Losing it off the Tee

kod12

Just started Golf last year and have made decent improvements all round in my game. Worked a lot on my irons and putting with good results.

I'm a tall player and losing the majority of my shots off the tee either large slice or skying it above the clouds with no distance. I have had a few lessons on it but nothing seems to be fixing it at all and the handicap is not dropping as a result. I will hit one maybe two decent drives in a round but the rest all cost me 2-3 shots easy a hole.

Has anyone found good drills our ways to practice to resolve this. the lesson showed a out to in swing path and the only take away I was told to work on was imagine a point 3 inches below and to the right of the ball and hit through that.

Thanks in advance

Keano

What did the pro tell you was wrong?

kod12

Over the top swing.the only takeaway was picture an object below the ball and to the right and aim to hit that every time

slave1

If you are overtly out to in then try placing a tall white tee on the extreme of an out to in path behind the ball and start placing it closer and closer to you, the goal being so miss the tee and strike the ball, eventually this will help you avoid the out to in path.
Haven't tried it myself but when I saw it on YT it makes a lot of sense...

com1

Sounds very similar to me off the tee... and everywhere else too. I did a few things to fix it This is now my routine

On the Tee box. Tee the ball high (middle of the ball at the top of the grounded club head)

Stand behind the ball on the tee to visualize where I want it to go (point the driver along the line I want).

Then address the ball. Club head on the ground behind the ball (face pointing where I want it to go) and ball between my feet about 5-6CM inside my left foot (I am right handed), so forward in the stance

Strengthen my right hand on the grip i.e. loosen the hand and rotate it anticlockwise so I can see another knuckle and feels slightly awkward and uncomfortable (this should keep the club face closed / square to avoid the slice)

Last look up the fairway to make sure I am pointing in the right direction.

One or two wiggles of the club head to relax me and a slow short back swing so the club does not reach horizontal at the top of the swing.

On the downswing I am just (and only) concentrating on making contact with the back of the ball (I want to hit it) I don't think of anything else just hitting the ball. I don't care where it goes, well, until my swing is complete.

If I change any of this routine or take any interest in where the ball is going during the swing everything goes to pot.

I know it sounds long and laborious when written down but the routine is very quick and I use it EVERY time and not just on the tee, pretty much every full shot has the same routine.

Oh yeah and one more thing, my mental image of myself during the swing is that it looks exactly like Ernie Els (I am sure it is more like a bag of octopusses but I cant see that so meh!)

And finally (the most important thing my pro ever told me) remember you want to hit the ball so you should really be looking at the ball and not looking where it isn't when you are trying to hit it (e.g. up the fairway or behind it or below it or in front of it etc)

kod12

Perfect thanks for those tips ill try them at the range now

ThunderCat

This video helped me the most with my slice:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JhgLZ4chJQ

spacecoyote

Just stumbled across this on my Twitter feed. Haven't checked out the vid, but these guys are generally very good

https://twitter.com/Meandmygolf/status/1080418566518857729

GreeBo

kod12 wrote: »

Just started Golf last year and have made decent improvements all round in my game. Worked a lot on my irons and putting with good results.

I'm a tall player and losing the majority of my shots off the tee either large slice or skying it above the clouds with no distance. I have had a few lessons on it but nothing seems to be fixing it at all and the handicap is not dropping as a result. I will hit one maybe two decent drives in a round but the rest all cost me 2-3 shots easy a hole.

Has anyone found good drills our ways to practice to resolve this. the lesson showed a out to in swing path and the only take away I was told to work on was imagine a point 3 inches below and to the right of the ball and hit through that.

Thanks in advance

If you are skying it you are probably hitting down on it and popping it up...is the top of your club covered in ball marks?

To help with in to out swing, align the logo/name/line of your ball 30* to the right of your target and, taking a normal stance, try to hit the ball *up* and in the direction of the logo.

If you are standing looking at your target from behind, you want to feel like you are hitting the ball *UP* into 2 o'clock.
At the moment you are hitting it down into 7 o'clock.

kod12

GreeBo wrote: »

If you are skying it you are probably hitting down on it and popping it up...is the top of your club covered in ball marks?

To help with in to out swing, align the logo/name/line of your ball 30* to the right of your target and, taking a normal stance, try to hit the ball *up* and in the direction of the logo.

If you are standing looking at your target from behind, you want to feel like you are hitting the ball *UP* into 2 o'clock.
At the moment you are hitting it down into 7 o'clock.

yep the driver and three all marked on the top. Ill try that at the range have tried all sorts but its either skyed high or massive left to right just cant get the feel or a drill to get from the inside. Ill try that many thanks

newindublin

I have struggled with similar problems off the tee (slice, occasional sky ball).

What worked for me, with guidance from my instructor, was:
- A drill putting an empty ball box a few inches behind my tee-ed up ball. Try not to hit the box when driving the ball. If this works, you might invest in a small bit of foam instead of a ball box as the ball boxes get destroyed by a direct driver hit.

- Adjusting my back/right leg back at address. Hogan Ball Position and also my shoulders to match this line. This helps me turn on the ball better, creating more draw. I find if i move my right foot too far back now I can hit a pretty hard draw, so I after some practice I have to move it forward from where I started. Its scary to do at the start though, because you actually aim and feel like you are hitting the ball to the right, which of course is what you are trying to avoid.

- Keeping my left arm straighter. I am not saying lock your left arm or anything drastic, but for me a conscious focus on this helped.

kod12

newindublin wrote: »

I have struggled with similar problems off the tee (slice, occasional sky ball).

What worked for me, with guidance from my instructor, was:
- A drill putting an empty ball box a few inches behind my tee-ed up ball. Try not to hit the box when driving the ball. If this works, you might invest in a small bit of foam instead of a ball box as the ball boxes get destroyed by a direct driver hit.

- Adjusting my back/right leg back at address. Hogan Ball Position and also my shoulders to match this line. This helps me turn on the ball better, creating more draw. I find if i move my right foot too far back now I can hit a pretty hard draw, so I after some practice I have to move it forward from where I started. Its scary to do at the start though, because you actually aim and feel like you are hitting the ball to the right, which of course is what you are trying to avoid.

- Keeping my left arm straighter. I am not saying lock your left arm or anything drastic, but for me a conscious focus on this helped.

Cheers for that great info there. I am just reading hogans book at the moment and seen that point. I used to use it as a drill at the range with the right foot all the way back at address but was reluctant to use it on the course

Hoboo

newindublin wrote: »

I have struggled with similar problems off the tee (slice, occasional sky ball).

What worked for me, with guidance from my instructor, was:
- A drill putting an empty ball box a few inches behind my tee-ed up ball. Try not to hit the box when driving the ball. If this works, you might invest in a small bit of foam instead of a ball box as the ball boxes get destroyed by a direct driver hit.

- Adjusting my back/right leg back at address. Hogan Ball Position and also my shoulders to match this line. This helps me turn on the ball better, creating more draw. I find if i move my right foot too far back now I can hit a pretty hard draw, so I after some practice I have to move it forward from where I started. Its scary to do at the start though, because you actually aim and feel like you are hitting the ball to the right, which of course is what you are trying to avoid.

- Keeping my left arm straighter. I am not saying lock your left arm or anything drastic, but for me a conscious focus on this helped.

Pretty much the same for me, left hand was too weak, brought that right around, brought my back leg back an inch, try to always keep arms connected and form a V at ball connection and strike 7 o'clock to 1 o'clock direction (roughly). It's far from perfect, but.goes straight nearly everytime, the odd baby draw, or baby fade

dan_ep82

How often do you play?

How often do you practice the drills from the lessons?

Where on the club face are you hitting the ball?
You can swing 7° from the inside and still slice it if you hit in the heel.

Trying to change your swing, for me at least, takes a lot of concentrated effort. Hitting twenty balls on the range or one round with the new swing is never enough.

Tried a different pro for a different point of view?

Webbs

while i didnt have a mad left to right slice off the tee i was always fighting a bad fade that when things went awry turned into a bad slice.

Two things helped, the first is as above moving back leg back a few inches, which I still do on the course if the driving starts to slip. The result of this is that it gets my body to turn and not slide the lower legs which is a good thing.

The second was getting a lesson on a trackman that happened to be part of my driver fitting. The pro had me on a trackman on outdoor range and just seeing the numbers for path and face was astonishing. To get a good path I felt I had to be hitting it into the field to the right but the figures came back as just a good average path. Maybe its me but I just needed to see the numbers change as I changed the swing. Felt weird for a while but now is all good.

kod12

dan_ep82 wrote: »

How often do you play?

How often do you practice the drills from the lessons?

Where on the club face are you hitting the ball?
You can swing 7° from the inside and still slice it if you hit in the heel.

Trying to change your swing, for me at least, takes a lot of concentrated effort. Hitting twenty balls on the range or one round with the new swing is never enough.

Tried a different pro for a different point of view?

that's the thing I wasn't given a drill from the lesson just to imagine the club coming into the ball and inch or two to the bottom right of the ball.

This year I'm planning to hit the range twice a week to work on it and play on a Saturday then. I know what you mean about the swing tho it will take many repetitions to become second nature.

I have videoed my swing and its over the top definitely but not too drastic I think I need to start the downswing with my lower body first to shallow out the club and have more of a coil on the backswing. Only started playing 9 months ago but loving the journey so far at least ha

Keano

kod12 wrote: »

that's the thing I wasn't given a drill from the lesson just to imagine the club coming into the ball and inch or two to the bottom right of the ball.

This year I'm planning to hit the range twice a week to work on it and play on a Saturday then. I know what you mean about the swing tho it will take many repetitions to become second nature.

I have videoed my swing and its over the top definitely but not too drastic I think I need to start the downswing with my lower body first to shallow out the club and have more of a coil on the backswing. Only started playing 9 months ago but loving the journey so far at least ha

You downswing has to start with your lower body first, that's the hard part for a lot of us! It's a tad off that your pro didn't give you any drills at all to work on, maybe go back to him and ask for some.

newindublin

I would find a new pro if he didn't give you a drill to work on things. My only problem with my pro is too many drills to do them all!

In complete seriousness, I moved to Ireland 2 years ago and started with one pro. I did a series of lessons with him but I felt really unsatisfied with his coaching, it was "golf tips" but not building a swing and drills to get there.

I did not renew after my first series, instead I tried a new coach. I could not be happier with him, he has helped build a swing and always has a helpful drill for me to work on.

Moral of the story is...if your pro isn't clicking then maybe try a different one.

kod12

newindublin wrote: »

I would find a new pro if he didn't give you a drill to work on things. My only problem with my pro is too many drills to do them all!

In complete seriousness, I moved to Ireland 2 years ago and started with one pro. I did a series of lessons with him but I felt really unsatisfied with his coaching, it was "golf tips" but not building a swing and drills to get there.

I did not renew after my first series, instead I tried a new coach. I could not be happier with him, he has helped build a swing and always has a helpful drill for me to work on.

Moral of the story is...if your pro isn't clicking then maybe try a different one.

That’s exactly it more tips than building a swing which is what I need. Could you recommend your new coach? Any in the kildare Dublin region I would travel to

vladmydad

Always practice in a golf course if possible. Place the ball a few inches from the right hand tee marker, this will force you to swing more neutral and hit the ball closer on the toe, both of which will encourage a draw.

newindublin

kod12 wrote: »

That’s exactly it more tips than building a swing which is what I need. Could you recommend your new coach? Any in the kildare Dublin region I would travel to

I don't know anyone specifically in Kildare (my instructor operates out of North Dublin at Kinsealy Driving Range), but I have heard that the GUI National Golf Academy at Carton House is good. Maybe give them a try?

kod12

newindublin wrote: »

I don't know anyone specifically in Kildare (my instructor operates out of North Dublin at Kinsealy Driving Range), but I have heard that the GUI National Golf Academy at Carton House is good. Maybe give them a try?

funny you mention that the guys in Kinsealy range were actually who I was looking at. Followed there stuff online and look to be getting good results is it Eoin there is it?

newindublin

kod12 wrote: »

funny you mention that the guys in Kinsealy range were actually who I was looking at. Followed there stuff online and look to be getting good results is it Eoin there is it?

Yes, I work with Eoin Gibbons

kod12

newindublin wrote: »

Yes, I work with Eoin Gibbons

Perfect. I have heard a few recommendations for Eoin and its exactly what I need is to build a swing rather than tips as you said. Will give him a call maybe for 1 hour lesson as its far to travel

benny79

kod12 wrote: »

Perfect. I have heard a few recommendations for Eoin and its exactly what I need is to build a swing rather than tips as you said. Will give him a call maybe for 1 hour lesson as its far to travel

There is a lot of good Pros around the Kildare area depending where you are! You dont always need to rebuild a new swing. This takes a lot of work, time and dedication as in lots and lots... I have been going to Eamonn O Flanagan he is the coach for the Leinster Irish Juniors. but I have being to loads of different ones over the years but find him very good so far for me and Plus the fact I seen first hand his results.

A junior at my Club dropped from 17 to 9 last year :eek: yes you read that right. I play with him regularly. I myself dropped 2 but my swing is much better I compress the ball now and strike is much improved. But there's loads of other lads in the area. What works for one mighten work for someone else.