TourPGA Tour
HP Byron Nelson Champ... View Leaderboard >
Prev Next

Playing Lessons: Best of Driving (20:51)

To view this site, you need to have Flash Player 9.0 or later installed. Click here to get the latest Flash player.

DESCRIPTION

The best tips on driving the ball, some from the longest hitters on the PGA Tour. Includes Fred Couples, Hale Irwin, John Daly, Fred Funk, Bruce Fleisher, Nick Faldo, Nick Price, Anthony Kim and Camilo Villegas . With guest host Colin Montgomerie.

TRANSCRIPTS

-One of the things that I love about driving the ball is I've a...

-One of the things that I love about driving the ball is I've always got a clean ball. You get to tee it up as high as you want. You're normally on a flat nice piece of mown grass, and that's one of the reasons why I've always felt, you know, driving the ball is probably the part of the game that you can become the most consistent with. There's very few variables. Okay. You have wind the net, which you get on all the other shots, but your lie is always the same, and you got a clean ball. -I agree with you, totally. This should be the easiest shot in the hole. I mean, it's, you know, it's teed up. It's a flat lie, clean ball. There's no mud on it. You need a new ball. And you can bet that still it's not even moving. It's fantastic. Most ball sports, the ball is moving. This is stationary. This is easy, right? We're gonna do now is make a positive swing at it. Think positively. The whole way through this, think positively. Now, what do the people think? -The great thing about golf is you've got-- the options are all yours, and in this case, he gave us a dogleg ride, but that doesn't mean you have to play a fade. If you're not comfortable with a fade now, obviously, in my case, hitting a fade to a left- to-right dogleg is perfect, but for a guy that likes to hook the ball and he's been hooking it well all day, staying up here and hit your hook, forget about what the architect has done with this hole and play your favorite shot. Play the one you're comfortable with. And this one should be one I'm very comfortable with, downwind, left-to-right hole, aiming down the left side of the rough. -Well, you know, sometimes, when you're trying to, as you say, light up the horses, you have-- you introduce a greater chance of a mishit and the less likely you're gonna get a solid hit. So, I think many of us in the game that will say, "well, I'm just gonna play a nice smooth shot," we hit it right in the center of the club, and it goes farther than we've ever hit one, but for some reason, we think, "okay, I'm ready to let it go, 'cause if I did that, and if I swing harder, it will go farther." Well, all you're doing is interrupting your-- the flow that you had. So, rather than trying to hit it harder, what I try to do is actually take a little bit of a deeper swing but it goes slower to allow the clubhead time to catch up, which increases my arch a little bit. Now, don't do it on an every time basis because that's not my natural swing. It's something I have to kind of manufacture. Now, if I did that all the time, that was my thought process all the time, then that would be something different. But in this case, par-5's are reachable and 2 for me are very reachable and 2 for most others, but I still have to play my game. -I might take it just at the corner of the bunker and maybe fade it just a little bit, make sure I'm just left to the tree. I should be able to get probably past the tree today. So, for me, I'm just gonna get focused into that tree that's way out through the fairway. I'm gonna see my ball flight going there, and I actually do a little routine where I say, "see, feel, trust," and I kind of talk to myself through my routine. So, you know, I pull my glove twice to kind of start my routine, getting out, take a little practice swing. And while I'm doing that, I'm really getting focused out on my target, and I'm seeing that ball flight. I'm feeling the swing that matches what I'm seeing. So then I walk into it, line my clubface up to an intermittent spot. I tucked my shirt under my armpit, just something I've done to kind of keep my arm and body connected. I'm not thinking about it while I'm swinging, and I say "see," and that means I'm seeing that ball flight going where I want it to go. And I say "feel," and I'm feeling the swing that's gonna match where I see and feel, and now I say "trust," and I hit it just at the corner of the bunker and cut it right over there. Maybe I should talk out loud all the time when I play. -When I practice, I always put a club down on the ground or I carry like a metal ruler with me, just for alignment, so that while I'm practicing, I know that I'm aligned properly; I know I'm aiming where I want to, and that takes one of the variables out, then I know that if I am here on the course and I hit a bad shot left to right, I'm always wondered. You know, was I'm aiming over there? Did I make a bad swing? You know, well, when I'm practicing, I put something down for alignment so that I know I take one variable out. I know that it's not my alignment. It could be my ball position. It could be some other things, but it could just be my swing, but I can figure some things out. If I know where I'm lined up and I know that I start the ball to the right, I know that my swing path came from the inside out in order to start the ball right. If I start the ball left, my swing path came from the outside in, came across the ball. So it really doesn't matter what my swing does on the way back; it really matters what my swing does on the way through to where I hit the ball. It probably would be easier for some people to take the club straight back or straight through. To me, my swing feels straight back and straight through. It just happens-- it doesn't feel like it loops to me; it feels straight back. So, where the ball starts is a product of your swing path. Where the ball curves to is a product of where your face is. So if my ball curves right to the left, I know that the face was a little close. If it curves from left to right or cuts, my face was open. -That should be perfect. Well, I think when I grow up, I've pretty much self taught, and I just work on hitting it straight for some reasons, and I'll try to learn to keep the clubhead down the line as long as possible with very little compensations in my swing, which meaning, I don't have to reroute the club so much. You can really picture a guy who reroutes the club a lot is Jim Furyk. He stands really close, takes the club out and then drops it back in. Lee Trevino, you know, he's rerouting. I decided, for some reasons, that I didn't think that was the way to swing, that I was just gonna try to take it back straight and back through on the same plane pretty much, and the club travels right down the line for a long time, and pretty much just try to hit the ball straight. I never really was trying to work the ball very much. So, just something I learned as a kid and took it from there. -It's funny. Everyone-- Everyone always teases me but, you know, when-- Danny teases me, but comments about how fast my swing is, how quick it is. You-- You can have an upbeat rhythm, which I like to think of my swing being, but the first 3 feet away from the ball has to be smooth. It doesn't matter if it's quick, but it must be smooth, and yeah, that's what I work a lot on. I work a lot on trying to keep that foot 3 feet away from the ball nice and smooth. Yeah, that one hit for me, anyway. That one was hit. -There are always little things that people do, whether it's the wag of the club or whether it's just feeling like I'm sitting and I'm comfortable. Then, the other thing is I don't try to hit the ball 100% when I'm in the pressure spots because if I'm probably doing low 90s, that's what it feels like, but I'm probably 102. So the key is not to be 110, and that's when you see the shots go, you know, these crazy ways. I was felt, when I was coming down the stretch, that if I had to hit fairway after fairway after fairway, then I could do it because I would try to underachieve swing speed and make sure I was plenty comfortable, and if I wasn't comfortable with my driver on this tee for whatever reason, then I probably would hit a 3-wood. And I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the fairway gets to be a lonely play. -Most time [unk] at it, I hit through the ball. -I rely on just making a turn in my shoulder. -Driving the golf ball for me is all about hitting the fairway. That's why they cut them, right? They're very kind to us. They cut the fairways. They don't cut the rough. So let's try and hit the fairways 'cause they've been good to us, right? They spent a lot of time in maintenance and trying to cut these fairways for us. Let's try and hit it. So the best thing I do to hit the fairway is not to hit at the ball; I hit through the ball, right? Most time, it is at it. I hit through the ball. I don't actually hit the ball at all. My swing is a long flowing motion, and what happens is the ball gets in the way, right? I'll show you that. There's no hit at the ball. The way I hit the fairway is through, through. There is no way that ball has been hit. The ball has been-- is actually in the way of my followthrough and not so I hit the fairways. Now, let's see what other people think. -When I got off tour, I was reading the 5 fundamentals of golf, which at that time are probably still is the bible of golf, and of course, the way I kind of connotably understood it, Hogan talked about rotation and he talked about swing plane. So, in doing that, in order to pronate the way I pronate, okay, I had to come up with a very weak left hand, and now even when I try to move it, I have a hard time, so I don't even bother with it anymore; but by keeping it on the weak side, it enables me to rotate underneath this plane of glass from my chin to the ball. It goes to infinity right down the fairway behind in front of me. So, as long as I could coil underneath that plane, that club is gonna square up; number 1, it will never go left; and number 2, it's always gonna be in front of me as long as I stay behind it. And that's really my swing thought, you know. I try to get setup in an athletic position, you know, balls of my feet, and I try to coil, okay. And as long as I can stay behind it, I get that good extension. -All those guys, they hit the ball long way. You know, Ernie looks like he's putting a baby to sleep [unk] on the shoulder. It's about, you know, allowing the clubhead to pick its own speed. The greatest mistake that amateur golfers make is trying to make the clubhead go fast with their hands and arms. You try and make it go fast with your hands and arms. You pull your own weight backwards. The clubhead slows down here. You know, they kind of cross it or, you know, they catch it in the toe and hook it. If you turn the big muscles, leave the clubhead behind. You know, it looks slow; Freddie Couples, another classic example, and Vijay Singh, another great example. It looks like it just [unk]. It's languid; it's lazy, but the clubhead just whips through under its own speed. And that's why, the average guy, when he's trying to lay up short of something, you don't wanna leave yourself too long in axial, so I'll just hit one more club and I'll hit it easy. Hit it easy, it goes farther. It goes farther. -This is a pretty good driving hole. And it's long. Alright, Grant, 490? -490. -But playing downhill. So you can probably drive it, you know, at least 300. What you only wanna do is hit this fairway, but it's so long that you've got to hit it a long way. So you don't really wanna stir it, but since you're elevated, you can't, you know, stand up here and tee it high and let it fly, but I think it's a great hole because it looks tighter than it is. And that, you know, should be great. If I could hit a lot more like that. You know, I have the tendency to kind of get the club out enough, but I do get it in the great spot. You know, I used to get across the line as I made much bigger of a turn. I get the club over here a little like Larry Nelson, and I would get the club back to the ball extremely square, and I was going that so hard; I hit a really hard cut. That's what I leave-- I mean, I would aim this up into the junk, but I knew I was gonna cut it every single time. Now, my body, I can't do that as much. So I rely on same thing, getting the club, and you know, I have a strong grip, which helps me get the club this way easier, instead of, you know, making a big turn back away from the ball ala most tour players, but I have a stronger grip so I can get the club cocked much easier. -And I think a lot of amateurs have stronger grips, which helps them. So, I rely on just making a turn with my shoulder. I'm not so worried about where my lower body goes on the backswing. My problem is a lot of times, I don't move the shoulder, and I go just like this. And the club looks right, but I haven't moved my upper body. So, if I can get that part down, then once I come down, my lower body is just going as hard as I can to try and get through the ball and then release the club, and in that particular shot, I felt like I tried to hit it 80%, but everything went well, and I got the ball-- I got the club to the ball really square and I was aggressive through the shot, but a lot of times, if you do swing or, as we say, stir it, you don't wanna be slowing down through the ball 'cause any mess will make the ball curve a heck of a lot more. So, I was trying to speed up through the ball no matter what. Even if I tee it high in the par-5 and swing as hard as I can, I still am going through the ball as hard as I possibly can. -Teeing it up a little bit higher and not necessarily to get more distance, but just to get that ball up in the air and make sure it carried enough to get over that bunker. In this case, I got the driver. I know it's not a very long hole, but it's a very wide fairway. I'm not swinging too hard, but I am putting the tee a little bit higher. So, the ball gets up in the air, and I'm gonna gain maybe 10 yards just because of the flight. -Distance and driving. It's a myth. Really? Of course, you got your Hank Haney's and you've got your John Daly's who can turn physically a lot different from you and I. I don't turn so I don't have that power that's generated. What I do is hit the fairways, right? But if I was to hit the ball harder, what I would tend to do is just swing the club longer, right? And let the shaft do the work. These shafts nowadays are brilliant and that people don't tend to use the shaft enough. I use the shaft of the club. And what I mean by that is I finish my backswing. I even take it slower in the backswing, finish it, and then allow the shaft to kick in. When it's going at that, it's amazing how the shaft wound bend, and you see a slow motion of this. It's amazing how the lag of a shaft nowadays, even with a slower hand speed like myself, can generate an awful lot of pace. So what I do is I tend to go even longer with my backswing. You see, this is [unk] and hit it that way. And it's surprising how far these balls go by not generating or not thinking about generating pace, right? I'm interested to find out what other people think, but that's the way I hit the ball harder by actually swinging longer and not swinging harder. -No need to carry it. -Yeah. -That's straight. -Getting lucky today. I tried to keep the swing as simple as possible and my attention span doesn't really go that long; so, all I try to do is take it halfway back here, and it's really just a mini turn and then from here, just keep my lower body stable and turn back, and I think that puts me in a pretty good position. And from here, all I have to do is go forward. And I think that's a lot of-- that's where my par comes from. I see so many amateurs thinking about their golf swing and thinking if it's not in the right position here, and they start thinking about all of this, whether the club is in the path, and not thinking about their lower body. So, we just try to-- we really mainly work on keeping stable in the bottom and turning away from my body. -And this allows you-- This right before your swing, this allows you just to get that feeling. -Right. -A little reminder. -Right. Once I get here, I know I'm done. All I need to do is turn back, and I don't try to cock my wrist anymore or do anything funny there, just halfway back and turn and turn back through. -Especially with the driver, you have to have that confidence. Alright, the biggest thing that the average person doesn't do, get all the weight on his front foot in the followthrough, hands nice and high. Just trying to stir the ball a lot of times, just got a lighter grip. Give it sometime to set up the putt, just like grip pressure feel a little bit loose, swing through the golf ball. -It's like [unk] short fall. It's only 350 yards, which I can easily make. I don't burst to the lung. Every golfer wants to hit it farther down. I mean, we will say swing slow at swing's move, and I don't wanna hear that. And the easiest way to do that is you've got to use the ground. That's your only point of fixation to this planet. So, you gotta use that force, so, you know, bad knee work like this, you got no chance. You gotta do it with a solid stance. This is gonna be solid. You know, right foot, right knee, so you got something to crank home to and then pull away from. That's the important thing. You know, too many golfers would get to the top and go for it, and the top half and bottom half moves together. So, if you're gonna crank up, hang onto it. While this unwinds and then you power all through, yeah. So, if I can practice what I preach, [unk] wind it up, hang onto it, and get a bit of speed in that chest through. A little bit too much fade. It's a-- it's on a green-side trap, so yeah, I said 350 was just a little struggling for me. -Off the tee, all I'm visualizing. If you can see, the far, far, little skinny tree back way back there. That's a little right, maybe half of that marker. That's where I'm just seeing that ball and that's where I hit it, but I would like to pinpoint something I'm gonna aim at to start the ball and then cut it. I don't like to-- I don't think it's good to, unless you aim at the flag, of course. I was like-- with the longer stuff, I aim at something. I'm gonna aim it, hit it there, then fade it away from there. That's what I'm trying to say. I just think of aiming it. My key to my golf swing is low and slow on the back on the takeaway, and that's what-- that's at left hand. I don't restrict anything. You know, a lot of guys-- If I try and take the club back to parallel, there's tension on my back so bad as a joke, but when I let it go, there's no tension so I won't have any back problems. My godson, John Michael Sisinni, in Memphis, he came out to me. He's right in front of his dad, John Sisinni goes, "Godfather, you know what's great about you? You're gonna be the greatest Senior player that ever lived because at the time you're 50, your swing is gonna be parallel. You'll be still headed past everybody."
Read More

Tags:

Vijay Singh
Jim Furyk

Related TV Shows:

blog comments powered by Disqus

It appears you are using Internet Explorer 7 and may experience slow site performance. Please consider upgrading to a more modern web browser

CLOSE

[On-Air Now] @GolfCentral: Charlie Rymer breaks down Kevin Na's new pre-shot routine that saves him about 20 seconds per shot.

Golf Channel on Facebook

214,481

People like Golf Channel
Email Updates

Looking for more news?
Get GolfChannel updates in your inbox!

Never Miss Another Shot

Golf Channel Mobile Apps for the iPhone, Android & Blackberry.
Get the App

HP Byron Nelson Championship

TPC Four Seasons Las Colinas golf course (Par/Yardage: 70/7,166) was originally designed by Jay Morrish with player consultants Byron Nelson and Ben Crenshaw in 1982 and was redesigned in 2008.

Visit Pennington Seed to make your lawn look like TPC Four Seasons.
HP Byron Nelson Championship

Copyright © 1996-2012 Golf Channel, All Rights Reserved