Length without accuracy, as we often say in our golf tips newsletter, does little to shave strokes from your golf handicap. Accuracy without distance also does little to shave strokes from your golf handicap. What’s needed is both distance and length. Some call it useable accuracy. Useable accuracy is hitting the fairway with sufficient distance to help you dominate a hole. Unfortunately, the mechanics for hitting it straight are often at odds with the mechanics for hitting it long.
One golf tip on hitting the ball long and straight is to have the right clubs. Few golfers get fitted for their clubs, preferring instead to buy them off the rack. There’s nothing wrong with that. Many golfers play well with off-the-rack clubs. But getting fitted clubs can help with control or distance issues because you can tailor them to your needs. For example, golfers that hit it long can build drivers that flex less down near the clubhead for more control. So if you’re striving to hit it long and straight, buying fitted clubs is an option. Below are additional golf tips that will help you on the tee.
Keep Hands Quiet
Sometimes, golfers who hit the ball long fire their hands through impact, causing their right hand to cross over the left. (With left-handers, it’s their left hand crossing over the right.) Too much hand action can prevent you from hitting it straight. When you fire your hands through impact, the clubhead ends up crashing through an imaginary wall behind the golfer’s heels long before the grip end of the club gets there. To gain more control, think about smashing the wall with the entire club simultaneously. That provides more control of your shot and a straighter ball flight.
If you have trouble keeping your hands quiet, try this drill: Hit some full wedges with a towel tucked under both arms. To keep the towel in place on the downswing, you can’t let your arms out race your body, which is what tends to happen when you can’t keep your hands quiet.
Unblock Yourself
If you’ve taken golf lessons, you may have learned how to setup for hitting a draw—a wide, closed stance with closed hips and the ball back. This stance helps create an inside-out swing. But the stance also blocks you from rotating your body through the swing. If you want to add distance to your drives, you must generate more width, stretch, and speed on the downswing, so narrow your stance to shoulder width, open up your hips and feet, and move the ball up a couple of inches. These changes will help you make a strong shift toward the target on the downswing.