Pete Styles – PGA Teaching Pro

Now we all know that golf is a target related game, we’ve got a target out here that we’ve go to aim for. And there’s no club to aim more important than your driver. It might seem that well, with a driver I’ve got a bigger target to aim for; I’ve got the whole fairway to aim for. But actually because of the distance you’re hitting it and the amount of curvature that a badly aimed driver could place on a ball aiming your driver is a fundamental part being able to hit that fairway. And I often say to golfers, “So where’s your target?” “Down there somewhere.” “Yeah, but where?” “Well, the fairway.” “But which bit of the fairway?” “Well, that side or that side.” Basically they don’t know. They’re just aiming somewhere out there.

And that’s a bit of a problem because if they don’t aim in any specific point they have nowhere to focus on. It also might mean that they’re not widening their margin of error enough as well. So, it’s very specifically that when you aim your driver you should pick a really finite point. So, I would stand behind my drive, look down the fairway here and I might pick a single tree in the background, I might even just pick one stripe of grass on the fairway. And if I can aim for that one particular stripe, I’m not suggesting you’ll hit it every time but you’ll get pretty close. See when I line up now, I point my driver exactly what – at that stripe exactly where I want the ball to go. I line my feet up exactly at that stripe. I focus on that stripe and make my swing and hit it exactly down the stripe. And I think that’s a great way of making sure you zero on quite a small target in order to then hit the big target rather than aiming at the big target and missing the big target.

Another consideration is where you’re aiming for is not always the dead centre of the fairway. If you’ve got a dog leg or an approach shot to a green it might be going over water, over trees, the middle of the fairway might not be the best place to aim. You might be better training left or right to widen the shot into the green. You also might consider how the contours or slope of the fairway are working. If everything’s tilted in one particular direction you’re actually better off aiming your drive down the side to then follow the curve in. Sort of the idea of a ball rolling on a curve is something we consider when we’re putting, when we putt, we aim for breaking a curve to the whole. Very few people actually aim for that when they’re hitting the tee shots then they’re surprised to walk down there, see the slope on the fairway and realize the ball’s in the rough.

So, all these little ideas need to go through your mind as you’re lining up. Pick a definite target aim straight to that, work out where your shot needs to be played from to get into the green for your next approach shot and work out how the slope of the fairway is going to affect the role or the break if your tee shot when it lands on the fairway then take that aim with confidence and hit the best tee shot you can.