Driving - Lesson by PGA Pros Pete Styles & Matt Fryer
Driving - Lesson by PGA Pros Pete Styles & Matt Fryer

Most golfers would love to hit the ball further and straighter and in this video tip PGA golf professionals Pete Styles and Matt Fryer will help golfers discover how they can unlock their potential and hit straighter golf shots. Initially, we will investigate how a better ball position and improved posture creates more consistency, followed by a low and slow takeaway that creates a wide backswing. This coupled with a balanced follow-through should improve the consistency of the golf shot with the driver.

1. So one of the best shots we can hit is a long straight drive would you agree Pete. Absolutely it gives you the satisfaction that brings you back week after week hitting those straight drives. It's probably one of the things that we don't do most commonly because it is a tough shot to master. So if we're able to understand how the shot occurs hopefully we'll be able to repeat and I think if you could give us a few points as to how you go about building that shot. I think we're going to be able to deliver it more often. I think you got to point about it Matt being quite a difficult shot we've got the longest club in the bag and we've got the least loft in the bag. An admittedly it's quite a big head and it's teed up for the lack of loft the length of the golf club means that actually getting the club to deliver to the ball at the right path and the right face is difficult and any difference between the path which is the direction the club is traveling and the face angle which is the direction the club is aiming any differently those two points will start to put curving spin on the ball and then we get those dreaded slice ones those hooking ones lack of accuracy lack of distance. Exactly so as a starting point where would you go to to figure out how to get some straight shots? So I think it's got to come from alignment to start with I think as I set up the golf ball. It's really important that I aim straight and I can get a key thing that I see with a lot of club golfers, amateur golfers people that we teach is that they don't aim straight because they don't hit straight they have a lack of accuracy so they almost compensate. Classic example would be a guy that slices the golf ball starts aiming way down the left hand side which actually accentuates and encourages the chopping across. Saying to him look you know you you're going to promote more of a path that is going to be away from the target like it makes the swing come across it makes the spin happen more and the slice gets worse.

So once I've got myself set up square to target neutral to target. Aiming where I want to hit the golf ball I've got a much better opportunity to swing down that target line towards my my aiming point towards my fairway if you like. A good thing I'd also like to see is out promotes a very small ball position and a super wide platform I'm going to try and get this ball hard so I want a platform a balance position where I'm not too narrow and falling over during my swing. OK so you've got some good subtle point that if we were going to contact this ball is there a strike location it's going to optimize the straightness of our shot. Even with the most forgiving golf clubs that we all buy now 460 C.C.'s go down the middle nice and consistently we still have a sweet spot that's slightly above the center but largely in the middle of the club. You can't go too far wrong so what I would suggest is you keep it all nice and clean when you hit shots you know just the strike location and the nearer to the middle that strike is the better you're going to hit it. Excellent even other stuff like the foot spray that you can get now a days or pinpoint the location give it a little dusting on the face is really going to help you see where your striking that golf ball. I think an athlete talcum powder spray or even just a piece of sticky tape on the face if you if you hit one consistent position it might be something you can do in your setup like if I'm hitting the toe every time I move nearer to hitting the heel every time I mean to be further away but often we see with golfers what a very inconsistent top bottom toe heel for different shots for different results there I would look at balance yes I would address the ball and feel like. I'm comfortable toes and heels nicely balanced but also during my swing I'm not going to fall backwards or forwards down and particularly the follow through position I want to hold my balance to a nice good finish. Excellent so let's see if we've got a good club and path relationship a good face and path relationship we've got a nice strike location at the center and a good balance and if you just hold your finish for me Pete as well once you've hit this one it's worth noting that as well that with my driver my temptation is to get really long and aggressive and move too far off the ball but I think I'm a focus on accuracy and straightness and actually going to swing a bit shorter. So controlling my length of swing control my length of follow through and holding that finished position. Definitely yeah as we see you nicely posted over that left side now and it looks like you could stand there all day. Yeah hopefully I'm comfortable in that finish position watching the ball land and the fairway much should give me more accuracy my swings. Excellent so some fantastic bits that you can incorporate into your driving swing as hopefully it's going to help you hit these longer and straighter golf shots.

2018-11-13

Most golfers would love to hit the ball further and straighter and in this video tip PGA golf professionals Pete Styles and Matt Fryer will help golfers discover how they can unlock their potential and hit straighter golf shots. Initially, we will investigate how a better ball position and improved posture creates more consistency, followed by a low and slow takeaway that creates a wide backswing. This coupled with a balanced follow-through should improve the consistency of the golf shot with the driver.

1. So one of the best shots we can hit is a long straight drive would you agree Pete. Absolutely it gives you the satisfaction that brings you back week after week hitting those straight drives. It's probably one of the things that we don't do most commonly because it is a tough shot to master. So if we're able to understand how the shot occurs hopefully we'll be able to repeat and I think if you could give us a few points as to how you go about building that shot. I think we're going to be able to deliver it more often. I think you got to point about it Matt being quite a difficult shot we've got the longest club in the bag and we've got the least loft in the bag. An admittedly it's quite a big head and it's teed up for the lack of loft the length of the golf club means that actually getting the club to deliver to the ball at the right path and the right face is difficult and any difference between the path which is the direction the club is traveling and the face angle which is the direction the club is aiming any differently those two points will start to put curving spin on the ball and then we get those dreaded slice ones those hooking ones lack of accuracy lack of distance. Exactly so as a starting point where would you go to to figure out how to get some straight shots? So I think it's got to come from alignment to start with I think as I set up the golf ball. It's really important that I aim straight and I can get a key thing that I see with a lot of club golfers, amateur golfers people that we teach is that they don't aim straight because they don't hit straight they have a lack of accuracy so they almost compensate. Classic example would be a guy that slices the golf ball starts aiming way down the left hand side which actually accentuates and encourages the chopping across. Saying to him look you know you you're going to promote more of a path that is going to be away from the target like it makes the swing come across it makes the spin happen more and the slice gets worse.

So once I've got myself set up square to target neutral to target. Aiming where I want to hit the golf ball I've got a much better opportunity to swing down that target line towards my my aiming point towards my fairway if you like. A good thing I'd also like to see is out promotes a very small ball position and a super wide platform I'm going to try and get this ball hard so I want a platform a balance position where I'm not too narrow and falling over during my swing. OK so you've got some good subtle point that if we were going to contact this ball is there a strike location it's going to optimize the straightness of our shot. Even with the most forgiving golf clubs that we all buy now 460 C.C.'s go down the middle nice and consistently we still have a sweet spot that's slightly above the center but largely in the middle of the club. You can't go too far wrong so what I would suggest is you keep it all nice and clean when you hit shots you know just the strike location and the nearer to the middle that strike is the better you're going to hit it. Excellent even other stuff like the foot spray that you can get now a days or pinpoint the location give it a little dusting on the face is really going to help you see where your striking that golf ball. I think an athlete talcum powder spray or even just a piece of sticky tape on the face if you if you hit one consistent position it might be something you can do in your setup like if I'm hitting the toe every time I move nearer to hitting the heel every time I mean to be further away but often we see with golfers what a very inconsistent top bottom toe heel for different shots for different results there I would look at balance yes I would address the ball and feel like. I'm comfortable toes and heels nicely balanced but also during my swing I'm not going to fall backwards or forwards down and particularly the follow through position I want to hold my balance to a nice good finish. Excellent so let's see if we've got a good club and path relationship a good face and path relationship we've got a nice strike location at the center and a good balance and if you just hold your finish for me Pete as well once you've hit this one it's worth noting that as well that with my driver my temptation is to get really long and aggressive and move too far off the ball but I think I'm a focus on accuracy and straightness and actually going to swing a bit shorter. So controlling my length of swing control my length of follow through and holding that finished position. Definitely yeah as we see you nicely posted over that left side now and it looks like you could stand there all day. Yeah hopefully I'm comfortable in that finish position watching the ball land and the fairway much should give me more accuracy my swings. Excellent so some fantastic bits that you can incorporate into your driving swing as hopefully it's going to help you hit these longer and straighter golf shots.