Driving—My Strong Suit

     If I were asked to single out the part of my game that has been the most consistent through the years, I would have to say: “My driving.”  In fact, I feel that, for the most part, I have been driving the ball where I want it more often than I used to, although I have sacrificed a bit of distance in the process.  I am still not satisfied with it and continue to work to improve my technique and equipment.

            Because of the tee shot is so important to successful golf and because driving has been so strongly identified with my game, I fel a discussion of driving would be appropriate in this Handbook.

            Through the years I have put in a lot of time, effort and study on my driving, both on the practice tee and in working on my drivers in my home workshop.  I rarely leave on a golf trip without several drivers in my bag.

            I have always realized that, when you come into the hitting area, it is vital to keep the face of the club square to the intended line of flight as long as possible.  I consider this particularly important with the driver.

  Early in 1962, I made a small change that I think, more than anything else, has brought about greater consistency and accuracy in my driving and has paid dividends to me in tournaments in recent years.

            I decided to tee up the ball a little higher and play it a shade farther forward in my stance—off the inside of my left heel.  This serves several purposes.  It lengthens slightly the distance in the hitting area in which the face on my driver is square to the flight line, thereby improving my accuracy.  With that ball position, I pick it off the tee at the exact bottom of my downswing or even a bit beyond that point instead of before the swing arc finishes its downward motion, as with the old ball position.

            With that former contact point, the ball would have a rather low trajectory and, even though straight, would often roll too far and into trouble.  The new ball position gives my shots more loft and less roll.  Coupled with accuracy, it means that the ball does not bounce along into the rough or behind a tree or into a fairway bunker so often.  The new position also virtually eliminates any contact of the clubhead with the ground and prevents any possible disruption of the swing.

            To complement this change, I went to a driver design with a deeper (distance from top to bottom) face.  This insures solid contact with a ball tee about an inch off the ground.

            Other than this, I have made no technical changes in my driving game in recent years.  So let me touch on the basics of driving for you.

            I am convinced there is only one way to grip a club, any club, as I have said before.  Both hands must be locked together to work together.  The club must be held firmly enough that it will not turn in the hands, yet not squeezed so tightly that the muscles become taut and prevent an easy rhythmic swing.

            The grip has been pieced together in the Clinic section of this book, but I want to stress this point: Generally speaking, the Vs will point somewhere between the chin and the tip of the right shoulder, but you may have to experiment on the practice tee quite a bit to find the precise point at which you get your own best results.

            We have also covered stance and address, but remember this important point about the address position with the driver: The line from the ball up the shaft of the club and left are to the shoulder should be a straight one.

            The swing itself is perhaps the easiest phase of all—provided you adhere to three points I made in the Clinic: one-piece take-away, compact, controlled swing and firm head position.  Because the drive involves the longest club and therefore the biggest arc, the task of keeping the head still is most challenging on this shot.  It surely will move if you over-extend yourself in an attempt to achieve extra distance.

            I would not dispute the truth of the old golf saying: “You drive for show and putt for dough.”  A good drive is showy, but it also makes it a lot easier to get the ball to that position on the green from which you putt for the dough.