When and How to Hit Driver from the Fairway - Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
When and How to Hit Driver from the Fairway - Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

So here's a real good shot to impress your mates. We're going to hit driver, but we're going to hit off the deck. We're not going to use a tee-peg, we're going to hit it straight from the floor. This is a kind of once-in-a-blue-moon shot. The conditions very rarely come right for this shot. But when it comes right, if you can hit it well, it can be a real good saver for you around the golf course, giving you some extra distance, maybe even a chance of setting up a birdie, and also impressing your mates.

The first thing to consider is we have to have ourselves on a good lie. If the ball is sitting up nicely on a bit of a fluffy turf, then the driver might be worth taking. If there's nothing in the way that will slow down because this ball won't go high, if there's nothing in the way that will slow down and you think you can get the ball up in the air and then scuttling towards the green, then it's worth taking the driver. If the 3-wood and the hybrid club simply won't give you enough distance, it might be worth taking the driver.

If you don't want to draw the golf ball and cutting the golf ball is suitable, then again you could take your driver. Drawing the golf ball often tight lie like this is almost impossible to do, very, very difficult to do, so you’d almost expect the ball to go from left to right, which is fine.

Also, you need to consider are you a good driver of the golf ball in the first place. If you're not a good driver of the golf ball, playing it straight from the turf is a very, very difficult skill. So, let's make sure you've got all those things working in our favor, we're confident about taking this shot on, we need to take the shot on, the lie is good, and there's no danger out there to worry about.

Then as we set up the golf ball, we're going to play the ball just a fraction further back than it would be if you're playing it from a tee-peg. You take your normal setup and you try and sweep this golf ball up. We can't really sort of dig the club down into a divot, we definitely don't want to hit the ball fat, but likewise, we can't hit the top of the golf ball. We must stay really focused there, and try and play this ball nice and cleanly like a 3-wood.

So here it goes, let's see what we get here. We're expecting the ball to come out low with a little bit of cut shape on it. And up's come out like a rocket. It's going about 10-foot high all the way, just taking the contours of the field out here, little bit of cut just 2 yards. That ball would fly about 220, which isn't as far as my normal driver off the tee, but you have a lot of roll on it. And that ball would certainly go a lot further than my normal 3-wood would.

So in that situation, that was a real beneficial shot for me to take on. It has a risk, but sometimes the risks are worth taking.

2012-08-08

So here's a real good shot to impress your mates. We're going to hit driver, but we're going to hit off the deck. We're not going to use a tee-peg, we're going to hit it straight from the floor. This is a kind of once-in-a-blue-moon shot. The conditions very rarely come right for this shot. But when it comes right, if you can hit it well, it can be a real good saver for you around the golf course, giving you some extra distance, maybe even a chance of setting up a birdie, and also impressing your mates.

The first thing to consider is we have to have ourselves on a good lie. If the ball is sitting up nicely on a bit of a fluffy turf, then the driver might be worth taking. If there's nothing in the way that will slow down because this ball won't go high, if there's nothing in the way that will slow down and you think you can get the ball up in the air and then scuttling towards the green, then it's worth taking the driver. If the 3-wood and the hybrid club simply won't give you enough distance, it might be worth taking the driver.

If you don't want to draw the golf ball and cutting the golf ball is suitable, then again you could take your driver. Drawing the golf ball often tight lie like this is almost impossible to do, very, very difficult to do, so you’d almost expect the ball to go from left to right, which is fine.

Also, you need to consider are you a good driver of the golf ball in the first place. If you're not a good driver of the golf ball, playing it straight from the turf is a very, very difficult skill. So, let's make sure you've got all those things working in our favor, we're confident about taking this shot on, we need to take the shot on, the lie is good, and there's no danger out there to worry about.

Then as we set up the golf ball, we're going to play the ball just a fraction further back than it would be if you're playing it from a tee-peg. You take your normal setup and you try and sweep this golf ball up. We can't really sort of dig the club down into a divot, we definitely don't want to hit the ball fat, but likewise, we can't hit the top of the golf ball. We must stay really focused there, and try and play this ball nice and cleanly like a 3-wood.

So here it goes, let's see what we get here. We're expecting the ball to come out low with a little bit of cut shape on it. And up's come out like a rocket. It's going about 10-foot high all the way, just taking the contours of the field out here, little bit of cut just 2 yards. That ball would fly about 220, which isn't as far as my normal driver off the tee, but you have a lot of roll on it. And that ball would certainly go a lot further than my normal 3-wood would.

So in that situation, that was a real beneficial shot for me to take on. It has a risk, but sometimes the risks are worth taking.