Control the Shape of your Drives and Hit More Fairways

Wouldn’t you like to hit more fairways with your driver? We all practice hitting straight shots with our driver as that is what we hope to do on the golf course. Unfortunately a lot of our practice shots go left or right or even hooked or sliced. Even the pros have problems hitting fairways from the tee box.

If you are ever going to be successful in hitting more fairways you will have to learn the setup and swing that creates your draw or your fade. Practice those shots so that you can plan to hit them on the course. When you build confidence in those shots, you can setup for a left or right fairway shot to allow your ball to move back to your target point near the middle of the fairway.

Bubba Watson was able to create tremendous distance with his excessive draw and fade shots but his game has gone downhill because he was missing too many fairways and greens in regulation.

In an SI Golf blog, Dethier asks Mickelson what the difference is between hitting a straight ball compared to a draw or a fade. Mickelson said “It’s a feel thing. If I’m hitting a draw, I’ll let [my arm] release over. If I’m hitting a fade, I’ll get a little wider and try to hit the outside part of the ball; which slows down the release of the club. When hitting a straight shot, I’m just feeling the club go back to square.”

Translation: Phil may be able to feel his draw or fade but you need to setup to swing to impact the inside back quarter of the ball for a draw and the outside back quarter of the ball for a fade. Setting up with a slightly closed face will add to your draw and setting up with a slightly open face will add to your fade.

Golf Digest used this image to illustrate Phil’s straight line setup with no bent elbow

He also highlighted “You won’t find a good ball-striker who doesn’t setup with a straight-line arm and club. You can return to that position (at a high speed), and feel yourself going back to square. If you start with your lead arm bent, there’s looseness. If you start there, you can’t go back to a certain point in the backswing, stop, and go forward. But if you start in a straight line, you can take it back and you’re in a position to go forward with your downswing. All good golfers will start with their lead arm straight. So I’ll start with a straight line going back, and then I’ll feel it cast back to a straight line [coming down] to impact.”

Translation: Setup without bending your lead elbow and point your club straight out on the same plane. GOLFSTR+ is a great training aid to remind you to keep your elbow straight throughout your back swing. Buy one today at www.GOLFSTR.com