You're Correct!

The definition of consistency is that of performing the same action over and over again. As golfers we spend the most of our time at the driving range and during lessons tweaking our golf swings with the goal being to hit the same shot again and again to the same place at the same distance.

Effectively we are training ourselves to be machines which is exactly why we have so many golf clubs in our golf bags. The only reason for the many golf clubs we carry is that of hitting the golf ball different distances. As an example, because of the variation in length and loft of the golf clubs, for the same swing motion and body speed, a golf ball hit with a pitching wedge will travel a different distance than one hit with a 4 iron. This is no different with a driver.

The swing with a driver should be as identical as possible to a swing with an iron with only one difference – set up.

The driver club is longer, lighter, less lofted and bigger headed purely to make the ball travel further than any other club. Because of these factors the set up needs to be slightly different. With the club being longer the golfer must stand further away from the ball and because the driver is less lofted the ball will be teed up and positioned opposite the front foot in the stance. Other than this the club should be swung as normal.

To help you swing the driver with control and train one swing for all clubs, follow this drill on the driving range.

1. Take two clubs - driver and pitching wedge.
2. Hit 5 balls with the pitching wedge and focus on the rhythm and effort you put into the swing.
3. Swap and hit 5 balls with the driver. Focus on swinging with the same level of effort and rhythm as the pitching wedge.
4. Repeat
5. Repeat
6. Repeat!

It will feel at first like you are hitting the driver less distance than normal but as the drill continues you will find that distance increases as timing improves and the consistency of your driving will become better and better.

Swing the driver like the pitching wedge and lower your scores.

Swinging longer with the driver will produce more inconsistency and more mis-hit shots. Remember the club produces the distance and not the swing.

You may not believe this but you will swing the same with both clubs but the difference of loft and length between both clubs produces different results.

The set up produces the difference between down and up. As iron clubs are shorter than a driver the golfers posture and ball position change at set up producing a steeper swing arc that creates a downward hit with an iron but a sweeping upward hit with a driver even though the swing remains the same.