Do You Even Need a Driver to Play Golf

Drivers are the most talked about clubs on the market as manufacturers launch new releases each year that have been engineered to push the technological envelope a little further. 

Gaining distance, finding more fairways and providing yourself with a platform to score from, it's difficult to be successful on the golf course if you're struggling off the tee, making the driver in your hand an essential relationship to get right.

But do you even need to have a driver in your bag?

Winner of the Open Championship, FedEx Cup and Race to Dubai, Sweden's Henrik Stenson became renowned for his proficiency with a 3-wood, more out of necessity than choice, but his preference for not using a driver became lucrative.

If you're someone who can't find a driver that reliably works for you, and if you're frequently losing balls off the tee or seeing yourself hitting second shots from the deepest rough or trees, then you may be searching for a similar alternative.

Let's take a look at some of your possible options.

3-Woods

(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

Much like Stenson at his peak, a 3-wood could become your friend, with its smaller head and higher loft making it workable and easier to control, which is perfect for when you have to find a fairway. Some golfers may favour long irons for these situations, but a wood is undeniably more straightforward to hit consistently. You can also use it from the fairway on approaches.

That said, if you're not the biggest hitter, then the loss of distance when using a 3-wood compared to a driver could have an impact on your scoring. While you may be on the fairway, the longer yardage to the green makes it harder to hit your approach shots closer, and it could even inhibit your ability to reach some of the longest holes in two.

While a 3-wood (or any lofted wood) is worth considering, you also have to accept that compromises will be made.

Mini Drivers

These have been around in some fashion for a long time but have recently enjoyed a renaissance in popularity. Modern drivers often boast a massive head of 460cc, but a mini driver will feature a head that is substantially smaller, while its shaft will be shorter than what you typically see in a conventional driver.

That encourages greater consistency and should reduce your widest misses while bridging the gap between a 3-wood and your standard driver.

As these become more widely available, mini drivers are going to appear in more golf bags at all levels of the game.

Driving/Utility Irons

These utility irons sit between your long irons and woods, becoming a specialist niche for golfers who value adaptability with their play off the tee.

Better golfers will enjoy these as it allows for greater control and the ability to hit a variety of shots. Ideal for windy conditions as you can produce a lower trajectory, hitting a classic stinger, and you will regularly see skilled players on links courses deploying a utility iron.

However, unless the lay of the land is right, there are situations where you will lose substantial distance when compared to a driver, which again can have an impact on your ability to score well.

Hybrids & Long Irons

Bringing together the qualities of both a fairway wood and longer irons, hybrids have been a revolutionary development for golfers, being versatile for use from a variety of positions and lies in a club that is easier to hit than a long iron.

Whether it be a modest par four and you're desperate to land on the short grass, a hybrid can be a sensible choice as opposed to reaching for a driver, but when you're playing a longer hole, the loss of yardage from the tee could be inhibiting.

Some of you may favour a conventional long iron to keep yourself in play, which is a strategy that has its place, but once more has obvious limitations when it comes to successfully giving yourself a comfortable base on those longer holes.

Do You Even Need a Driver?

If you can hit your driver like Rory McIlroy, then that club can be a mightily effective weapon on the golf course, but should you struggle to be consistent with the longest club in your bag, there are alternatives that could help you to find more fairways, keep yourself in play more often, and create a platform that can see your scores improve significantly.

Ultimately, golf is about how many shots you take, not the way you did it, and using a driver less often could be the secret for you to extract more from your game.

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