You don’t always need more clubhead speed to hit better drives.
Making more consistent contact with the middle of the clubface can improve what happens to the speed you already have and, just as importantly, make your driving more predictable.
In this lesson, PGA Professional Richard Lawless looks at how to improve your strike with the driver and find the middle of the clubface more consistently.
Why strike matters with the driver
The driver gives us a large clubface to work with, but where the ball makes contact still matters.
Move the strike away from the middle and the result can be very different from the shot you were trying to hit.
It’s also easy to mistake poor contact for a lack of distance and respond by trying to swing harder.
That can make things more difficult rather than solving the original problem.
Finding the middle more consistently
Rich’s lesson is about improving the quality of the contact rather than simply adding more speed.
Small changes can affect where the clubface meets the ball, so understanding your strike gives you something useful to work on when you practise.
You don’t need every drive to come perfectly out of the middle. None of us manages that.
The aim is simply to make good contact more often.
Watch Rich’s lesson
Rich demonstrates what to look for and how you can work on finding the middle of the driver more consistently.
Better contact before more speed
Distance is always tempting.
But before chasing more clubhead speed, it’s worth looking at how efficiently you’re using the speed you’ve already got.
A drive struck well out of the middle can feel completely different from one caught towards the heel or toe.
If you’re working on your driving, improving strike gives you a useful starting point before worrying about trying to swing faster.
If you’d like to see more of Rich’s coaching, you’ll find his courses and lessons in the Weekend Golfers Free Golf Coaching Library.
