How do Tour players shoot in the 60s on the toughest courses in the world? Being big, strong, and flexible helps. So does practice. Pro players, as you know, put in hours and hours of practice—especially when it comes to hitting the driver. The pros work hard at hitting long straight drives consistently.
But there’s more to hitting long drives than putting in long hours of practice. The pros also have access to golf tips weekend players don’t have. These tips take the pros’ games to another level—a championship level that enables them to compete and win on the world’s toughest courses.
Below are five of these golf tips. Ingraining them not only will help you cut strokes from your golf handicap, but it will also take your long game to a whole new level:
1) Widen your stance: Many weekend golfers set up with their feet too close together—a flaw we see a lot in golf lessons. Often, the player’s stance is barely shoulder width apart. That’s not wide enough. Narrow stances sap power from your swing.
Your stance must be at least shoulder-width apart. A wide stance improves balance and boosts swing speed, adding yards to your drives. That’s because a wide stance helps you swing the clubhead faster. It also gives you a stable base when swinging, promoting balance and consistency.
2) Slow down your takeaway: When you rush your takeaway, you shorten your arms and narrow your swing. That short-circuits power. Narrowing your swing prevents you from building potential speed in your swing.
Making a deliberate takeaway, on the other hand, helps extend your arms out to their maximum length, widening your swing. That helps build swing speed, which adds distance to your shots. The slower you start, the more potential for speed you can build.
3) Smooth out the transition: The transition is the most critical part of your swing. If you’re not solid here, you won’t be strong in your downswing. But many weekend players rush the transition—a fatal swing flaw that drains power from your swing
I always teach students to slow their transitions. You want to make a smooth transition with minimal tension in your arms. That saves swing speed for impact by making sure you’ve got all your energy moving down and forward toward impact.
4) Hammer the sweet spot: Making contact in the clubface’s center is the key to pounding out long drives. It’s the single most important fundamental you can learn when it comes to hitting the driver. If you miss the sweet spot regularly, you can’t hit straight drives consistently.
To hammer the sweet spot with your driver, slow your swing down a bit and focus on making solid contact. To borrow a baseball analogy, instead of thinking home run when you’re in the tee box, think line drives. Make solid contact a priority and big drives will happen.
5) Lay off the accelerator: Another common error weekend golfers make is speeding up at the top of their downswing. Don’t “step on the gas” in your swing until you’re at the bottom of your downswing. In other words, lay off the accelerator until just before you reach impact.
It’s called “hitting from the bottom.” Going deep is great, but it only pays off if you get the early parts of your swing down pat. You’ll know you got your swing right if you belt one without losing your balance. It’s a sign of a fast-moving club.
Ingrain these five golf tips in your swing and you’ll find yourself pounding out the longest drives of your life. Long drives can help you not only beat tough courses like the pros do but also chip strokes off your golf handicap.
