Tips for driving golf ball straight

[AZOffaly]

Then maybe something to try is to slow it down, rather than shorten it? One of the old golfers, Palmer, Snead or someone like that had a dogma.

'When you think you are swinging too slow - Slow Down'.

[gerrykeegan]

Know what your saying AZ but being cack-handed and a serial-slicer i had to try something.
My swing would be very long but fast, shaft would be near touching my neck on the backswing, so at the minute im trying to shorten it but not too much, just trying to be more conscious of it especially off the tee.
It did work last night in some ways and didnt take too much distance off the drives but i dont expect results right away.

what handicap do you play off, if the club is nearly touching your neck you are swinging very hard and there is loads of time to lose control of the club.

Ignore AZ he obviously has a big Mullucker of a swing, most likelly the ball goes everywhere and anywhere, I play off 15 and have a three quarter swing. Not too much can go wrong with a shorter swing and you can build it back up if you wish.

[thebigfella]

Shorten it, without seeing you swing i'd say you are over swinging. At the top of you back swing, when you are transitioning to your down swing,  your club should be parallel to the target line and no where near your neck (I suspect your left arm is not straight either). Also more than likely you have also developed a reverse pivot and rotate you hips too much away from the target as well. I'd say one of the things that is happening is your hips cannot get cleared (because you have over rotated) in time for you arms/club and you either block or slice the ball.

AZ is wrong shortening your back swing will take distance of your clubs; the power comes from coiling of your body (how far your shoulders rotate in relation to your hips) and releasing that energy and not how far you swing back. When you are at the top of your back swing do you feel the tension up the right hand side of your body, mainly in the inside of your right thigh? You will still get the same amount of tension if you rotate you hips less in tandem with the shorter shoulder turn. The consequence will be you can deliver a similar amout of power but in a shorter compact swing. The more compact swing means you will have less problems with coordination, timing, balance, coming out of your posture etc. but also it's easier to maintain your acceleration through the ball on irons.

Further slowing how hard you swing on the downswing will only lead you not accelerating through the ball consistently. I'd stick with shorting everything on the back swing (keeping a good rhythm) and the then swinging as hard (while maintaining you balance and posture) as you normally do on the downswing (on the course I swing about 80% of what I can) with a good solid follow though.

I'd look at some of the shawn clements video's on You Tube as well. Some very good instruction in them.

[thebigfella]

Know what your saying AZ but being cack-handed and a serial-slicer i had to try something.
My swing would be very long but fast, shaft would be near touching my neck on the backswing, so at the minute im trying to shorten it but not too much, just trying to be more conscious of it especially off the tee.
It did work last night in some ways and didnt take too much distance off the drives but i dont expect results right away.

what handicap do you play off, if the club is nearly touching your neck you are swinging very hard and there is loads of time to lose control of the club.

Ignore AZ he obviously has a big Mullucker of a swing, most likelly the ball goes everywhere and anywhere, I play off 15 and have a three quarter swing. Not too much can go wrong with a shorter swing and you can build it back up if you wish.

Agreed, have a look at McIlroy at the top of his backswing, he's no where near his neck. Plenty of videos on you tube.

[laoislad]

Know what your saying AZ but being cack-handed and a serial-slicer i had to try something.
My swing would be very long but fast, shaft would be near touching my neck on the backswing, so at the minute im trying to shorten it but not too much, just trying to be more conscious of it especially off the tee.
It did work last night in some ways and didnt take too much distance off the drives but i dont expect results right away.

Glad I'm not the only one! I've yet to meet anyone else who uses the 'hurley' grip.
Oh and I'm also a serial slicer.
I also find slowing down and only taking a 3/4 swing really helps sort the slice,and without too much loss of distance.

[whitegoodman]

IMO shortening the swing is def the way to go, less chance of something going wrong on the downswing and more control.

The top of the backswing should be pointing at the target, if its heading towards ur kneck then obviously it is aiming right of target whilst the rest of ur body is aiming at the target.   The ball could do nothing but slice if that is the case.

Sort out ur grip too, who in this day in age apart from you 2 boyos go with left hand below right?!?

[laoislad]

Sort out ur grip too, who in this day in age apart from you 2 boyos go with left hand below right?!?

http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=131936&catid=2

http://www.ruthlessgolf.com/2011/03/how-to-copy-josh-broadaway-if-you-dare.html

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g78z9u_4yMg&feature=related

[AZOffaly]

Lads, as Puck said earlier on, the reason for a slice is not where your club is on the backswing, it is where the clubhead is when you are striking the ball. If the clubhead is not square, or if you are 'cutting' across the ball, then you will slice.

So there are loads of different approaches to swings, takeaways, length etc, and probably none are wrong, but if you are not squaring up and hitting through the ball, then you will slice.

A short swing may well help to minimise the problem, in that it gives you less time to screw with the trajectory, but it's not a cure.

Look at the likes of Furyk. He doesn't slice too many, and his swing is cat, but the clubhead is square when he hits the ball. That's it.

Also, re 'shortening the swing', I suppose it depends on what you mean by short. I would consider hitting your neck on the back swing an overswing, but if you are not getting the club head around at least over your head, then you are depending on an artificial hip turn and drive through the ball for power. Basically you risk your hips getting ahead of the hand, which is also a recipe for slicing as your body opens up. (Causing the clubhead to be ... you get the idea).

Having said all that, I'm no scratch golfer, and while I like a slow wide back swing and a seamless transition into the foreswing, that's just the rythm I like when I'm playing decent. And I fixed a slice (mostly) with the same backswing and timing I always had.

I suppose the key thing is if it feels comfortable, and is producing decent results, then there's probably no 'right' answer, otherwise all good golfers would have the same swing.

[Brick Tamlin]

Jesus, thats wealth of information to be takin in folks, but appreciated all the same.
Whitegoodman, f**k away aff, cack-handed golfers are not as rare as ye think, good man laoislad.
i would be a high handicapper, been playing for years, as a sociable golfer, never intended to compete and never bothered getting my handicap, but this year i have, and at the minute im a 23/24 handicap but know i could get it down to sub 20 with a bit more work.
Some days id be brutal and others nowehre near as bad. I just want to bring some consistency to my game across all clubs in the bag and all range of shots. And the area im trying to start with is the tee-box and my swing in general. Ive been playing cack-handed since i was 16 and there is no way il be changing it now, couldnt if i tried.
Il take your advice (all of ye) and put it in to practice at the weekend and hopefully il see some improvements.

[laoislad]

Oh what I also find helps if I am slicing badly off the tee with my driver,which actually is the only place I do slice as I never slice using my irons, then I will ditch the driver and use a long hybrid club off the deck for teeing off.
Yes the distance suffers but and least I'm in my own fairway rather than the fairway 6 holes over!

[bigfrank]

Golf really is a crazy game But i love it and recently joined a club for my first time after playin on and off for few years...got a 22 handicap so hope to work on cuttin that asap...i play ok for someone so high i guess altho i struggle with 8/9 irons and the full sand/lob wedge..any advice would be welcome or tell me to wind my neck in if this thread is for drivin only

I tend to duff or top the ball when tryin to hit those full irons into the green...i drive with a 5 wood and it works well for me...love the chipping and stuff around the green..i use a 9 iron most of the time and feel confident of gettin up and down most times which stands to me i guess...

[Orior]

Orior's summer golf.

Tuesday 14th - club summer pairs second round. Postponed, due to arrangement mix-up
Friday 17h - work outing to Carnlea. Arrive at golf club and pro closes course as greens water logged
Saturday 18th - monthly medal. Course closed. Water logged
Thursday 23rd - rearranged summer pairs. Three holes played and we walked in, greens water logged.

Heck, we should play all the competitions in the winter 

[stew]

six inches before striking the ball get your hands through the ball, in short pronate.

Is your head still at impact, if you tend to pull yourself to the left you will hit it right.

You might have lazy hips, try getting your hips around a wee bit quicker.

Do these things and one way or another you will be able t hit a ball straight, i used to have the sae problem but no more, all I did was get my hips through the ball, got the wrists active and attacked the ball and above all else, kept the head still no matter what, I added 30 yards to the drives and the aul handicap is the lowest it's ever been.

[Bud Wiser]

Try and get a copy of the DVD "Happy Gilmore" and if you can copy exactly his approach and swing you will land it 500 yards away.

[Puckoon]

Golf really is a crazy game But i love it and recently joined a club for my first time after playin on and off for few years...got a 22 handicap so hope to work on cuttin that asap...i play ok for someone so high i guess altho i struggle with 8/9 irons and the full sand/lob wedge..any advice would be welcome or tell me to wind my neck in if this thread is for drivin only

I tend to duff or top the ball when tryin to hit those full irons into the green...i drive with a 5 wood and it works well for me...love the chipping and stuff around the green..i use a 9 iron most of the time and feel confident of gettin up and down most times which stands to me i guess...

If you are topping or duffing those irons (should be the easiest to hit) then you are more than likely lifting your head - or not setting up correctly in your stance. The higher the number of the iron - the further back you should have it in your stance - for example my picthing wedge is right in the middle of my stance and my 5 iron is just inside my left heel (I am right handed). 7-9 irons should be bang on every time. I sometimes struggle with the higher lob wedges because I am worried about thinning it - and then I swing poorly and.... I thin it.