Strategies off the tee...help!

[LeftDaddy]

I’d love to hear some strategies from you guys for creating more consistency off the tee. My game is continuing to improve, and I’m on the verge of a breakthrough. My irons are much more solid than usual. And I’ve been doing the Drive400 program and have gained two clubs in distance plus 15-20 yards off the tee. If I hit driver solidly I’m murdering it right now. In fact, most courses I play force me to lay back with irons off the tee often. I’ve considered stepping back a tee but want to improve where I am first.

 

Anyway, I’m a 9 index and shoot typically low to mid 80s. However, for any given round, I’ll just completely take myself out of any chance at par on at least 4-6 holes with a wild tee ball, and worse at least one or two of those goes OB. Misses are somewhat all over the place. Snap hooks. Slices. Pulls.

 

Please help me with any strategies you guys have with keeping most tee balls at least in the ballpark. I generally find success with an iron off the tee but of course give up yardage, but also tend to hit a handful of stinkers with those too. I’ve tried bombing them all with driver. I’ve tried to do a lot of 3 woods or irons. Anyway, none of it seems to work consistently. I do fear a right miss (snap hook for a lefty), and so I’m aware that it may be as much mental as anything. If I could avoid the handful of wild tee balls, I could really start scoring.

 

Thanks in advance for any help!

[davep043]

> @LeftDaddy said:

> I’d love to hear some strategies from you guys for creating more consistency off the tee. My game is continuing to improve, and I’m on the verge of a breakthrough. My irons are much more solid than usual. And I’ve been doing the Drive400 program and have gained two clubs in distance plus 15-20 yards off the tee. If I hit driver solidly I’m murdering it right now. In fact, most courses I play force me to lay back with irons off the tee often. I’ve considered stepping back a tee but want to improve where I am first.

>

> Anyway, I’m a 9 index and shoot typically low to mid 80s. However, for any given round, I’ll just completely take myself out of any chance at par on at least 4-6 holes with a wild tee ball, and worse at least one or two of those goes OB. Misses are somewhat all over the place. Snap hooks. Slices. Pulls.

>

> Please help me with any strategies you guys have with keeping most tee balls at least in the ballpark. I generally find success with an iron off the tee but of course give up yardage, but also tend to hit a handful of stinkers with those too. I’ve tried bombing them all with driver. I’ve tried to do a lot of 3 woods or irons. Anyway, none of it seems to work consistently. I do fear a right miss (snap hook for a lefty), and so I’m aware that it may be as much mental as anything. If I could avoid the handful of wild tee balls, I could really start scoring.

>

> Thanks in advance for any help!

 

I don't think you need to change strategy, you need to improve your swing. I apologize if that seems blunt, but strategy doesn't cancel out poor swings. Yes, you can keep a few more in play by hitting a shorter club, but then you'll be giving away fractions of strokes every time. See an instructor, figure out why the bad drives happen, and work to fix it.

[davep043]

Deleted duplicate

[davep043]

Deleted another duplicate

[davep043]

and yet another duplicate

[SNIPERBBB]

To develop a tee off strategy you have to have a consistent shot with whatever you are hitting. If you're playing military golf all you can do is either find a iron/hybid/wood you can hit consistently off the tee or aim for the middle and pray with the driver.

[LeftDaddy]

> @SNIPERBBB said:

> To develop a tee off strategy you have to have a consistent shot with whatever you are hitting. If you're playing military golf all you can do is either find a iron/hybid/wood you can hit consistently off the tee or aim for the middle and pray with the driver.

 

Finally figured out how to reply.

 

This is a response to both responses above.

 

Certainly my swing can always use improvement, though it is overall looking really good right now. I have little trouble in the fairways. It just seems to be tee shots.

 

I’ve tried to develop shots like stingers, etc but maybe I haven’t tried hard enough. I’ve tried to develop a power fade but you get so much different advice on how to do it that I haven’t really found a consistent way to hit it. A few years back I only hit 3 woods and that seemed to overall be a pretty good strategy, but I think it was more swing related than just using the 3 wood.

 

My other “problem” with that strategy is that I can only hit 3w or driver on 7 of the 14 holes at my home course. The other 7 require something less than that or you run out of fairway or bring in all sorts of trouble. I seem to do better when there is no decision to be made...just pull a club. My caddie told me yesterday that I’m a great golfer when I’ve committed to my shot, and a terrible golfer when he can tell I haven’t committed.

 

The point of all of this, I guess, is that there have to be some tips or shots or mental strategies or something that you low-low caps use to find more fairways or avoid trouble off the tee. Yes, I’m constantly working to improve my swing. But maybe things like tee-it-low, stinger, power fades, 3/4 swing, slow down tempo, etc etc are helpful? I don’t know. I’ve tried all of the above with varying degrees of success. Because my miss is a snap hook I feel like a power fade would be a good strategy (to counteract the hook). I can’t seem to find the right way to hit that shot, though.

 

Anyway, would love any guidance you guys have. Thanks again!

 

 

[SNIPERBBB]

My go-to is the "power fade" with the driver, it's more of a high straight ball with my 3w. There really isn't a way to hit this shot that you should go looking for. It's more of a nice name for aim as far right(for lefties) as you can risk for a double cross and swing as hard as you can to fade/slice the ball back to the fairway. I'm envisioning goal posts of about 30 yards wide and the right post is where your aimed and the left is where I want the ball to land.

 

I would highly recommend montes drive 4 dough video. I've got off to 30+ cap worthy start to the year with my driver, rewatched it a range session or two and I haven't had a bad driving round since.

 

 

[Yrrdead]

You need a couple things, one is a pretty good dispersion plot. So you need to get some time at a simulator to get this data. The more shots the better but even a 1/2 hr should be good. Armed with your dispersion distance now you take this video;

 

Now follow the video create your own "triangle" based on your distance and map your course. This should help out your tee strategy in a more quantitative way vs the classic "get good".

 

 

[SNIPERBBB]

The holes that preclude use of the driver need to be broken down before you reach the tee. I'm going about two clubs (this will vary based on rollout conditions) down and playing my most dependable, aggressive shot. Too many make the mistake of taking an easy swing in order to lay up and consequently hit a weak, blocked shot or worse.

[davep043]

> @LeftDaddy said:

> > @SNIPERBBB said:

> > To develop a tee off strategy you have to have a consistent shot with whatever you are hitting. If you're playing military golf all you can do is either find a iron/hybid/wood you can hit consistently off the tee or aim for the middle and pray with the driver.

>

>

> The point of all of this, I guess, is that there have to be some tips or shots or mental strategies or something that you low-low caps use to find more fairways or avoid trouble off the tee. Yes, I’m constantly working to improve my swing. But maybe things like tee-it-low, stinger, power fades, 3/4 swing, slow down tempo, etc etc are helpful? I don’t know. I’ve tried all of the above with varying degrees of success. Because my miss is a snap hook I feel like a power fade would be a good strategy (to counteract the hook). I can’t seem to find the right way to hit that shot, though.

>

> Anyway, would love any guidance you guys have. Thanks again!

>

>

I know this is something you don't want to hear, but if you can't find a single consistent shot shape with the driver that works for you, why do you think that you'll be more accurate with a variety of what I'd term "specialty shots"? You say you haven't been able to learn to hit a "power fade", have you actually seen an instructor to work on that? Have you (patiently) practiced whatever drills or feels or whatever that the instructor has given you? Only my opinion, but you probably don't have the expertise to determine what changes you need to make to hit that power fade, and searching through the internet will give you so many different and contradictory solutions that you're as likely to get worse as you are to improve. Find a good instructor, follow his guidance.

 

[Krt22]

I'm really not sure what strategy can be implemented to mitigate a 2-way miss/foul balls. It seems like your time would be better spent further improving your full swing to develop a consistent one way miss versus trying to find a specialty tee shot.

 

[Birdie Mac]

> @LeftDaddy said:

> I’d love to hear some strategies from you guys for creating more consistency off the tee. My game is continuing to improve, and I’m on the verge of a breakthrough. My irons are much more solid than usual. And I’ve been doing the Drive400 program and have gained two clubs in distance plus 15-20 yards off the tee. If I hit driver solidly I’m murdering it right now. In fact, most courses I play force me to lay back with irons off the tee often. I’ve considered stepping back a tee but want to improve where I am first.

>

> Anyway, I’m a 9 index and shoot typically low to mid 80s. However, for any given round, I’ll just completely take myself out of any chance at par on at least 4-6 holes with a wild tee ball, and worse at least one or two of those goes OB. Misses are somewhat all over the place. Snap hooks. Slices. Pulls.

>

> Please help me with any strategies you guys have with keeping most tee balls at least in the ballpark. I generally find success with an iron off the tee but of course give up yardage, but also tend to hit a handful of stinkers with those too. I’ve tried bombing them all with driver. I’ve tried to do a lot of 3 woods or irons. Anyway, none of it seems to work consistently. **I do fear a right miss (snap hook for a lefty), and so I’m aware that it may be as much mental as anything**. If I could avoid the handful of wild tee balls, I could really start scoring.

>

> Thanks in advance for any help!

I think you answered your own question. We can't play well when we approach a shot with fear or indecision. You sound like you're confident in your game, but are maybe holding on to some memories from poor play in the past. Best to let those go and focus on the good shots from your current play.

 

[Davidelliott100]

Echoing a bit of what was said above, but the number 1 thing in my opinion, especially with a driver, is picking one shot shape that you are confident in. Eliminate one side of the golf course and your confidence will improve. If you step up to a hole that just does not set up for that shape, or that just doesn't fit your eye, mentally go through your bag club by club until you find a club you're confident to hit. Even if its a 7 iron (obviously an extreme example), hit it, and go hit the next shot. All clubs shorter than driver are easier to shape, so even a 3 wood or hybrid is obviously an improvement.

 

If you're a 9 handicap, my guess is that you are in the phase of your game where bogeys hurt, but doubles + are really what keep you from shooting low scores. I can't stress enough how important it is to be ok with pars and bogeys. You'll always make a birdie or 2 to cover those up. The doubles, triples, etc. are the ones that are so hard to make up.

[SNIPERBBB]

Yep, you can't make plans or strategies based on, or even having them in your mental conversation, mishits. The day I play with someone that starts making plans based on topping the ball or snap hooking one is the day I remember why I keep knives in my bag.

[LeftDaddy]

Ok. Some great stuff in here. Thanks for the responses.

 

Let me clarify a couple of things and see if it helps with the responses that seem to think I have no business learning a shot shape until I fix my swing.

 

I’m not sure I have what I would call a two-way miss. Or better said, I can be pretty darned consistent with my driver at times, and my miss tends to be right (pull or a hook). I do occasionally slice it, though, and when one typically aims left of their intended target as a lefty, a slice can mean trouble. But of the 14 tee balls I need to hit, I’m really happy with about 8-10 of them per round, I’m ok but annoyed with about 2-4 per round, and really ticked with about 2 per round.

 

As someone mentioned above, I’m pretty confident in my swing, and I can shape shots here and there (though they don’t always come out like I planned). I can’t “try” to hit a draw because I’m trying to do everything I can to avoid turning the club over. If I just let the natural order of things happen, draws or pulls will usually result. Oddly, I can “dial up” a fade a little bit better at times, but it can result in the two way miss rather easily. So I often avoid it because it might turn out perfect, but it might turn out disastrous. But most of the time, I play for a draw / pull and get a great to decent result.

 

BUT, there are a few holes on the courses I play regularly that just really bother me, usually when they have trouble right. What I’d like to develop is a shot that won’t go right no matter how hard I try to turn it over. That seems to be the power fade, but again I’ve had varying degrees of success with it.

 

Maybe that is a two-way miss or whatever. Maybe I can’t hope to be better off the tee until I’m just better, period. But all of the stuff I’ve read suggests one needs a “go to” shot when in doubt. If I could hit a 2 or 3 iron stinger or a power fade reliably (or just a straight ball), I’d be deadly, but I just figured the wisdom of this group could either tell me that I didn’t need a stinger, or I could just ease off a certain shot. Or whatever. I’ve started to play 2 extra clubs into par 3s and just hit a knockdown and it has changed my game. I just hoped there was something similar for fairway tee balls.

[Krt22]

We aren't saying you can't learn to shot shape, we are saying in order pull off the specialty shots you are looking for you need to have reasonable control over your normal swing. If you can pull, hook, or slice the ball off the tee it's going to be hard to dial in specialty shots and getting more consistent with your stock shot is likely easier/more productive than trying to cook up something completely different. If you are constantly fighting a hook, you likely have an extreme path that is too in to out. So if you want to dial in a fade you need to first start by neutralizing that path, if you neutralize your path your stock shot will get better as well. There is no such thing as a free lunch

[davep043]

> @Krt22 said:

> We aren't saying you can't learn to shot shape, we are saying in order pull off the specialty shots you are looking for you need to have reasonable control over your normal swing. If you can pull, hook, or slice the ball off the tee it's going to be hard to dial in specialty shots and getting more consistent with your stock shot is likely easier/more productive than trying to cook up something completely different. If you are constantly fighting a hook, you likely have an extreme path that is too in to out. So if you want to dial in a fade you need to first start by neutralizing that path, if you neutralize your path your stock shot will get better as well. There is no such thing as a free lunch

 

Just as an example, I used to fight a hook too. The cure, for me, was to decrease my hip "slide" and improve my hip rotation. I didn't do a single thing specifically thinking about club path or face angle, but the effect was to make both much closer to neutral. I didn't figure that out on my own, and I never would have, it took a good instructor to diagnose the issue, and to provide me drills and swing feels to accomplish the change.

I don't know why you struggle with bad hooks and occasional slices, but your best course of action is to find someone who can help you figure it out. Until then, if you have a shot or a club that keeps you in play on the trouble holes, use it. You may sacrifice some yards, which corresponds to sacrificing strokes, but giving up portions of strokes through yardage is better than giving up two at a time with OB balls.

[SNIPERBBB]

I think we are getting closer now...

 

I think we play a similar course, except I play from the right side and most holes on the course, a hook is just dead unless you start it at the adjacent fairway. I play a more fade biased driver now that really helps me swing as hard as I can without worrying about a hook, see signature. I've fought that darned overdraw for years. There's quite a freedom when you're consistent enough with the driver to just say darn the torpedoes and LEEEEERRRRROOOOOOY JIIIIIINNNK IIIIIINNNES! the driver.

 

Let's say like for me have a slight draw with my driver on my "normal" swing. So I plan for that. My hard swing,which is really my normal swing, is just the same as more normal swing but faster I hit my "power fade". No real difference in the two shots except I might tee the ball down a hair and move the ball closer to the heel at address . It's not manufactured, which makes it easier to hit and more consistent in it's results .

 

Trust and commit. Rinse and repeat.

 

Don't get bogged down with got to have a go-to shot unless circumstances force you into it when your normal swing will serve. Go-to is emergency use only.

 

You'll note very few people other than for range entertainment hit stingers. Even Tiger said they were bad for his swing at the time.

 

[LeftDaddy]

Ok. Thanks again for the comments. I guess all I’m saying is that for most tee balls, and a large majority of iron shots and 3w shots out of the fairway, I hit the ball somewhat the way I planned it. But there’s something about a few tee shots that gives me what feels like more trouble. I know it costs me more strokes than a pulled 7 iron from the fairway for example. And I literally never slice anything out of the fairway. I either hit it straight, or pull or draw or hook it. So on approach shots, I have a one way miss. And when there is trouble right, I play more club and hit something soft and aim away from the trouble.

 

My coach claimed that one could tee it down on the tee and mostly take the hook out of play. Maybe there’s some truth to that and I should try it. Maybe I should not tee up a 3w. I seem to bomb it off the deck dead straight most of the time, but I get a little wilder when I tee it up.

 

Maybe there’s something about having both direction and distance targets, vs primarily directional targets and hit it as far as you can. I don’t know. I definitely think some of it is mental for me.

 

I manage the inside-out path most of the time by getting a lot “higher” and steeper in the backswing. Any normal human being would slice the heck out of it from that position. But I drop the club in the slot and it ends up on plane most of the time because I got it high/steep enough in the backswing. But our faults tend to reappear when we least want them to. And it is keeping me, right now, from shooting mid 70s. I’m just giving away strokes because I have to retee twice per round and eat double, and I have to accept about 2 or 3 bogeys per round on top of that because of poor tee balls. I start every round basically 5-7 strokes in the hole, then I go 3 to 5 over from there. I definitely make strokes up off the tee, too, because I can move it well by normal golfer standards (but not WRX standards). And I can take some aggressive lines that make reaching par 5s easyish, and can cut yards off certain par 4s. But I just thought that some of the 0-5 crowd might have some shots or thoughts or whatever they use to help with avoiding disasters off the tee.

 

Oh well, I guess I’ll just keep trying to improve overall, and tee improvements will come with that. Thanks again.

[SNIPERBBB]

All you can do is practice, practice, and more practice. No amount of concentration or focus or strategy is going to prevent a bad swing. Bad swings jump up and bite everybody's butt at some point, the better you are the least likely they are to happen but unfortunately for us, they usually cost us more than the 100 shooters. Even the pros aren't immune from hosel rockets(Finau most recently) and drives that miss the planet.

[LeftDaddy]

Practiced a power fade the other day on the range. I gave myself targets and pretended I was on a tee. I never once missed right. I did miss further left than I might be able to live with occasionally. But if that was the only miss, I could play around that.

 

However, that’s the range. We all know the range is different than the course.

 

And I guess this gets to the crux of why I asked the question. I don’t want help playing golf swing. I want help playing golf. Maybe this power fade / one way miss can help there. We’ll see.

[BB28403]

> @davep043 said:

> and yet another duplicate

 

Dave! Lay off the bottle buddy! Haha

 

Op you might want to break out the Dr. Scholls spray, even during play. To see where you hit it on the face of the driver.

[SNIPERBBB]

> @LeftDaddy said:

> Practiced a power fade the other day on the range. I gave myself targets and pretended I was on a tee. I never once missed right. I did miss further left than I might be able to live with occasionally. But if that was the only miss, I could play around that.

>

> However, that’s the range. We all know the range is different than the course.

>

> And I guess this gets to the crux of why I asked the question. I don’t want help playing golf swing. I want help playing golf. Maybe this power fade / one way miss can help there. We’ll see.

 

I think your are simply overthinking this and psyching yourself out. As your stepping into your setup all thoughts should be gone.

[OldFrog75]

I'd love to be an 8 with your "problems". At your level of play it seems to me you're talking about mm's and milli-seconds when it comes to your swing, grip, tee height, etc. As we all know, it doesn't take much to be off target.

[davep043]

> @LeftDaddy said:

> Practiced a power fade the other day on the range. I gave myself targets and pretended I was on a tee. I never once missed right. I did miss further left than I might be able to live with occasionally. But if that was the only miss, I could play around that.

>

> However, that’s the range. We all know the range is different than the course.

>

> And I guess this gets to the crux of why I asked the question. I don’t want help playing golf swing. I want help playing golf. Maybe this power fade / one way miss can help there. We’ll see.

 

Hopefully, you've found a path forward. Just a reminder, changes don't always take complete effect immediately. It may take a number of rounds of golf along with a number of range sessions before you become reasonably consistent with your power fade.

[LeftDaddy]

Thanks. Haven’t been able to play in a week or so. Plan to play on Sunday. Will try a couple of things to see if I can avoid the 2 or so disaster tee balls.

 

I’m definitely overthinking things. I’ve worked on routine and mental stuff lately, and because I’m so analytical what I’ve concluded is that I have to go very simple with routine (and quick). Basically, I need to not allow myself any time to think through the shot. I just need to see a shot and hit it. No practice swings. Etc.

 

It has helped a lot.

 

And if I can develop a super reliable tee shot, I’ll just pull the trigger on that too. Just haven’t found it yet.

[wkuo3]

I'm on the other side of the opinion.

But I do agree that you don't need to change your strategy off the tee. You're a single digit index holder, aren't you ? That means you did decent with golf course management and your golf swing is steady enough to get you to a single digit.

You'll need to look into the recovery shots, even the professionals Don't keep their tee shots in the fairway most of the time. The difference could be a good miss Vs. a bad one which there is no way of recovering from the mistake.

And, You probably have not dialed in on the driver which will give you more chance of staying in play. The best driver is not the numbers game of getting longer, optimal spin rate and launch angle.......... It's been discussed many times that the best driver is the one which you feel comfortable and able with and able to find the fairway more often.

So continue on your journey of searching for the driver for your game. It may not be the new stock and model, it could be something from several years ago.....

Just remember, when you find your driver, you should stop the search , otherwise you'd be HOING.

 

[ousuxndallas]

Similar index to you (10) - I have been working on a go-to power fade. Weaken grip slightly, open face slightly, open stance, outside takeaway, finish high.

 

Try hitting a 75% driver, easy swing, choke down an inch. The driver has a huge margin of error and sweetspot, so swing it easy and find the fairway. You will be surprised that you actually don't sacrifice too much distance, maybe 15-30 yards. Better chance of success than trying to nut a 3 iron or 3 wood.

[Lefthook]

Imo the best way to become a consistent driver is to play long courses where you use the driver on most holes and where you really need to give the ball a solid rip to be in position for a gir.