How to Hit Your Driver Dead Straight

March 24, 2021

No matter what your current level of golf, it’s likely that you want to know how to swing your driver so that you hit your drives straighter more frequently.

Hitting long, straight drives that land in the middle of the fairway and set up a perfect second shot can be difficult to achieve on a consistent basis.

But in this post, we’ll tell you how to hit your driver dead straight more often to give you complete confidence when you step up to the tee.

We’ll look at the optimal driver takeaway and backswing, as well as the ideal driver swing path/plane to hit more straight shots off the tee.

A connected takeaway

Your success with the driver can be dictated by the earliest parts of your swing.

A common fault is a ‘disconnected takeaway’, where your arms disconnect from your torso at the start of the backswing.

This can lead to a whole host of issues that will have you playing nowhere near your potential.

What you want in your takeaway is to feel:

• – the handle of the golf club staying lower in your backswing
• – like your arms are pinned to your body until you get the club to waist height and parallel to the ground.

Then from there, take the club into an upright position so that the shaft is pointing at your target line.

That will mean your backswing is on plane and your drive is more likely to go straight.

Fix your early extension

Early extension is another issue we see in golfers of all levels causing them to struggle to hit their driver straight.

It’s caused when your lower body moves forward towards the golf ball during your downswing, leading to your torso raising up and your club getting stuck behind your body.

None of which is going to lead to perfect ball contact.

However, there’s a really simple drill to help fix this common swing fault.

Put your golf club across the shoulders, putting the grip end on the lead shoulder.

Start your backswing and imagine you’re going to hit the ball on the downswing with the club, maintaining your posture all the way through your swing.

If you were to early extend in this drill and have your hips, torso and head thrust up, the club head would raise up and make it impossible to get to the golf ball.

Even just doing this drill ten times in a row will help you develop a really different feeling in your downswing and have your muscles working differently to normal.

This will create a feeling of what your body should be doing to help you achieve a better swing path and generate more rotation through the ball from the hips and pelvis.

Flatten your through-swing

The final key aspect of hitting straight drives and making sure your swing is on the optimal path throughout your whole swing.

Some amateurs have a high – nearly vertical – finish to their swing, which suggests they’re swinging too far below the plane and can lead to hooks off the tee.

A great, and really simple, drill to help you swing on plane is the headcover drill.

Simply place a head cover on the ground inside your golf ball and behind it, so it’s inside your target line. If you swing below the plane on your downswing, there’s a really good chance that you’re going to hit the headcover.

So, your job is to avoid it.

Combine all of these elements when practising and we’re confident you’ll be consistently hitting your driver dead straight in no time.

Watch the video below: