- Tee the ball high. It is amazing how many amateur golfers miss on this very first point. With today’s modern drivers, you need to tee the ball up rather high off the ground in order to give the club head enough room to swing through freely. Most likely, you will need to carry a few long tees in your bag for just this purpose. Using a short tee, which comes in under 3’’, probably won’t get the job done (assuming you have a 460cc driver head). When teeing the ball up, try to position the ball such that the top line of the driver is lined up with the middle of the golf ball at address. To some golfers, this is a scary proposition – they think that the club is going to swing right under the ball. Don’t worry about that. You are trying to hit up slightly on your driver, which means you need to have some room between the ground and the ball to make that upward swing. Tee the ball up so that half of the ball is above the top of the driver at address and trust that you are on the right track.
- Play the ball forward in your stance. Once you have the ball teed up at the right height, the next step is to align yourself in a position that places the golf ball near your left foot. Specifically, you should line the ball up with the inside of your left foot. That means the ball is well forward of center in the stance, and you will be able to attack it with an upward swing path (as long as your swing mechanics are in place). If you were to place the ball too far back in your stance, you’d hit down at address and you might wind up with the club swinging under the ball in the end. It is the combination of teeing the ball high and playing it forward in your stance which will allow you to achieve the kind of strike you need.
- Avoid the slide. Hitting on the two previous points is going to take you most of the way toward an excellent launch angle on your tee shots. However, things can still go wrong if you slide laterally during the swing. More specifically, you can get into trouble if you let your body slide to the left on the way down. The downswing should be about rotational movement, not a lateral slide. Start the downswing by opening your hips to the target, and then continue on with that rotation until the ball is on its way. If you slide left, you are going to alter the path of your swing, and you may wind up hitting down on the ball as a result.
When hitting your driver from the tee, you have the distinct advantage of being able to place the ball up on a tee before playing the shot. This makes tee shots significantly easier than shots played from the fairway. However, you have to use this advantage properly in order for it to help you hole after hole. Countless golfers get off track on this point – making a seemingly small mistake which winds up having a big impact on the trajectory they create, and the distance they cover.
So how can you go about creating a quality launch angle for your drives? Please review the points below.
Optimizing your launch angle is going to go a long way toward helping you add yards and bring your drives up off the ground. Even without adding swing speed, you should be able to pick up at least a few yards just by launching the ball on a good trajectory.
