I have not played at all well this year which is mainly due to not practicing so I cannot blame anyone for myself for that but for the last round and a half I have left the driver in the bag and just used my hybrid off the tee.  My rate of fairways hit has gone up and the ones that have missed have not missed by much.  I really like using the driver and it is great when it works well but it costs me a lot of shots when it isn't working (or should I say when I am not using it right).

For the next few rounds I am going to continue with the hybrid and see how it goes.  I was hitting it an average of about 230 yards last night (roughly 200 in to the wind and up to 255 with the wind) so I don't think I really need the extra 50-60 yards I get with the driver if I am controlling it better.

Also, for the last two rounds I have got round in 29 putts which I am soooo happy with.  I don't know whether it is that the greens are better this time of year or whether it is because I actually have a bit of confidence when standing over the ball now but I hope it continues.

Just need to sort out the bit in between the tee and the green now!!

Well Richard, if you're really hitting your hybrid 230 yards what's the problem?  I work on around 220 yards for my driver and have never really found my apparent lack of distance a problem.  Although if the driver is going 290 but off line why not just back it off a bit...

Richard,

One does not need to be a psychologist to see from your post that you are in pain and in denial.

A naughty driver is like a naughty child: You can lock Johnny in his room and tell him that you don't need that sort of behaviour but eventually the family has to be put back together again with love.

If I start a family counselling clinic would you be willing to attend and be in the same room as.......what is your driver's name?  You don't even know her  name?  Little  wonder she's misbehaving! 

I'm telepathic - she says that her name his Charlotte.  Now there's a beginning......... 

I used to do the same with my driver, but kept it locked in the garage. Fortunately I received a golf lesson for Father's Day and 60 mins with the pro has informed me what was going wrong (it was also going wrong with all of the other clubs, but was less noticeable).

Two days later I posted my best score ever on my local course.

Now a couple of hybrids have been locked in the garage . Looks like the putter will be next !!!

I may be forced to contact these stout fellows in order to see if they would be willing to extend their sterling work to include golf clubs:

http://www.freewebs.com/golfballarmy/

sanders

you have far too much time on your hands to find such eccentric websites

how can you promote this extremist behaviour when you are in the same category of tiger woods if not even worse with your heavy headded "whacking stick"

i truly feel sorry for those poor white round balls

but hey the world is a cruel place and if they give me the excitement and pleasure that they do then i will continue to use them for my own amusement

Darren,

Are you keeping THE (298) trophy polished? How about posting a pic?

Cruelty to  balls should be made a more serious offence than cruelty to animals as the former are rarely swallowed to satisy hunger, leastways not in better society.

'Eccentric websites?'  Darren if someone can find some sort of meaning in golf then possibly he / she will find some sort of meaning in that more eccentric pursuit - life.

As for having too much time on my hands: Although out of work I try to altruistically give to society: I endless give to you lads (and lady).   You are all charity cases. No tv licence needed to enjoy my 'jokes.'  My hero is of course Roy Hudd.

I suppose I should back off a bit on the driver and that may help with the directional problems but I think it is a mental thing where I try and wallop the ball when I know I don't actually need to.  More practice would probably help and a little bit more discipline in only going at it at 80%.

I'll see how I go witht he hybrid for now and then maybe get back to the driver in a few weeks.  Any tips on driver use would be welcome from your Sanders.  If I could use it properly and know It was going to go straight it would certainly shortern the golf course a bit.

Richard,

I have written lots on driving technique within this forum, but essentially here are the things players need to focus on when driving:

1.  Tee the ball up so that every last piece of the ball sits above the crown of the driver. Yes really. Wide stance, hands behind the ball, flex the legs at the knees without sitting on your hips, stick out bottom, lift head back from the shoulders, not the waist. Address the ball with everything exactly square to target.

2.  Take the head away square (using left hand) as wide as possible whilst transferring weight onto the right foot. Do not  turn the shoulders or coil the hips yet. 

3.  When the head has been pushed out - three times further than you ever imagined possible - only then tilt the hips and turn the shoulders together. There are other good techniques but every last one is always based on the shoulders never turning before the hips.

4.  Backswing not to exceeed one third the speed of the downswing.

5.  Be aware of your backswing ending.    

6.  If you have coiled correctly then your navel (belly button) will be facing away from target, and if you downswing  through the same swing plane your clubhead will be way right of target.

7.  Before going into detail about the downswing  one important thing needs to be realised which is entirely opposite to what most golfers imagine, and one of the reasons why short distances are often only achieved off fast swing speeds:  You must swing out of line for as long as you can manage! Most amateur golfers obsess about coming in square to the ball and consequently uncoil far too early, thereby releasing virtually all of their core power before impact. Effectively nullifying the coiling process.  Your imagined target must be at least five minutes right of true target.  Even at impact drive through towards your false target. But let's not get ahead of ourselves - let's go back to the top of the backswing:

8.   This is where it starts to get a little complicated if one wishes to hit the ball a seriously long way. If one has a long backswing then one's arms cannot usually move as fast as the kingpin - one's hips. So as one begins to accelerate the arms downward one's right hip has to be either silent or moving slowly to enable the arms to gather acceleration and get into the attack position with some arm acceleration already achieved. Keep all of the weight on the right foot as the arms begin to accelerate.

9.  One then effectively needs to preserve the integrity of the full swing arc by keeping one's weight on one's right side, and keeping one's left arm absolutely straight. One then needs to think of hitting down  towards the ball, not sweeping into the ball with the bottom of the swing circle flattened.  Hitting down onto the ball is absolutely fine provided it is done correctly i.e. you have everything pushed out behind the ball, one's weight is on one's right side, and the left arm is straight.

10.   One swings down into the ball by attacking with one's right side at the point that one's driver is well on its way down. Think of driving down into the ball with one's right side and straight left arm. Never get into either yanking from the top or right hand hitting.   Remember your swing plane is out of line to target and you are attacking the ball on its inside with your right side / straight left arm.  Your left side must neither slide forward nor turn. (It does however turn left at impact).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFPtl6tfbtc&feature=related

11.  Hit the ball (out of line to the true target) into a braced left leg, imagining that your right shoulder is not moving across the ball in line with your left shoulder but rather that your right shoulder is dipping under the line of your left shoulder creating a scooping process.  

12.  Strike the ball realising that only one third of the work has been undertaken. If you begin the de-accelerate (quit) now the ball will block right or possibly even slice.  You are aiming to induce 2-3 yards of draw and to do that you need to be brave and set the ball out towards the last place that you want it to go. It takes great confidence and a full /  effective follow through to achieve success.

13.   Keep your eyes firmly fixed on the ball. If your eyes have not slid forward then hopefully you have prevented your left hip sliding forward. Left hip slide is the last thing that a good driver needs! Hit the ball on its inside - ideally between one and five degrees on the upstroke. Hitting on the upstroke is not achieved by teeing up too far forward (line the ball up with your left ear as a starting point)   but rather by bringing one's right shoulder under at impact and keeping everything behind the ball.

14.   As the club face impacts into the ball one's right foot should already be dragging forward and all weight will be on / into your firmly braced left leg.

15.  Begin to follow through out of line (as earlier described) and follow through as far as you are physically capable of. Because you addressed the ball square your follow through will end in the normal position i.e. five minutes left of true target.  Success will only be achieved if one's driver head is travelling as fast, or faster, during most of the follow through as it was just prior to impact.

So there we have it. Numerous lessons and hundreds of hours of practice rolled up into one simple set of instructions.

The best way to learn a new driving skill(s) is to massively slow everthing down. Start of easy using a pitching wedge swung at half speed, hitting balls off a one inch high peg imagining that the wedge is a driver and using driver technique.  When one can induce two yards of draw at least 90% of the time then move onto a longer iron and gradually work up towards a driver. If one cannot   shape a shot properly with all of one's irons then one is not yet ready for practising with a driver.

Even during a full on driver practice session most of the session is best served by practising with say a one iron.  It takes a lot of effort to swing a driver well and intense practice hitting a lot of balls with a full length club is usually counter productive.

Good luck with Charlotte. But one makes one's own luck. 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380313885011&ssPage
Name=STRK:MESELX:IT