Students in my golf lessons always want golf swing tips that will help them hit long drives, with good reason. Hitting the ball longer off the tee has its benefits, including helping you break 80 with consistency.
For one thing, hitting it long allows you to take a more aggressive approach to scoring. For another, it helps you conquer long par 4s and par 5s. If you’re like many weekend golfers, these holes are among the toughest to par. On bad days, they can ruin your golf score if you’re not careful. Put simply, an extra dose of power from the tee box pays off.
Below are four golf swing tips that can help you hit it long. I also provide a golf drill to help you increase clubhead speed, which also boosts power off the tee:
1) Nail down your golf swing posture: Standing too close to the golf ball is among the biggest mistakes weekend golfers make. Starting off this way limits your ability to swing freely and to extend your arms when swinging. That, in turn, short-circuits power.
So check your swing posture. If you think you’re too close to the golf ball, try standing a bit farther from it with a slightly more erect swing posture. That, in turn, frees you to explode through impact.
2) Extend fully on both sides of the golf ball: Another common mistake I see in golf lessons is golfers short-arming their swings. If you want to max out your power, you need to extend your arms fully on both sides of the golf ball—backswing and follow-through.
Many weekend golfers swing too far inside. That forces your elbows to fold, hampering your follow-through. That’s not good. Instead, make sure your left arm is straight in your takeaway and that it’s pointing down the line, away from the target. That will help you extend your arms in your follow-through
3) Don’t lift, turn: When you lift the golf club with your arms, you’re asking for trouble. Swinging the golf club with your arms short-circuits power. Coming down on a steep plane does the same thing.
If you want to generate extra power, you need to rotate your body around instead of straight up and down. Rotating your body helps you avoid coming across the ball. That, in turn, prevents weak impact and short, crooked hits. (If slicing is a big problem for you, this is one golf swing tip you need to ingrain.)
4) Get your right hand over: Another golf swing tip you want to ingrain is to turn your right hand over your left in your follow-through. This move creates a fully released position that helps generate power. It’s also the result of a loose feel.
Too often I see golfers in my golf instruction sessions holding the club too tightly in the release. Strangling the club slows the clubhead down and robs you of distance. To max out your power, you need to release your hands, arms, and wrists fully.
A Drill to Help You Hit Bombs Off the Tee
You don’t have to swing harder to hit monster drives. You just need to widen your swing arc. That, in turn, generates more clubhead speed. In other words, creating wider swing arc produces longer, straighter shots. Below is a drill golf guru David Ledbetter uses to stretch out a student’s swing:
Take your normal address position minus the club. Now grab an ordinary towel at two spots about a foot apart. Keep some slack in the towel. Stretch it out as tight as you can and make your backswing and downswing. As you do, you’ll feel how your two hands fight to keep their distance as they pull in opposite directions. That’s the feeling of width you want to create when on the course.
You can do this drill at the range, in your home, or on the course. At the range, simulate several swings with the golf towel between actual shots. On the course, reinforce this feeling using your golf towel before teeing off or hitting approach shots.
Combining this drill with the four golf swing tips above will help you generate more power off the tee. Hitting longer drives allows you to take a more aggressive approach to scoring. It also can help you tame those long par 4s and tough par 5s. And that can lower your golf scores and your golf handicap.
