How to Add 10 Yards to Your Drive
When it comes to the game of golf, there is nothing more satisfying – or impressive – than taking out your driver and crushing it down the middle of the fairway. It feels powerful, impressive, and it sets you up for your next shot. So it is no surprise that almost every golfer would like to know how to add 10 yards to their drive.
The answer, though, can be a bit surprising. For the average golfer, there are many tips, tricks, and tactics that can be implemented to increasing distance and accuracy. The easiest way to explain how to accomplish more distance on your drive is to launch the golf ball a little higher and with less spin.
Setup for Success
So what are some successful ways that golfers can accomplish the goal of more ball height and less spin? The most surprising answers are the ones we can do before we even swing the club. Successful ball position, setup, and body position can all lead to more distance off of the tee.
Tip 1: Find the Sweet Spot
We want to try to hit the golf ball between the center and the top of the driver’s clubface to maximize distance. That is the relative sweet spot on today’s modern type drivers. You can use impact tape or place a dot on the impact zone of your ball with a felt-tip (non-permanent) type marker so you can see where the ball is being hit by your driver.
Tip 2: Tee it up higher
You should experiment with teeing the ball up at different heights. Repeat this until you get to a point where you can hit the ball slightly higher than the center of the driver clubface on a consistent basis. The ball should above the top of the driver clubface, about be about a half a ball to ¾ of a ball.
Tip 3: Set the ball up forward in your stance
Next tip is to try to hit the golf ball with about a 5-degree increase in the launch angle. If you do this, the ball will automatically travel an extra 10 yards further. How do we accomplish this? If you move the ball more forward in your stance (i.e. toward your front foot) this will increase the launch angle without you needing to make any additional changes to your swing.
Tip 4: The Upswing of swing phase is key
A great tip for the swing phase of things is to try to hit the ball on the upswing ever so slightly. You can have a coach or a pro watch your swing, or even better you can use the data and overhead camera on a golf simulator to film and record yourself hitting the ball off the tee. You should try to hit the ball on the upswing instead of on the very down swing of the arc of your swing plane.
Tip 5: Speed wins!
The next tip of the swing phase is to work on your speed. Practice swinging your clubhead faster. When doing this however, you must also complete your follow-through while maintaining your balance. Try to copy the swing of those professional golfers who drive the ball far, but don’t look like they are swinging excessively hard.
The cliché phrase you hear most with regards to the driver is “Grip it and rip it”. But if you don’t maintain your balance throughout your swing you will end up sacrificing accuracy which will only lead to you ending up in the rough, or worse yet off the course in a penalty inducing hazard somewhere.
Tip 6: Health and fitness matter
One final recommendation for adding an extra 10 yards to your drive is improving your strength and flexibility. Think about a pitcher or batter in baseball or a quarterback or linebacker in football. Almost all of their athletic moves come from their hips and below.
Much like all of these other athletes, even though their sports are considered mainly overhead sports (swinging equipment or throwing a ball) the drive and power is generated from the legs. There are several different types of exercises and programs that can help build these areas up for golf purposes.
The main areas golfers should be working on are flexibility, strength, coordination, and injury prevention. Yoga, Pilates, Tai-Chi, TRX Bands, Resistance Bands and free weights are all good tools to use to help build a strong core and lower body.
Regardless of which form or combination of exercises you choose to focus on, it is likely a good idea to work with a trained health professional at first to get you started on the right track and make sure you are doing the right things, the right way, for the right outcomes. Physical Therapists, Personal Trainers, and Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) Professionals are all good starting points.
The 19th Hole
As we wrap this article up, we hope that you can see that there are several ways for golfers to add 10 yards to their drive. In fact, if more than one of these techniques are successfully practiced and implemented, it is not unheard of for someone to turn that extra 10 yards into 15 or 20 consistently.
The main call to action here is to get out there and practice. Go to the driving range, try some of these tips, and keep trying until you have got them down. Golf is not a game of overnight, it is a long journey and path to reach success.
But imperfect action beats perfect inaction 100% of the time. Once you have practiced these things, and obtained your goal of adding some extra yardage to your bombs off the tee, realize that the drive is generally only the first shot on most holes…there are plenty of other shots in your bag you will need to work on too. Come down to The Sand Trap and practice your swing on our professional golf simulators.
