No elevation on Driver?

Question

Ok so I am just about ready to go golfing again after winter, and I have gone to an indoor dome a couple of time to get my stroke back, and I noticed that whenever I hit my driver it does not get elevated that much and I was wondering what my problem could be or if it is just that I need to practice some more.

Answer 1

Keep in mind that hitting a ball with your driver is different than hitting with an iron.  You should be hitting a drive of the upswing...not on your downswing like you would with an iron.

Answer 2

Tee it high and to let it fly....

Answer 3

Put the ball FORWARD in your stance (tee the ball up perpendicular with your left foot so you hit the ball on the upswing).  Do not move forward when you come in contact with the ball (raking the ball), because you will get a lower trajectory and it will put a draw on the ball (meaning it goes left).

Answer 4

If you are hitting in a simulator, please do not judge your ball flight on that.  Go to the range and hit balls where you can see your trajectory.  If you still have problems, try keeping your head as still as possible, and keep your weight in the middle of your stance.

Answer 5

Troy D.,

All the answers given so far are good ones. However, one thing you might want to do is perhaps the most difficult.....be patient.

After a layoff, the most difficult thing to do is really stretch yourself out. Performing stretching exercises would really help, but you need to make sure you are stretching your golf muscles. Katherine Roberts, the golf/fitness instructor has a book/dvd on Yoga for Golfers. And yeah, I laughed at it when someone bought it for me. But in secret I tried it and it works.

Gaining flexibility means increased extension. Increased extension through the ball, coupled with some of the tips given by the others answering your question, means you are not suffering from T-Rex arms at impact which brings the club up and out too quickly. With a driver, that results in a lot ball flight.

So be patient, keep stretching and strengthening your golf muscles, remain true to your fundamentals. Also, the best book I know of that teaches a decent player the correlation between how the ball acts or reacts and what they are or have done in their swing is a book by John Jacobs called "Practical Golf." Good luck!