How to Drive a Golf Ball

If you could find one thing that probably every golfer in the world would like to improve, it will be his or her drive. While we all have our own area that need improvement, or that we need to work on to really get comfortable with, a longer, straighter more powerful drive is something that every golfer, no matter what their abilities or level, would certainly benefit from.

There are really three aspects to a good drive. The first is direction. There is really no point in having a very powerful golf drive if you have no control over where the ball will fly once you hit it. Control over the direction of the ball is vital therefore. Getting a better control over the ball depends to a degree on your technique, but also on experience. There are certain ways you can improve your swing so that you will have more control over the fly of your ball once you drive it. There are many exercises and practice routines that you can find the work on this aspect of your drive.

However, getting the technique right is not everything. As well as knowing how to hit the ball you need to have an eye for where it is going. This will include taking weather conditions into account. This is really only something that you can learn from practice and experience but it is remarkable what a difference it will make to your drive if there is a strong head wind. The same is true if the wind is going with you. While different golfers have different philosophies on how you should deal with different weather conditions, one thing is for sure. The only way to really get a feel for how different weather conditions will effect your drive is to go out and play.

The pitch of your drive will sometimes be relevant although the driver usually controls this and there are not many holes when you will need to consider using a different club. However, there will be some and you should willing to use the right club for the right shot.

Strength and fitness will also come into the quality of your drive. While everyone says it is not how hard you hit the ball, but simply how you hit the ball, the fact is that golfers are getting fitter and this is having an impact on their game.

If You've Hit Your Golf Driver Perfectly Once, You Can Do It Every Time

Picture yourself standing on the tee box of your favorite short 4 par. You've got your driver in hand. This hole is designed with risk-reward written all over it. If you hit it long and straight, you can get very near or maybe on the green with your driver to set up for an easy birdie. If you mis-hit it, you are looking at hazards or o/b and a balloon score.

You know the correct play here is to pull out an iron and lay up for a 100 yard shot to the green, but you just can't bring yourself to do it. You say to yourself, "What the heck, I'm going for it".

Because, after all is said and done, the idea behind playing golf is to have fun and if taking chances on the golf course and sometimes beating the odds is your idea of fun, who's to say that you are wrong about that? Myself, I'm more interested in playing for score than going for broke, but hey, that's just me. I will support anyone anytime who wants to go for the difficult tee shot with the possibility of pulling off an unbelievable shot as long as they are willing to gracefully accept the consequences of missing it .

What's the point to all of that? THE DRIVER IS KING of the golf bag! Driving the golf ball long and straight is the holy grail of almost all amateur golfers. Some will even leave a golf course happier if they were satisfied with the way they hit their driver than if they had a great score. Yet, we are constantly reminded of the old saying:

"Drive for show, and putt for dough"

Greg Norman disputes this old saw by saying in his book SHARK ATTACK: "Don't ever sell me on that line. If you can't put your tee-shot in play, the smoothest stroke in the world won't help you enough. To my mind, the most important shot in golf is the drive".

Do you feel better now? I do, because he isn't the only one who has made these types of remarks about driving. Furthermore if you really think about it, the importance of the driver and getting off the tee safely with some distance is probably greater for higher handicappers than the better golfers as the larger portion of their shots are spent in just getting to the green.

So what can we do about it short of another set of golf lessons? Plenty! Start off by getting a new driver, plain and simple. The new technology is light years ahead of the #1 wood of just 3 years ago.

Also, we must be able to direct our mind so that our brain and muscles are in sync and harmony in successfully pulling off this very violent of sports acts with the driving tool.

How to do all of that?

We must first understand how our DESIRE to hit this little white golf ball is translated into the correct contractions of muscles in a timing sequence that moves the driving club in the direction that will contact the ball squarely and with great force to achieve the outcome we want.

It's not that complicated. We are beings uniquely capable of original thought that comes from what we call our conscious mind. We create a thought there that is then communicated to our subconscious mind to make the act happen. What? Our subconscious mind makes the driver hit the ball? Yes! Here's proof:

The last time you rode a bike, did you have to say words to yourself to get your leg to push on the pedal? Did you have to tell yourself that you now have to balance yourself with a thousand small muscles all acting independently? Did you have to tell your left arm muscles to contract and your right arm muscles to release contraction in order to make a left turn? Of course not! You just thought very quickly with your conscious mind what you wanted to do and then it turned the accomplishment of that desire over to the subconscious mind. The subconscious then made it all happen.

This is no small feat to send a zillion electrical impulses out in a precise order in order to cause another zillion muscle fibers to contract or relax at the perfect time. This is the wonder of our bio-computer called the BRAIN.

So, what about all that golf advice about setup, position at the top, swing checkpoints, follow-through, etc? This is what you probably thought you would be reading about right? Folks, it's all good, however, it's sometimes too much for us to handle and causes us "paralysis by analysis". We need to work a plan that will give us maximum return for minimum effort and time. Most of us just don't have the time to go practice the multitude of advice we have been given on the swing and that is the only way you are going to improve if using a mechanical approach to improvement. A better, more time-efficient system, is a MENTAL one:

Remember this:

"The quality of our golf game is determined by the quality of our communication with ourselves."

Our subconscious mind controls all of our involuntary (don't have to think about) functions like breathing and heart rate but it also runs extremely complicated physical motions as long as it has been taught how. Hitting the driver is at the height of complication for the golf swing since we are expecting maximum force and speed coupled with keeping precision. After all, we could have pretty good precision when we have a 1-foot putt right? And we can lift our heaviest weight when we aren't concerned with whether or not we are going to drop it or not. We intuitively know that the harder we exert force on something, the less precision we have in that act. When using the driver in our golf game, we must realize a few key points in order to maximize our efficiency on the tee box.

1. The subconscious mind is the expert at swinging the driver, not the conscious.

If we have hit a great drive in the past, then our subconscious mind knows how to do it again. It knows the correct number and sequence of muscle contractions and nerve impulses required to repeat that great drive. All that is required is a clear communication of the desire to the subconscious mind. This is achieved with visualization prior to the actual swing.

2. The conscious mind tends to get in the way and must be given something to do to keep busy so that it doesn't interfere with the subconscious mind's work.

Once the desire has been communicated, you should think something simple during the swing like maybe singing a song or, a simple count of the actions of the swing as they are happening (ie 1.backswing, 2.top of swing, 3. forward motion, etc.). Or continue with the visualization of the ball flying exactly as you planned it in the middle of the swing. Or, you may be able to utilize self-hypnosis and concentrate directly and solely on that ball to put yourself in a zone-like state for the duration of the swing. Many golfers do this without even knowing it but it can be developed further with knowledge and effort in this area. (my website has free ebook on this).

3. There is a point of exertion of force on the driver that if we go beyond it, then our probability of keeping our precision is drastically reduced.

This falls under the Law of Diminishing Returns and is best explained by this analogy: how many cooks can you put in a kitchen before they start bumping into one another and actually start reducing their output as that number is exceeded. This point is different for everyone, but, most importantly: This point is at LESS FORCE than you think for most golfers who have trouble with their driver. In other plain terms...hit it solid first and then harder second.

Everything written thus far was with the intent of convincing you of this inescapable fact of hitting the driver. If you aren't convinced, then you won't take action. The actions required don't take any of your time but they do require consistent effort throughout your day. Golf is unforgiving to the lazy person but generous to the focused one.

So, make every effort this month, or this week if you have an upcoming round you want to get ready for and repeat to yourself (communicate with your subconscious mind) that you first and foremost always hit the driver square and on the sweet spot.

Say it to yourself at least one hundred or so times in a week (this is a lot easier to do than you are thinking right now). Picture in your mind what it would look like, how it would feel to have your drives go straight every single time. Zoom in on your driver about to make contact with the ball in your mental movies. Do this everywhere, anytime, but especially before falling asleep. Keep doing it on a consistent basis. Isn't that what we are striving for in golf - consistency? We have to build it into our way of thinking for it to happen out on the course.

There are many ways to effectively communicate with your subconscious mind. Basic affirmations and visualizations just described is the simplest. Once your subconscious accepts the idea as internal truth (and it must if you are persistent in convincing it), you will see dramatic improvement off the tee.

Woods may forgo driver at Hoylake

HOYLAKE, England -- Tiger Woods might have concluded his preparation for the 135th British Open Championship at Royal Liverpool Golf Club on Tuesday. After arriving Saturday, he and swing coach Hank Haney have studied the old links course and formulated a game plan: It might not include a driver.

No, Woods hasn't lost confidence with the big stick. Given the firm condition of the fairways and the locations of out-of-bounds, deep bunkers and tall grass, it makes more sense to sacrifice length for position. Besides, the ball is running so far, he's even replacing his 5-wood with a 2-iron, a club he hasn't carried since the Dunlop Phoenix tournament in Japan late last year. "I'm trying to take advantage of the fast fairways and roll the ball out there," he said Tuesday.

If hot temperatures continue -- they reached nearly 90 degrees -- expect to see dust fly. Not that Woods or other contenders are complaining.

"The golf course is definitely fast," said Woods, a two-time winner and the defending champion. "It's hard. It's a little bit slower the last couple of days because obviously they're putting some water on it, trying to keep it alive. But overall it's going to be a fantastic challenge this week to play a golf course this fast. We don't get a chance to do this very often, but when we do, it sure brings back shot making and creativity back in the game."

Something Woods loves.

"It's not like you can go out there and hit a marginal shot and expect it to be OK," he said. "You come in with the wrong spin in the fairways or even on the greens, you're going to pay a consequence of that."

Many players have struggled getting shots to stick on the par-3 sixth and ninth greens.

"It's going to be really hard to get it close," Woods said. "A lot of good shots here downwind are going to be 20, 30, 40 feet away."

Not that he doesn't expect low scores.

"The par-5s are reachable and there are some short par-4s out here," Woods said. "If the wind stays down, I'm sure the guys will be making plenty of birdies out there."

Woods might take it easy Wednesday and rest up for Thursday's first round when he's scheduled to tee off at 2:09 p.m. local time (9:09 a.m. ET) with Nick Faldo and Shingo Katayama.

"If the wind keeps changing every day, it's really difficult to try to get accustomed to a golf course," Woods said. "The weather, since I've been here, it's blown out of three different directions. So you've had to adjust your game plan off of every tee. But also a little bit of fun, too."

Don't expect a lot of small talk between Woods and Faldo. The latter, a golf analyst for ABC, has been critical of Woods in the past.

"I've only played with him two times since I've been a pro. And there wasn't a lot of talking there, either," Woods said.

Asked if the two would shake hands on the first tee, Woods said, "I don't know. I really don't know. It's up to him and I'll be in my world trying to compete and trying to win the championship, and I'm sure he'll probably do the same thing."

Naturally, Woods will think of his father, Earl, who passed away May 3, often.

"I've come to terms with it, no doubt about that," he said. "He's not here anymore. It's not like I can pick up the phone and call him and say, 'Pop, what do you think about my putting stroke?' Those days aren't here anymore. So I've got to come to terms with it and understand it. I have so many wonderful memories that I'll look back on it with smiles every time."

Ping G10 Draw Review

If you have a slice like me, the Ping G10 Draw is a great Ping golf club. The Ping G10 Draw is designed to give the average golfer a nice draw. Or, if you tend to slice the golf ball, this club can help to straighten out your shot.

The Ping G10 Draw has a 460cc titanium head. The way it gets it draw is through its offset head that is designed to help your ball to have a nice draw flight path. The titanium head is designed to give you great distance and control. This improved moment of inertia is built into every new ping golf club.

How can the ping G10 draw improve your game?

A draw on your golf shot should really improve your control of the ball. If you tend to hit a slice, the offset head should help you to straighten out your golf ball. This should improve your distance and ball control. Most golfers will find that it will help with mis hits too.

The Ping G10 Draw golf club comes in 9, 10.5, 12, and 13.5 loft. Its graphite shaft also comes in a regular shaft flexibility or stiff flexibility.