Dominic, lots of what you said I can relate to in my own game. I too have tried to find an inside path by trying to get my hands closer to the body in the downswing, and have not had much success. I simply had no room for my right elbow to get in and stay in the proper position.

The guy I really like on you tube is Chris Ryan. Here are two videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvvnl46vAGY


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-j9fyhp-mQ


The second video was the eye opener for me. I have been trying to get my hands closer to my body in the downswing to help with an OOT move, but Chris Ryan advocates that they should be further away from you, not closer. (I think Biesterfield mentions this in one his posts too). The thing that clicked for me is that by getting my hands further away from me nearing impact, that I (1) have room to have my right elbow get in the position I need to retain lag and (2) I can have the club behind and inside me a bit (though not stuck) and don't have to worry about it being too inside or too far behind as to have giant pushes or pull-hooks..

The first video kind of sets up the 2nd video for me.

I actually came here just to post that the Chris Ryan youtube videos are really good, and then saw this related topic.

Dominic,, you also mentioned the tip of starting the downswing with just your arms. That is one way to find out if your shoulder turn is sufficient...lol. You just cant make that move with a fake shoulder turn (as I have discovered).

Not to mention that you can hit it fat off a matt all day and the ball will fly fine. Then you get on the course and realize that you were not hitting matt/ball at the same time, and that you just helped ingrain a fat swing that you are now paying dearly for.

Matts are just too forgiving.. On turf you can see (divot direction, divot starting point, depth, etc) and feel what is going on with your irons..

So I played today, and all I really tried doing was holding my back turn just a touch more...I just reverted to my regular play...but I will go to the range again and keep trying the Monte thing combined with the back turn. We shall see.

Good post Dom, and replies too. Motivated me to look at my swing from a short vid a buddy took. And now I´m checking out vids and trying to figure out some stuff at range tomorrow. Backswing has been too up-right, maybe I can get it more on plain (and some wrist bend too). Thanks for sharing!

What would your advice be to me:

I'm not long off the tee at all. About 230-240. Irons 150 and in I'm very accurate. Chipping and putting is very good. Right now I'm around a 14 handicap, but I think if I could add 50 yards to my drive that I'd be able to routinely shoot in the 80's and break 80 every once in a while. Being short off the tee means I can't afford to miss fairways, and it's frustrating that I can never get there in 2 on par 5's.

Is it possible to gain 50 yards with my driver or should I just focus on being accurate.

stop playing the tips

I think it depends on what your swing speed is now and how old you are.

You can potentially pick up distance with a driver that fits perfectly. If you aren't hitting it solid you can improve your smash factor and pick up ball speed.

But hitting it 280-290 is really long any way you look at. Average driving distance on Tour is about 291. Those are the best players in the world.

So if you are in your 30's or less you could potentially get there but its not easy. If you are 50+ years old I'd say forget about it.

Just move up a set of tees....

Would need a swing vid to see if you are leaving potential power from casting/poor rotation/etc. It's hard to know how much someone is maxing out just from an average drive number.

Have you been for a driver fitting? Just getting the shaft and settings right can easily add 25 yards.

I have the opposite problem so don't feel too bad. Can hit my 3W 285-300 (don't even use driver anymore) and am a 15hcp. there's no pictures on the scorecard!

I hit it further when I used a regular flex, but the stiff has allowed me to be more accurate. I'm currently hitting a G20, so I'm definitely due for an upgrade. Maybe I'll go get fitted and see if that works. I'll try to get a few videos this weekend and put them up.

I got fitted about 16 months ago and my handicap has exploded upwards and I am playing by far the worst golf of my life. I have not had the same experience that everyone else had and in fact am going in this weekend for a free look/refitting since they have a lifetime guarantee (not sure exactly what that means when it comes to equipment though).

I hit my driver and 3 wood longer than my old ones, but I actually hit my irons both shorter and less accurately. My good drives are also significantly better than my old good ones, but I hit fewer acceptable drives (used to hit maybe 5 fairways a round and now hit maybe 2). My last 3 rounds I have hit 3 fairways total (0, 2, and 1 respectively). My ball flight on well struck balls has also changed from a pull-draw to a straight ball or slight cut. I think this is mostly due to getting heavier and stiffer shafts. Interestingly enough I also straight up shank wedges around the green at least once every few rounds and I had hit probably a half dozen shots like that in the previous decade. The first 3 rounds I played with these clubs probably included 15 shanked wedges on 10-30 yard shots.

You may have had a bad fitting. A lot of people selling fittings don't actually know what they are doing, especially in big box stores.

For starters you need to optimize your launch conditions, +AOA and match the launch angle and spin to your swing speed. If you are already swinging over 100 then you can gain a good amount by doing that. Not sure how old you are but it will probably be hard to add more than 5-10 mph, Any more and your swing is probably slow and you won't be able to get it that high anyways.

I would much rather have the distance. If you hit it far you can hit down a bit on the driver to find the fairway when you need to and still have the ball go 260-270.
Not that I normally buy into hype but take the epic driver for a spin. I found it was like 10-12 yards farther than my R15 but I can't justify spending the money till I actually find a job

How far do you typically hit a 7 iron?

Video your swing and then the question will be easier to answer.

50 yards is asking a bit much, that's just not going to happen in 99.9% of cases. If you improve your stock swing, you'll almost certainly hit it farther. But if you make a concerted effort with your driver only, you'll probably screw up the rest of your long game.

And to bring you back to reality, if you're a 14 handicap, you are not very good around the green. Have seen several golfers that hit it that distance off the tee that were scratch handicaps. Granted that's an extreme, but it should put it in some perspective. And also give you hope and encouragement that you should be able to get into single digits just by improving your short game.

If you can hit it 240 and want to improve your 14 handicap, the last thing you should be working on is driver distance.

Hi Eddy. Don't take this the wrong way, but I am also 230-240 off the tee, pretty good with irons from 150 in and can chip and put well. I am an 8 hdcp. It could be your short game is not as good as you think it is, or that your drives are not very accurate. I don't reach any of the par 5s in 2 on my local course, except when the wind and ground conditions are favourable.

If you want to lower your handicap/score better, I am betting that the problem isn't driver distance... Lots of people play to scratch with a reliable and repeatable 240 off the tee. If you are a 14 I think your self-assessment is off a bit. That, or your long irons and or hybrids are really dragging your game down on par 4s and long par 3s (perhaps from tees that are too far back for you...)

That's my point. Being a short hitter off the tee I can't afford to miss fairways which I do. Guy I play with hits it close to 300, and if he sprays his driver it isn't really a big deal because when he misses maybe he has 160 in the green from the rough. When I miss I'll have over 200. But like you said I could make up for that by focusing on accuracy.

So you're a 14 handicap, that hits it 230 and you're playing 460 yard par 4s? You're playing the wrong tees.

You can get an extra 60 yards today by playing the tees that give you 400 yard par 4's instead of 460 yarders. Ez game.

But pride.

I get it though, it kinda sucks to mosey on down to the whites after your whole group hits from the blues, even though it's likely they should all play whites like 90% of golfers should and we all know that rarely happens.

I usually play from the whites. My recent outing was with my cousin, who played D1 golf, and he won't play the whites so I just played the blues with him. I was just comparing my last round saying how he has such a luxury of hitting it so far that he can usually have a short iron in hand regardless of where he hits it.

Cliffs: I believe the further you hit it off the tee, the more room for error you have.

I went to Club Champion and we spent almost 5 hours getting the fitting. I hit probably a dozen different driver shafts and 4 or 5 clubs and then probably 4 different irons and 4 or 5 different shafts.

The trackman numbers for what I bought were definitely better than anything else I tried except for a few shafts that were too expensive for my taste (the driver shafts DJ and Spieth play specifically).

I was concerned going into the fitting about hitting off mats because I never hit well off mats so I worry that that caused me to get a bad fitting due to not striking the ball the same as I would off grass and some of the better club fits appearing worse.

driver overrated. i've made it to 2nd overall in net standings and 6th in gross with only a 208 average off the tee, although its up to around 220 with a recent online lesson from the guy i posted before. I think I am like 50th of 55 on our simulator tour in driver distance. we typically play 6200-6600 yard courses.

streaming round 1 of this weeks tournament in a bit...

https://www.youtube.com/user/rtisor/live

couldn't make a ****ing putt to save my life. +5, 76