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Since a revelation and changes on certain areas of my swing about a month ago, I've been hitting good iron shots. However, I'm still having trouble with driver shots. While I'm happy with dispersion, distance (150-155yds for #7), and feel at impact of the iron shots, my driver shots are anything but. Not only is the distance short (220-240yds), it also ranges from push slice to pull hook. The contact also rarely feels solid. The flight has been quite low too. One contributor may be the short (~3/4) back swing I employed in the iron shots. While it works well for the irons, the acceleration path may be just too short for the longer driver. But the shorter backswing and never over swing has been a big reason I obtained consistent iron shots.

Any suggestions on how to carry good irons swing to driver? If I start from iron swing, what parts should I keep and what part should I change in order to have good driver swing? Of course I've already changed stance (wider), ball position (aligned roughly with rear of left shoe), and spine angle (more upright but still tilted slightly forward).

Assuming that you wish to hit the ball on the upswing with driver, how about setting up with the driver clubhead a handful of inches back behind the ball, near the supposed low-point of the swing, or even a bit further back. It might help you make a better turn, and it would create a starting position somewhat equivalent to that used for the irons.

Haven't tried this... but I'd envision that then the club face alignment has to be adjusted. Because the clue head travels past address position to make contact with the ball, theoretically it seems requires the club head to be a bit open at address.

The fixes I'm looking for are more in the areas of swing mechanism adjustments (from irons to driver). But for sure I won't rule out anything.

Thanks!

Ehien, take a look at the video I posted on this thread, and note the admonition to keep the swing the same for all clubs.


tempo

There are two thoughts on Iron & wood swings, one convention says that its the same swing, the other is that, where iron shots are more of a striking down into(compressing) the ball, whereas with the woodds it is a sweeping feeling,

That's certainly how I feel the two swings. The exception is when I need to get a ball out of a less than good lie, some I will feel it as a swing, other times as striking in to compress.

So to highlight for Driver tee'd up same swing pathe, but feel itmore as sweeping it up off the tee, but don't try & litterally get it up, or all sorts of bad things go on

I've been suffering with this problem for weeks , i think i cracked it tonight at the range finally after hitting two buckets of balls i realised what i was doing wrong with 15 balls left , with me it was the angle of the Shaft of the club at address i had it too far forward , when i angled it back a touch towards my belt buckle and playing the ball off the front foot the ball flew straight and long something i haven't done for ages .....hope this helps

Tried half a bucket at range at noon, mostly driver of course... Think I made a little bit of progress. Occasionally there were good ball flight (though slightly pushed) with ok distances (~250yds). The rest were also usually acceptable with a bit more solid contact and straighter flight.

I think watching of Jack's video through crossgrain's link did help. I saw him applying pretty much the same swing for iron and wood. By keeping this thought in mind, I became a bit more confident on my driver swing and it helped. What I also found was that my swing has lots of common with Jack's- no cocking, hinging, or rotation of wrist at least at early part of back swing. The amount of my recoil is also similar to Jack's- i.e., not as much as most "modern" golfers.

One thing bothers me now is, my reshafted driver (Cleveland Launcher 460 with UST ProForce 65 Gold) is mistakenly installed with larger diameter grip. This may be one of the issues that I'll have to address.

Allow me to update my progress...

This has been the third noon practice I did since my quest started 3 days ago. Again I hit an half bucket. If I made one step of progress in each of the previous two days, then today I made 2 steps forward. I'm happy with the progress and results so far.

What I discovered today that I didn't do well was "hitting behind the ball". Before that I likely regained my old habit of shifting weight too much too quickly forward on downswing. And when the ball was struck, my body's center of gravity has likely passed the ball. I paid attention to this by delaying weight shift and the amount of it, immediately I started to hit ball with proper flight height (was too low before). The flight also changed from mostly push with or without slight slice to mostly straight with occasional minor push or pull.

And no, I didn't make changes from irons swing, except wider stance and forward ball position. I'm sure the swing plane was flatter due to the longer shaft. But I didn't employ anything differently between driver and iron swings. I hope this stays true, because perfecting one swing is tough enough, I'd rather not have another one to worry about.

Ehien

It's easy to get out of position with the driver Ehien due to the longer arc of the club. It is for that reason it is sometimes wise to choke down on it a bit. Thanks for your updates. I think it is educational to read of your experiences as you work on your swing.
I thought it would be interesting to include these Nicklaus freeze frames. In the hit positions, I compared his driver to his wedge. Other than the ball being forward for the driver and his stance more upright, note how similar the two are, especially his swing radius (the distance from sternum to hands). At first glance, you may think he is "staying back" with the driver, but if you will note the head position relative to the right foot, they are identical. He is simply further along in the swing with the driver because the ball is forward in his stance.
I included his driver follow through to show that his radius is still the same at that point in his swing. Also, his head and shoulders have moved slightly away from the target, which i believe is indicative of his "connection", or the shoulders "pulling back" in the opposite direction of the c-force of the club, serving as a counterweight similar to that of a drawbridge.

Attached Images

	Nicklaus driver hit.JPG (13.2 KB, 48 views)
	Nicklaus Driver f thru.JPG (14.3 KB, 1 views)
	Nicklaus hit.JPG (12.0 KB, 49 views)

Thanks for the great reference of Nicklaus. I'm still trying to incorporate his good parts into my swing. But one thing I can't or won't do is position of the ball. I place ball near center for iron shots (longer irons slightly more forward) and near left foot only for driver shot. I think this part of his swing (ball near left foot with all clubs) is a bit unusual.

Last Sat. through video taping I was surprised to find that I over swung with driver (pass target line at top of back swing). I also didn't realize my lower body turned so much. These are the two major issues I've seen so far. I'll focus on correcting them this week. Hope to eventually have both good iron and driver shots with the same swing.

KEEP UP THE HARD WORK