(golf club swings) – Hi, Adam Bazalgette here,
founder of Scratch Golf Academy, at the beautiful club at
Mediterra, Naples, Florida. Today, how to hit a driver
straight every time. (golf club swings)
(upbeat bright music) So how to hit a driver
straight every time. Well, I'll show you the
three things you have to do and we'll also get into the
order you should work on them, and some drills and
ideas to get along there. If you like the channel please subscribe. Lots of free content here at YouTube, scratchgolfacadmeny.com
is my home website, full courses there.
(golf club swings) Alright, I'm gonna guess
that was a pretty solid hit, I'll show you in a moment. Now listen, there's three
things you have to do if you're gonna hit the driver straight. Have to do them. You have to hit the ball near
the middle of the club face. If you don't do that, you're never gonna hit the
ball consistently straight. You have to have your swing going fairly straight towards to target, that swing path. And of course if the club face isn't fairly matched up to that, that's not gonna work either. Now you may say, well, hey, I was hoping for some inside trick.
You have to do those things. Issac Newton would've
backed me up with that. Now, first thing though, solid contact, it must start there. I've had a lot of experience
hitting golf balls, I'm good a guessing where
on the club I hit it. We'll see in a minute where
I hit it, I can see it now, but if you don't use something
that gives you feedback, spray chalk or something like that, you're gonna struggle a lot. And until you get consistent feedback, you won't adjust well. Here's where I hit that ball. Actually a little bit high on the face. Just a little bit, but
pretty solidly there.
Let's have a look at solid
contact from this angle. Now listen, if you're
struggling with off-center hits, if they're high on the face
and out off the toe et cetera, it's almost a sure bet that
you're coming down too steeply. I'm telling you, this club
isn't gonna tolerate that, you have to have a lot of talent, hit a lot of solid shots doing that. So remember, in the
down-swing, it is just that. The first part is more of a down-swing, down towards the ground. Not what most people do, which is swing towards the golf ball. Okay, so you practice that. You'll get a few miss-hits
initially that swing down, and only at that point does
the natural body movement begin to bring the club forward, much more along the ground
towards the golf ball.
When it's coming in like this, you'll get a lot of
solid hits, believe me. So work on that, and when you start to dial solid hit in you're ready for the next step. Okay, so the next two on our list would be swing direction or swing path and of course club face angle, relative to that swing path at
the moment of contact there. Now hopefully what we just said, if you're a slicer about the solid hit and getting the club down has helped your swing path to some extent, but still likely, if
you're in that category, you're still gonna yank the club a little left through the ball. Now take some advise from me, I've played this game for 45
years and toured it for 30, you will have a very difficult time changing your swing path. Let's say you're a slicer,
if you're slicing the ball. Because what will happen, if you start swinging more on target you will hit the ball a
lot worse, believe me. If you're swinging this way and the face is open the
ball's peeling that way and then you start swinging on target, you'll lose the ball most of the time.
So mentally it is very difficult
to make a lot of progress, 'til you're getting reasonably
straight ball flight. If by divine decree, and I doubt, in fact I bet this this
isn't gonna happen to you, you are destined to
hit every ball solidly, and in the straight direction, relative to where you swung, it probably take you 15 minutes and you'd be swinging straight for the rest of your life, I promise you. That's the goal here. So what I would recommend, again, and hopefully we got rid of
some of this swing problem, you know, with what we talked
about in solid contact, but work the club face to where, hey, at least if you're
swinging left a little bit, like I did there, that ball takes off in
a pretty straight line and doesn't curve much.
Until you can sure up that's the definition
of a square club face, no curve on the ball on a solid hit, 'til you can do that you're gonna struggle
with point number three, which is swing path. Now, this video could be two hours long if we dealt with everything, but you're gonna have to play around with your grip and your release
'til you get that straight. And of course if you're hooking the ball, it's just the opposite. You've gotta get the face
more open, more square, so you're not getting any curve that way, and at least it's flying straight. Then we can get to number
three, which we'll do now, and that swing path or swing direction.
Okay so, hits reasonably solid, let's say. We've got most of the curve off the ball. Now swing path. Let's say you're the
golfer that's going left. Almost certainly you have
too much pure rotation in your body through the ball. You need to thrust your hips
more up towards the target to get this thing to work properly, to force that club up there. Have a look at a couple of pros. So there's Adam Scott. Definitely one of the best
drivers of the ball out there. Look at his hips at the setup. Have a look at the top of the backswing. More or less right in that same box again. Setup, top of back swing. Now watch them coming down. They drive towards the target and he thrusts those hips underneath him, so that his glutes are pushed in. And this shape helps push that
club more up the target line and gives him that nice straight
swing path at the bottom. Alright, great image to me. It's pretty simple, the bucket task. Get an empty bucket, or pretend you have one in your hand.
Get your golf posture. Now let me just preface this, if you start to struggle
and muddy the water, contact's not solid,
ball starting to curve, back up and go back to section one. Get solid hits, then get the curve off, then back to here. Likely, if you're gonna
really see this thing through and make real progress, you're gonna have to
cycle through many times. Have the poise to do that. But here we go, here's the analogy. Get your bucket, anybody can do this. If this was full of something
heavy like sand or water, would you toss like that? I doubt it. You'd thrust your hips,
you'd push those glutes in. Much more energy this
way as you go through. That's the exact feeling
you're looking for to get that swing path up the target line.
Now a little word or caution here, we're not trying to extend or
thrust towards the golf ball, we're trying to extend or
thrust towards the target. That is very important there. This is called early extension in golf and it won't help you. Now listen, if you're
in the hooking category, and let's say you've got
your club face sorted out, there's no curve on the ball, but you've gotta get your
path going this way more, pretty common for low handicap golfers. You wanna do a little bit the opposite. Now it's certain you wanna
lead with your lower body, but stabilize that left foot and leg sooner in the in the down swing. Get the energy up to your
trunk and turn more from here. If you can turn from here, that club's gonna go more around you and less up that target line like that. So stabilize the leg and
turn hard with your trunk, and you'll get the path going
a little more around you. It'll really help you
get those balls on line, if you're struggling with the hook.
So hope that helps you with how to hit as driver straight every time. Work on these things, have the poise to work on them in order. You'll have some of your
own drills to mix in. I hope you make some progress, scratchgolfacademy.com is my home website. Full courses there and of
course this YouTube channel. I hope you'll subscribe. Lot's of free content there. Thanks so much..