Play the "right" way—or ditch the driver?

[rembo]

The right way is whatever keeps the ball in play!! So ditch the driver until you find one that works. I personally took an inch off my driver shaft playing 44” and consistently in fairway or first cut and went from high 90s low hundreds to consistently playing 83-88 all season. If 3w keeps you in play you will be playing the “right way”!!

[vagabon68]

Well I’m there with you on this I’m a 20 handicap and at least 8 comes from my driver if I’m not teeing up with a three then something is wrong lol. Some day I will grow up and put my driver up.  

[Micah T]

@GolfSpy MPR if I was longer and more accurate with my 3 wood, I wouldn’t even carry a driver! I’ve come to accept that my length with the driver, comes with at the expense of my accuracy. I’m 10% more accurate with a 3 wood, but 25 yards shorter. You? You’re LONGER AND MORE ACCURATE with your 3 wood. Save the driver for the off-season and the driving range. Late summer/fall golf is about translating the lessons you’ve learned about your game into lower  scores.

[DannyDips]

I struggled with the driver for years, literally years until I did two things:

Get custom fit for a driver and take lessons from a very knowledgeable pro. Afterwards, I realized that the driver is the biggest club in the bag and if you have the proper room to hit the best weapon you can have for distance. 

I also realized that shorter clubs dispersion almost always mirrors your drivers. So you’re not gaining anything unless you have significantly narrower fairways. There is nothing more frustrating than clubbing down and blowing the 3w into the same OB or hazard your driver would have gone in.  

I’ve done a little research on decade golf and Scott Fawcett. Really good course management stuff and I believe his rule of thumb is driver every hole that you have 65 yards between hazards. Seems like solid advice to me. 

[Willie T]

On 8/18/2021 at 1:39 PM, BMart519 said:

240-250 average off the tee would get you around a HCP of 0 according to Shot Scope data, seems like a reasonable compromise until you figure out driver. Honestly, anything 220+ and straight will allow you to play good golf on a course up to 6300-6500 yards. 

On the flip side, you only hit 1 drive past 250 and it wasn't even in a position to play to the green and you averaged around 220 ignoring the skyball. So I wouldn't focus on giving up 15-25 because it wasn't there this round or with your current swing.

If you are on the tee box concerned about where driver is going, it's not going to end well very often. You need to commit and let it fly or shelf it. I was in a similar position and then saw that I had 2x the number of penalties off the tee with my 2H than driver from "playing safe". 

The last paragraph is what I have been doing - being certain of where I am planning for the ball to go.  I pick the smallest target point in the distance, when on the tee, and plan the shot path from there.  Quietly confident in where the shot is going, knowing I am not going to land in the bird box 600yds away, but will be somewhere along the line of flight I envision.  Once read “see it, feel it, trust it” and it has been a life changer.  Work on the driver on the range, picking specific targets for each drive….then after each shot take a moment to assess what went right, what did not.  Also powder foot spray on the driver face will give great feedback as you begin to correlate the shot observed with the impact seen.  Of course a Trackman or related device will give you all that and much more.

[675Terry]

I struggle with this to the point I will just replace the driver with my trusty Titleist 2 iron once in a while but it only goes 250 and puts a lot of stress on the rest of my game on long par 4s and makes par 5s more stressful. 

More often than not I just manage it by using the driver on the long and wide landing area holes and pull out a rescue on the tighter ones.

Good days and bad days, just try to see where I am at and adjust accordingly. It also depends on the course and tees. Short course less need for a driver.

[3GZ4ME]

On 9/2/2021 at 1:06 PM, 675Terry said:

I struggle with this to the point I will just replace the driver with my trusty Titleist 2 iron once in a while but it only goes 250 and puts a lot of stress on the rest of my game on long par 4s and makes par 5s more stressful. 

How long are the courses you are playing where 250 off the tee is putting stress on the rest of the game? Of course you have to be able to smash driver to play 7,000+ yds. but that is beyond obvious.