Longer Drives with Club Head Upswing Strike, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Longer Drives with Club Head Upswing Strike, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

So here, we're going to investigate how with the driver you should be hitting the golf ball on the way up to try and get maximum distance down the fairway. So, pitching wedge and driver. In my address positions here, you can see I would have a wedge more to the center of my stance and a driver much more to the left side of my stance. So, wedge goes in the middle. That would encourage me to be able to hit down to the golf ball, striking down, creating loads of backspin to pop the ball up into the air. But a slightly different approach when we're taking a driver.

We're going to play the ball off the left instep for the right-handed golfer, a nice, wide stance. Now, settle 60% body weight into your right leg, different from a wedge where you might even go to your left side when you're hitting a wedge. Here, we're into the right side about 60%, ball nicely forwards into a wide stance inline with my left instep. A nice grip on the club is normal. And then feel how I'm actually sitting a little bit more behind the ball with a spine angle that's tilted away slightly. This all helps so that as I hit the golf ball, I approach the bottom of the arch here and then the club rises up as it hits the golf ball. So you're not going to take a divot with your driver but you're going to bottom the club out before the ball slightly off the ground and then up into the ball. So make sure the tee peg's nice and high.

As a general rule, if you can have about half the ball sitting above the top of the golf club, round about this sort of level, that would help you hit the ball on the way up. Too low a tee peg, you won't be able to get underneath it; too high tee peg, there's a risk you'll actually sky the ball and hit the top of the driver, resulting in those shots that go straight up into the air. So, about half a ball above the top of the golf club setup, nice, high tee peg, nicely up to the front side, 60% onto the right leg, and try and strike your drives on the way up to get maximum distance and maximum carry.

2012-03-16

So here, we're going to investigate how with the driver you should be hitting the golf ball on the way up to try and get maximum distance down the fairway. So, pitching wedge and driver. In my address positions here, you can see I would have a wedge more to the center of my stance and a driver much more to the left side of my stance. So, wedge goes in the middle. That would encourage me to be able to hit down to the golf ball, striking down, creating loads of backspin to pop the ball up into the air. But a slightly different approach when we're taking a driver.

We're going to play the ball off the left instep for the right-handed golfer, a nice, wide stance. Now, settle 60% body weight into your right leg, different from a wedge where you might even go to your left side when you're hitting a wedge. Here, we're into the right side about 60%, ball nicely forwards into a wide stance inline with my left instep. A nice grip on the club is normal. And then feel how I'm actually sitting a little bit more behind the ball with a spine angle that's tilted away slightly. This all helps so that as I hit the golf ball, I approach the bottom of the arch here and then the club rises up as it hits the golf ball. So you're not going to take a divot with your driver but you're going to bottom the club out before the ball slightly off the ground and then up into the ball. So make sure the tee peg's nice and high.

As a general rule, if you can have about half the ball sitting above the top of the golf club, round about this sort of level, that would help you hit the ball on the way up. Too low a tee peg, you won't be able to get underneath it; too high tee peg, there's a risk you'll actually sky the ball and hit the top of the driver, resulting in those shots that go straight up into the air. So, about half a ball above the top of the golf club setup, nice, high tee peg, nicely up to the front side, 60% onto the right leg, and try and strike your drives on the way up to get maximum distance and maximum carry.