How to Drive a Golf Ball
from wikiHow The How to Manual That You Can EditFor those who are looking to put their tee shot in play, what follows are methods to improve the distance of your drive, learned through many rounds of golf and many hours on the range.
Steps
Have proper equipment. Todays equipment and balls
are not necessarily tailored for 7 or 8 degree drivers. That is a thing of the
past. Getting the ball up in the air on a good trajectory is the first step to
driving the ball longer. Many touring pros regularly use 9 and 10 degree
drivers and drive the ball 300 plus yards. Plus, you
will get much more consistency with a more lofted driver.
Start with your front foot in line with the ball to give
it more loft during the set up. When you go for your backswing, you should
shift your weight backward. This will give your swing more power.
Use the proper grip pressure. Even though you may
think that gripping harder and swinging harder produces results, that is
absolutely incorrect and is probably why you do not get consistent distance.
Cal Ripken, a hall of fame baseball
player for the Baltimore Orioles, recently indicated to the Golf Channel that
his grip pressure on the bat on a scale from 1 being easiest to 10 being
hardest ranged from 2 to 4 for perfect release. The great Harry Varden,is given
credit in the movies for this teaching, but actually instructing legend, Phil
Galvano first introduced the idea that you will find that the great players
indicated that the grip pressure should resemble one holding a bird
without crushing it but also not letting it go. The tighter you hold the club, the less it will release throughout the
ball. Hands must be tension free. Try it at the range and watch for the
results.
Keep the start of your downswing calm and
unhurried. This enables you to build up speed, so that the golf club is
still accelerating when it reaches the ball.
Stay flat. Your driving wood should stay along the
ground for at least the first 20 to 25 percent of your swing. If your club is lifting up, you will
pop the ball up and not get that long, boring drive that you see the pros hit
regularly when the ball takes off like a missile and slowly climbs to a
beautiful height and tracks down the fairwa).
Keep the angle on your leading hand. Many amateurs
tend to flip the hands forward in an effort to get the ball in the air defeats
the purpose of having good equipment as noted earlier. The leading hand left
hand for most players, right hand for southpaws should be angled down towards
the ball on the downswing. It is like you are hitting the ball with the back of
left hand. If your left hand is flipping up on the downswing, your contact will
not be solid and you will get consistent misses with your wood. Keeping the
angle starts the ball low and lets it climb on its own through your generated
power.
Pick a spot on the ground that lines up with your target
and, from your address, stretch your wood towards it. If done correctly,
your arms should form a V shape with both arms fully extended. If you have a
tendency to bend your left arm early, that will retard distance; keep your V as
long as possible before it bends at the finish of your swing and you will find
yourself getting much more distance.
Finish the golf swing over
your left shoulder for right handed golfers or right shoulder for left handed
golfers. Do not be in a rush to look up and see where the ball went. If you
did this correctly, the ball went well.
Tips
If you are still a beginner in the game, then only work on
one step at a time at the range. All of these steps are vital but if you try to
learn them all at once, it could cause frustration.
Speed can be increased by setting the wrists into a cocked
position early, and on the downswing keeping the wrists cocked for as late as
possible, and then swishing through the ball. This is similar to flicking your
wrists when using a badminton, squash, or tennis racquet.
Make the swing smooth like a windmill rather than choppy,
and beginners should resist the urge to break their wrists just before the club
impacts the ball no matter how great that worked in baseball. It gives another
opportunity for your timing to break down.
Have a swing thought when you address the ball, such as Free
and easy, free and easy. This might help remind you to relax and not swing hard
or grip the club hard.
Warnings
Golfers who are inclined to hit at the ball with their hands
rather than swinging through the ball find that they lose a lot of power, and
hence distance.
Do not swing at the ball. Your objective should be to
swing the club head along a line toward your target, with the ball being
positioned on that line.
Do not lift your head while you are driving the ball! This
will make a fly ball or a hooked ball.
Related wikiHows
How to Add More Power to Your Golf
Swing
How to Have an Overlapping
Grip on Your Golf Club
How to Hit a Normal Pitch Shot
How to Cheat at Miniature Golf
Sources and Citations
5min Video of a golf player showing how to swing
correctly. 5min is a videopedia for instructional videos. Source of images
in this article, shared with permission.
Article provided by wikiHow,
a wiki how to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the
original wikiHow article on How
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