Driving tips 28 Sep 2026 9 min read

Why Does Your Driver Start Left and Keep Going Left?

If your driver starts left and stays there, don’t assume you need a new downswing move straight away. Check where your body is aimed, where the club is travelling and what the ball actually does. In Brady’s lesson, Andy Proudman found that Brady was aiming left while the club was dropping too far behind him. Changing his aim exposed the swing compensation; the next job was to make the delivery less extreme so he could return to a controlled draw. That sequence is a useful way to investigate your own miss, not a diagnosis of every left-going drive.

Watch the full driver lesson alongside the checkpoints below.

What does the left-start miss tell you?

Brady wanted a small, predictable draw. His problem shot did something else: it started left and kept going left. That meant he could not comfortably commit to his chosen shot shape, even though he played to a high standard. The first useful question is where the ball starts and whether it curves farther left, not which swing thought might stop it.

Start by watching a short group of drives. Pick an intended start window, then note where each ball begins and finishes. A left start and a ball that curves left are different pieces of information; the finished position alone can hide the distinction. A single poor strike also does not tell the whole story.

At the baseline, a launch monitor showed Brady’s driver path averaging about two degrees right and his attack angle about four degrees up. Those are averages, not a reading from the particular left miss. A rightward path did not rule out a left-going shot: Andy later explained that, when Brady swung much farther right, he needed to close the face more to bring the ball back. His face and start line mattered alongside the path. Andy also used Swing Coach footage to inspect how the club moved in the downswing. The two views answer different questions: measured delivery on one hand, visible movement on the other. The video showed Brady getting the club too far behind him as he approached the ball.

Check where your body is aimed

Andy put alignment guides down before prescribing a new swing. Brady’s feet and forearms were left of the intended line, and his shoulders were farther left still. That matters because Brady was trying to make a draw from a setup that encouraged him to find a route to the right of his body lines. The club dropping farther behind him and the leftward alignment were working against a simple, repeatable pattern.

You can run the same check with two sticks. Set one on the target line and another parallel to it for your body. Step back to see where your feet, forearms and shoulders point; then address the ball and have a playing partner or a down-the-line camera check again. Do not use the target-line stick where a struck ball could hit it. The goal is to know your actual alignment, not to copy a fixed aim angle from somebody else’s lesson.

Andy set Brady at least square and a little to the right for the draw he was trying to play. To Brady, that looked dramatically right. That difference between feel and reality is why the guides were worth using. Andy did not claim he knew whether the leftward aim caused the excessive shallowing or the shallowing prompted the leftward aim; he corrected the mismatch he could see.

Why did the first shots go right?

After the alignment changed, Brady did not instantly hit the finished shot. Early path readings moved to roughly five and then more than six degrees right, and the ball could start farther right. Andy expected that. With the old downswing still in place, the new aim removed one compensation before the club movement had caught up.

If your initial shots move right after a genuine alignment reset, record what changed before abandoning it. Is the body now pointing where you think it is? Where is the ball starting? Is the club still travelling too far from the inside? For Brady, that rightward result was a useful intermediate clue rather than a reason to return to his old setup.

Rehearse a less-stuck downswing

Once Brady could see the new setup, Andy addressed the club that was dropping too far behind him. He asked for slow practice swings with the feeling of the upper body covering the ball more and the club working more left through the strike. Brady also found that slowing the transition helped him avoid throwing the club behind him.

The wording matters: Andy wanted the club to travel less to the right, not to make a genuinely leftward, steep, over-the-top driver swing. An exaggerated “steeper and left” rehearsal gave Brady a feel strong enough to change his actual motion. The filmed club position could still be on plane or slightly shallow. Later, Andy also reminded him to let the club release instead of holding its angles back while he made that new motion.

Try two or three slow rehearsals before a ball. Feel the club exit less to the right, then hit one drive at a comfortable pace and compare the flight with your rehearsal. If you can film down the line, compare where the club actually sits halfway down; the feel alone can be misleading. Swing Coach is one way to review that movement, but it does not replace the start line and ball flight.

Match a playable draw to the start line

The next shots were judged by their combination of start line and curve. As Brady’s delivery came back toward a less extreme position, Andy saw drives starting in a more usable window and still drawing. Later path readings included about 1.6 and 2.4 degrees right; Andy liked a range around two to three for Brady. Those are his lesson numbers, not a universal recipe for a draw. Strike, face, aim and the shot you intend all matter.

When you practise, set a start-line window and watch whether the ball curves into the fairway or away from it. A shot that curves attractively but begins outside your playable window is not yet the finished pattern. The broader MMG lesson on how to train your start line is a useful next step if you are still deciding which driver shape to own.

Brady initially wondered whether teeing the ball lower would help him feel a different delivery. Andy ultimately preferred his normal, higher tee: he did not want Brady forcing the ball into the air or trading one compensation for another. Keep the tee and release consistent while you test alignment and path, rather than changing every variable at once. If you want measured feedback in practice, explore the Full Swing KIT and read the numbers alongside start line and strike.

Frequently asked questions

Should I aim right if my driver starts left?

Not automatically. Andy changed Brady’s aim because his body lines were left of his intended line and he wanted to play a draw. Check your own feet, forearms and shoulders first, then watch where the ball starts and curves after any adjustment. Copying Brady’s aim without that check could create a different miss.

Do I need a launch monitor to start working on this?

You can begin without one. Use alignment guides and note the start and curve of a small set of drives. Down-the-line video can help you inspect club movement; a launch monitor adds an actual club-path reading if you need it. Do not mistake a swing-plane app view for that measured path.

Keep the change when you leave the lesson

The later swing comparison showed a club that was less trapped behind Brady and a body alignment that better matched the shot he wanted. It was progress in that session, not proof that the left miss had disappeared for good. Andy’s practical instruction was to keep calibrating the body lines on the range and check what the path and ball flight do from that setup. On the course, he wanted Brady to play with a clearer picture of the shot rather than juggle a string of mechanical thoughts.

A simple practice cycle is enough: check your intended line, rehearse the less-stuck feel, hit a small set of drives, and note start, curve and strike. If the pattern drifts, return to the guides before inventing another swing fix.

For a more structured way to work on your tee shots, explore Complete Driving. If you prefer in-person coaching, see the MMG Golf Schools and learn more about The Grand Golf Club.