, would play 3w and about 8 or 9 iron for me. Or driver and a wedge. So I can reach in 1 or 2 clubs less. Not really gaining an awful but risking trouble by using the big dog. If it's a wide open hole then sure, go for it. If it's tight....well, you know what to do.

Henrik Stenson hasn't used his driver on tour for a long time because a) he struggles with it and b) he can hit his 3w about 280yards.

So, it's a nice skill to have but not essential. However, I would advise spending some time on the range learning how to hit the driver.

I highly recommend the 2 iron. It goes miles.

Course Management is most important, by all means use the driver but sparingly on holes where the reward outweighs the risk. So if you have a par 5 for example that you know you can reach in 3strokes even with hitting a tee shot off line then it's worth a go, but like SR I use my driver probably no more than 3times a round, it's not required to always be as far as you can down a hole but to be in the best place you can!

Sounds like i'm on the right track, cheers

I can hit the driver, very well on occasions, but its a matter of the reward vs the risk. And its also a matter of priorities... i've found my driving has improved as a work on my swing generally... so me using it more may just happen organically rather making a consious decision, which will add undue pressure...

LondonJonnyO wrote:I highly recommend the 2 iron. It goes miles.

I have recently been hitting my 3i off the tee a bit more, i tend to swing much more smoothly with it that my 19 hybrid, probbaly because i give it a bit more respect!

I think a 2i maybe pushing it for a 15 hc though LJ

Rossa wrote:

LondonJonnyO wrote:I highly recommend the 2 iron. It goes miles.

I have recently been hitting my 3i off the tee a bit more, i tend to swing much more smoothly with it that my 19 hybrid, probbaly because i give it a bit more respect!

I think a 2i maybe pushing it for a 15 hc though LJ

Nah. When I took up the game I had a 1 iron in the bag. 2 irons are girls stuff compared to that. Come on. Get some nuts or I'll send Mr T round to lob a snickers at ya!

Rossa wrote:

LondonJonnyO wrote:I highly recommend the 2 iron. It goes miles.

I have recently been hitting my 3i off the tee a bit more, i tend to swing much more smoothly with it that my 19 hybrid, probbaly because i give it a bit more respect!

I think a 2i maybe pushing it for a 15 hc though LJ

Rossa

why not try out a 'driving iron' like the Mizuno FliHi or similar? Very easy to hit and give pretty good distance.

Or man up and get a 2 iron for off the deck into the wind

Whilst we're on the subject I've sacked my FliHi for the moment. The blade 2 iron now has it's place in my bag. And it goes remarkably well considering how small the bloody thing is.

I think you should get the driver out and rip it.
Seriously its the biggest club in the bag (should give you confidence)and you dont need to melt it every time,Find a driver that suits a smooth swing and learn to love it.

I'm one of these strange individuals who hits a great driver, but can't hit a 3 wood for love nor money.

What driver do you use, and are you sure it's the right one for you? You mention "willy measuring", and rightly so. Almost everyone i know has a driver that's 9.5degree and stiff shafted - that's what all the good players use, right? The stiffer the shaft and the lower the loft, the better? Erm, no actually, that's ego talking right there. I'm an 8 handicapper and i use a 10.5 with a regular flex. Now, i don't often hit it 300 yards (unless it's down hill with a big wind!), but what i can do is hit it 230-260 yards with bags of control and accuracy. Find a driver that can do that for you and your scores will drop dramatically.

If you do go for lessons with a driver, get some advice about whether the driver is correct, and if not, change it. FYI, i hit a Cobra L5V, and i couldn't recommend it highly enough. You can pick them up for about 50 quid on ebay, and only about 70 quid new. I'm going to buy a new one for when my current one starts to scuff up badly. I can't see that i'll ever want to hit anything else.

at my home track in normal conditions. i use a driver on 3/4 of our par 5s and 2/10 of our par 4s. on the par 5s, a good drive will usually leave a short-mid iron due to the prevailing wind direction.

at my away track i use a driver on 1/2 of the 5s, and 0/13 of the par 4s. its quite short off the back tees, only about 5800-5900 yards. a few seasons ago when playing it regularly i hit a 5iron off eleven of the tees - plotting your way round was essential with whins and bad bounces all over the place.

i don't carry a 3 wood. as a very general rule of thumb i use my 17 deg hybrid on holes between 390-430 yards. anything less than 390 is an iron normally. obviously that is not taking elevation / orientation into account. also at my away course which is links [more bounce and run] i'd tend to hit a 3 iron on holes up to about 410 yards of which there are a couple.

It's very rare that a driver is actually needed on the course and those urging you to let the big dog eat are the type that go up the range and hit 50 drivers to show how macho they are. Unless you're a scratch player then your handicap will afford you a few holes to make bogey on anyway so a 3wd and long iron on a long par 4 will suffice especially when you get shots and you get your short game working well.

Your mention of a streaky putter might also be addressed - for the past couple of years my putting's been quite streaky so this year I decided to work hard on it and found a couple of drills from Phil Mickelson that worked really well. The first is to place 10 tee pegs with balls 3 foot from the hole (use a sw to measure the distance) and then keep holing them in a circle until you miss one. At the start this might be aiming for a full circle or a couple of full circles but big Phil aims for 100 so 50 might be a good target. This then helps to give you a good routine of stepping into the putt and holing it and will give you good confidence of short putts. You then remove a couple of tees from the circle (to let balls roll into it) and make 3 putts from 50ft, 3 putts from 60ft, 3 putts from 40ft and then a last putt from 50ft (marked with tees) - keep doing this until you can consistently get all 10 balls within the 3 foot circle, from which you will know you can hole the next. this helps with distance control and I would recommend doing it uphill and downhill to get your touch in tune. Finally, extend the circle out to 6ft (2 sw lengths) and try to go around the circle just once. The tour stats for a 6 footer are around 50-60% so once round is very good and this drill gives you a good feel for break because at this range the slope will play a part whilst the putts are still holeable.

I spent around 1 hour per evening for 2 weeks doing these drills and am now very rarely missing short putts, holing lots of mid range putts and even dropping a few longer ones. Solid putting also helps the rest of your game because when your putting is on form then you are confident of making birdies with a good iron shot and if you know that you can hole everything from 3ft then this gives a good target for your pitching. This then also adds weight to leaving the driver in your bag because a 3wd is ample if you are confident in getting up and down.

Sounds like you're doing the right thing as it stands.

If you find a driver you get on with, great. Most of the drivers off the rack are far too long (>45"), have a shaft that's far too light (<60g) and often have too little loft for the person using it. Added to that, people usually try and hit the skin off the ball when using one. It's no wonder many people find it difficult to get on the short grass!

I'm not sure you should change what you're doing. Hit a driver once in a while on a wide hole where costs of a miss aren't too bad maybe. As your handicap drops, you should find you're better able to control a driver anyway. Meantime, keeping taking money off your mates and laugh at them even more when you remind them that you're doing it while hitting a 3w or less of the tees to their drivers .

I think the problem with relying too much upon a 3 wood is...where do you turn when you're struggling with that club? Start hitting 3/4/5/ iron off every tee? Well then on a lot of par 4s, you'll be hitting the same club again with your approach, and unlikely to make greens and potentially got into all sorts of problems. I mean, how often do we realistically make a green from 170+ yards?

My 3 wood is a little wayward, so when my driver is having an off day, i resort to my hybrid, which still gives me control and good distance. If you can hit a good 3 wood, and good long irons (?) then you can learn to hit a driver. And while it's not something to get out all the time, it's certainly a useful club to have in your armoury.

Putting from around the circle 6 ft ish is a very good drill.
I would also advocate practicing from just off the green getting down in two.Putting from the first cut and low chip from the second cut.Its quite likely as a mid handicpapper that you will be facing that sort of shot early in the round and if it gets you a couple of pars may be seting up a decent score

Like Dynamark I cant hit a 3 wood to save my life, at least not on the course, but find the driver relatively easy to use. So I guess its just horses for courses really.

Learn to chip with just one club (for me it's a 52) and it's amazing how confident and effective you can be, imparting spin when you need it and none when you don't. The biggest advantage is how natural distance judgement becomes. I keep a 58 for bunkers and when i'm in real flop shot territory but a 52 is ideal for almost every situation I face.
I'd rather be a master of one than just average with a lot.

Good debate & a Good question, one which should be reviewed on a regular basis as the consistency of your game improves (or for that matter goes the other way). On my home course I use the driver typically 5-8 times. There are 4 definite driver holes and another 5 maybe driver (depends on factors such as wind speed/direction, ground condition and the state of my swing/head that day). In matchplay rather than medal play, the decision making can also be altered slightly especially in 4bbb with a steady partner.

On the "it depends" holes I would have to convince myself of the outcome of the objective risk reward debate suggesting a good chance of reward!!

I appreciate all the comments guys

Its not like i can't hit the driver, more that i rate improving my performance with it below that of other espects of my game. Plus my course is not overly long 6250 yards ish... i hit my driver most of the way round last night and it was an ok round with it... went like this.

1st - Short Par 4 - Iron
2nd - Medium Par 4 - Driver - Well stuck but FW Bunker (i.e. Middle of FW)...
3rd - Long Par 4 - Driver - Pulled in to cabbage - 2 hacks out to FW!
4th - Par 3
5th - Long Par 4 - Driver - Well Struck just off FW (r)
6th - Par 3
7th - Long Par 5 - Driver - Well Struck just off FW (r)
8th - Short Par 4 - 3w - Massive pull
9th - Medium Par 4 - Driver - Well Struck just off FW (r)
10th - Medium Par 4 - Driver - Well Struck through FW (on purpose - no danger)
11th - Par 3
12th - Medium Par 4 - Driver - Slice to wrong FW...
13th - Long Par 4 - Driver - Slice to wrong FW...
14th - Par 3
15th - Short par 4 - Driver to FW
16th - Long Par 4 - Driver - Pull to rough...
17th - Short Par 4 - Driver - Slice to wrong FW...
18th - Short Par 5 - Driver - Pull to rough...

The stats say 1/12 FWs with it but realistically there were 6 good-uns 6 not so good-uns... the only 3w was an absolute shocker ironically...

Bit ragged on back 9 but even the good ones on fron t 3 of which were just off would have been on with a 3w albeit a bit further back...

Rossa, I've been using my driver a lot less recently and although I hit it well (sometimes too well on short par 4s where a longer pitch in would be better than a short 40 - 50 yard pitch) I'm finding that the 3-wood or 18deg hybrid is a straighter option. I'm starting to hit the 3-wood more on average length par 5s rather than reaching automatically for Big Stick. That way you can hit driver, hybrid and have an 80 yard pitch in - tries it last night on all 3 of my par 5s and the strategy worked perfectly. Just wish I could putt a bit better....

As my driver is arguably my most reliable club, I feel confident hitting this most of the time

There are a few holes at my club which are less than 300 yards, with very tight fairways
I'll always take a 4iron of these though



But overall try to play a hole backwards. And if it's 360 yards and you want 140 yards in, hit whatever club 220
Or if you prefer a flick with a wedge, from say 75 yards, maybe a nailed driver is your play?

If you stand still and swing a modern driver easy it'll go straight and further than a 3 wood.

Perhaps you're trying and hit it too hard?

Ok Wukfit,

I'll try that - i didn't realise thats all that was required to hit it straight... cheers, maybe you should give Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods and Henrik Stenson a call and let them know. They have trouble keeping a driver on the straight and narrow as well.

Perhaps Tiger et al would benefit from reeling it in a bit but I'm not sure you and those you mention are even playing the same game.

Don't knock it till you try it. Next time you go to the practise ground try hitting a 3/4 driver with your feet planted then see if you can hit a 3 wood past it or as consistently straight.

Wukfit:
I and a number of my 16 - 19 handicap fellow competitors fell foul of trying to belt the driver in the weekend's CC. Our course is about 600 metres above sea-level and the wind was hurting on 2 of the 3 par-5s. The seniors tend to do what you promulgate and take a nice gentle swing with Big Dog and they will either hit it straight or produce a low power fade into the wind. The better players tend to hit a 3/4 swing driver or will revert to long iron, hybrid or 3-wood. It's the 20 - mid-40s who try and belt it into a hurting wind or side wind. Nett result; either slice it viciously, duck hook it or balloon it or even (and I produced 3 of these on saturday) that bloody awful one that catches the heel of driver or 3-wood and shoots off into the undergrowth. I must have seen at least 20 of those horrible card-wreckers over the weekend. All as a result of trying to cane it because a) it was wet and windy and b) it was the CC so people were trying just too hard. There is definitely something in what you say. In poor conditions or when your not timing it well, the object has got to be to slow everything down a bit, keep your ego in check (that's the difficult one for a lot of blokes) and just hit at 3/4 speed

Rossa I'm a similar standard to you and I've been having the same debate recently. My driving is ok but I've been hitting more hybrids and 4 irons on most par 4s which are around 390 or under. In my experience, finding more fairways breeds confidence, and that transfers to the rest of your game. It'll also help you keep the big numbers off the scorecard.

Shclaff, i agree with you re hitting fairways but am interested as to whether your scores are coming down?

I hit my 4 iron around 180 tops and so hitting that off the tee on say a 380 hole (10 yards less than your limit) leaves 200 into a par 4 green. I'll be honest, i think taking those on is going to get me in more trouble than hitting a wonky driver and playing into the green with a 7 iron from the rough!

MPB, for any hole that's nearer to 380 I'll take my 15 degree hybrid. I can normally get a 200 carry with that club.

You're right though, if I don't catch it with either of those clubs I can be looking at a long approach (which can make you feel a bit silly if your playing partner rips a driver down the middle). But if that happens, at the minute I'm feeling confident enough with my mid/ long irons to think that I can get one somewhere near the green at the very least. Then I've got a chip/pitch and two putts for a bogey. If I get up and down, I've hit a pretty poor tee shot but still made par!

Schlaff fair enough, sounds like you at least have a plan which is more than i have most of the time!

My only worry with adopting that 'tactic' would be the knowledge that if i'm leaving myself a 3 or 4 or even a 5 iron into the green i'm pretty much accepting that i'm going to have to get up and down for par. That means before you know it you've put pressure on two putting for bogey and every 3 putt has become a double.

As you may have guessed, i am not a good putter!

Can you let me know how your scores progress whilst using the long irons and hybrids off the tee?

MPB, I would say you'd have to hit a pretty poor shot to leave yourself a 3/4 iron....but you're normally still in play. Whereas a pretty poor shot with the driver at my course often means cabbage or even OOB.

I've already seen an improvement in scores tbh. We played a course in Nottinghamshire the other week and I shot a PB of 12 over. Used driver 5 times in that round. I'm consistently hitting 14/15 over whereas 18/19 over was the norm previously. Obviously I can't put that all down to using the driver less but I'd say it's definitely played a part.

If you think you're dropping too many shots off the tee give it a go!

as a junior, my old coach used to always tell me:

number 1 rule in golf - keep the ball in play.

number 2 rule in golf - go for everything, providing you know you won't break rule number 1.

I might, cheers Schlaff

It's quite simple, take a note of how often a driver gets you in trouble (or has the potential to get you in trouble) and on what holes and adjust strategy accordingly.