Driver Help

nanook

Hi there

Wonder could someone give me some advice on what to do here. I have been talking with friends and I am getting the some degree of advice that i should be upgrading my drivers.

I have the wilson starter set with a Wilson x-31 10.5.

I have been told that if i upgrade this I should be getting some extra distance, currently 150 - 200 yards.

Please remember that I am only at this 8 months and am still relativly new to the game. (handicap of 24 at the moment if that is any help)

dil999

Concentrate on chipping and putting. A new driver wont make a blind bit of difference to your game at the moment.

Unless your friends are scratch to 6 golfers, don't pay too much attention to them. Find a good pro take some lessons and take his/her advice

J.R.HARTLEY

i'd back up dil999's advice, don't go by your friends advice, rather talk to a pro, or even cheaper option is visit the driving ranges for the demo days which will be starting soon, basically a rep from different companies bring their range of products to the driving range for you to try, you can talk to them there, they mostly use pros

FlutterinBantam

Sound advice from all the above.

Get the basics right first before you even think of upgrading.

Its not the arrow it's the archer.

Nev

Hey,
The lads are right about the putting and chipping but a few extra yards can help aswell , you should go into premier golf or somewhere where they have a vector that u hit balls on, It tells you how far u hit it and wat launch this way they can fit u for the right shaft and loft. Bring in ur own driver aswell and see do they tell you if a new driver will make any differece or stick with the old. I did it for myself and it helped

nanook

lads/ladies (not sure who replies here)

Many thanks for the sound advice, ironically one of the advisors was a PGA member but the rest are wannabe professional and think they are.
Nev really sound advise there, i may contact you again to talk to you more about it.

once again many thanks for the replies

Mister Sifter

Good advice above, however, a good driver can do a lot for your game. If you could add another 50-60 yards to your drives then the game becomes totally different. Thses mates of yours obviously have decent drivers themselves so next time your out with them have a few hits with theirs. See what you think. Either that, depending on your budget, you could try pick up a decent driver second hand. Some good ones out there and if your not happy with it after a while then trade it back in and you waon't have lost too much on it.

GreeBo

I disagree.
At 24 H'cap 60 yrds off the tee isnt going to make much difference to your game.
I would bet that you are not taking 24 extra shots per round because you are too far away from the green off the tee.
More likey you are trying to hit inappropriate shots like 3 woods from the fairway and 4 irons out of the rough.
Course management will drop you shots now much more than a new driver will.
Getting yourself measured and analysed when you are a 24 h'cap means that you have a swing that you are willing to keep for the forseeable future.
You dont.
Your swing will change a lot as you get better, it could be slower, faster, flatter, steeper, shorter or longer, all of which will mean a different shaft/head/loft for your driver.

You probably dont want to hear any of this and will also go out and get a new driver but you wont get any extra distance other than the "mental affect" of having a shiny new club.

This will quickly pass and leave you with a €250 hole in your pocket.

Golferx

Realistically no man should need (want?) any more than an 18 handicap. If your worst shot went 100 yards then you are effectively shortening every hole by 100 yards.

If you are a 24 h'cap then you have many flaws. The first, obvious, fix is to try and establish a proper swing/stroke, something reliable and something you know you can revert to at all times. Do this and you will find the greens in 2 or three shots a lot more frequently. One swing will do you for all of your drivers and irons. (only difference is where you stand relative to the ball.)


And, in parallel, work on the chipping and putting.

Remember, if one plays par-golf then half of your shots will be on the green.

Mister Sifter

GreeBo wrote:

I disagree.
At 24 H'cap 60 yrds off the tee isnt going to make much difference to your game.
I would bet that you are not taking 24 extra shots per round because you are too far away from the green off the tee.

fair enough. the other way of looking at it is, if you can knock the ball an extra few yards up the fairway then you'll be hitting into the green with a shorter iron. i.e. a 7 iron as opposed to a 4 iron or whatever.

GreeBo wrote:

... leave you with a €250 hole in your pocket.

at the moment he's playing with a pretty basic club. i'm not saying he should upgrade to a top of the range new driver, but maybe that it would be worth upgrading a little bit to say a decent driver from a few years ago. The likes of a Titleist 365 can be picked up fairly cheaply nowadays and would be a definite improvement on what he has.

dil999

Graeme1982 wrote:

Good advice above, however, a good driver can do a lot for your game. If you could add another 50-60 yards to your drives then the game becomes totally different. Thses mates of yours obviously have decent drivers themselves so next time your out with them have a few hits with theirs. See what you think. Either that, depending on your budget, you could try pick up a decent driver second hand. Some good ones out there and if your not happy with it after a while then trade it back in and you waon't have lost too much on it.

I'd be surprised if a 24 h/c playing for 8 months is going to average 60yds extra with any new driver. stick with what you have. get a few lessons and play as often as you can, practice chipping and putting and you'll find the h/c coming down.

Mister Sifter

dil999 wrote:

I'd be surprised if a 24 h/c playing for 8 months is going to average 60yds extra with any new driver. stick with what you have. get a few lessons and play as often as you can, practice chipping and putting and you'll find the h/c coming down.

If i hit his driver instead of my Titleist i'm sure it would go a fair bit shorter and i'd be a lot less consistent and would struggle to play to my handicap.

Not saying a new driver is the answer to everything, but it would help. as would much of the ideas mentioned such as working on the short game.

Golf is definitely easier with better equiptment.

GreeBo

Graeme1982 wrote:

fair enough. the other way of looking at it is, if you can knock the ball an extra few yards up the fairway then you'll be hitting into the green with a shorter iron. i.e. a 7 iron as opposed to a 4 iron or whatever.

except if you are off 24 you are just as likely to shank your 7 into the trees as hit it where you are aiming.

Graeme1982 wrote:

at the moment he's playing with a pretty basic club. i'm not saying he should upgrade to a top of the range new driver, but maybe that it would be worth upgrading a little bit to say a decent driver from a few years ago. The likes of a Titleist 365 can be picked up fairly cheaply nowadays and would be a definite improvement on what he has.

Improvement? Probably.
Distraction? Definitely.
Yes its a better club, but should he start using ProV1's and a Gap Wedge aswell?
If he is trying to hit the ball further off the tee then by all means concentrate on that, but if you want to become a better golfer forget about it.
You could hit 3 7i's on every hole and play to 18.

Mister Sifter

Not at all, if you re-read what i said, upgrading his driver would be my advice. Not to a a top of the range E400 odd club, but to something better, perhaps second hand.

I think it would help him. Not only would it give him extra distance, but it would most likely increase his accuracy and consistency.

GreeBo

Graeme1982 wrote:

Not at all, if you re-read what i said, upgrading his driver would be my advice. Not to a a top of the range E400 odd club, but to something better, perhaps second hand.

I think it would help him. Not only would it give him extra distance, but it would most likely increase his accuracy and consistency.

I didnt mention prices in my reply so you have lost me there...

The bottom line is that he doesnt need extra distance. He needs to be able to put the ball roughly where he is aiming most of the time.

How much extra distance do you think a new club will give him, maybe 15 yards?
Thats of no use to someone who is hitting the ball 150 - 200 yrds .
If he can hit it 175 most of the time then he wouldnt be off 24.
Hitting it 175 - 215 isnt going to change his handicap.

He is not losing accuracy and consistency because of the club, its his swing (or lack of) that is the problem, the same as everyother 24 h'capper.

Fix the swing then tweak around with clubs etc.

I bet I can hit that driver just fine and still play to my handicap.

Mister Sifter

Well, i guess we're just gonna have to agree to disagree on this one as the thread is perhaps going slightly off-track here.

Adding on a bit of distance will help the vast majority of golfers,. ESPECIALLLY, someone who is struggling to hit it 200 yards. That means every second shot is probably a wood or a long iron. That extra 15-20 yards would mean he was hitting 2 clubs higher for his second shot. And i know i'd rather hit a 7 iron than a 5 or a 5 iron rather than a three for my second shot.

However, as i keep saying, a better driver won't just give him more distance but it should, in theory at least, also help him hit more fairways and be more consistent.

The driver he is using now is very, very basic and my advice would be, if you can afford to upgrade, then do it.

Also, the very fact that his playing partners are saying he should upgrade his driver speaks volumes.

GreeBo

Graeme1982 wrote:

ESPECIALLLY, someone who is struggling to hit it 200 yards. That means every second shot is probably a wood or a long iron. That extra 15-20 yards would mean he was hitting 2 clubs higher for his second shot. And i know i'd rather hit a 7 iron than a 5 or a 5 iron rather than a three for my second shot.

My whole point is that he would only be hitting a wood or long iron for his second if he is going for the green in 2.
He is 24 h'cap. The only greens he should be going for in 2 are the easier par 3's!

As I said before, he is not off 24 because he cant hit the ball far enough, its becuase he is most likely all over the place most of the time, and 5 yards along the ground a lot of the time...

There is no point in hitting your longest club if you cant make the green 95% of the time. If you cant make it then lay up with something you *know* you can hit. This is for any golfer, not just high handicappers.