How to Drive a Golf Ball Straight

It is a given that every golfer craves to know how to drive a golf ball straight. However, more specifically, the challenge lies in mastering the driver, which is one of the most difficult clubs.

A simple rule of thumb is, the longer the club, the harder it is to use properly. Though, this doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to learn how to drive a golf ball straight. Instead, you will just need a few more tips that is paired with some consistent practice.

The very best shot off the tee is one that aces all these three aspects: does not impart a lot of backspin to the ball, travels low, and carries sufficient power to add yards by rolling once it lands. If you can tick these three off your checklist of elements, your game will significantly improve.

Let’s get into the tips and strategies to complete your checklist.

1. Proper Leverage

In golf, leverage refers to the energy and power advantage that sources from your swing. It is typically driven by the relationship between the wrist, lead arm, and the club.

Now that that is settled, one of the first steps to learning how to drive a golf ball straight, is understanding the importance of leverage. Not only is it crucial to gain leverage, but it must be maintained throughout the entire swing.
With that said, a player can achieve proper leverage by keeping your head behind the golf ball from address, and all the way to club-to-ball impact.

2. Club Head Speed

To a certain extent, speed does translate into power and momentum when it comes to a golf swing.

The second most important issue to address is that, distance primarily stems from the club head speed, rather than your arm strength. Golfers who attempt to muscle their way through their shot will almost always end up with a poorly hit ball. In most cases, this could be a sliced or hooked shot which both decrease length.

Instead, players must note that it is the hips and the legs that generate speed and power; therefore, use and engage them!

When it comes to swing path, other clubs may be relatively flexible, but the driver is an exception to this. As you initiate your backswing, you should keep the swing plane low or in other words, shallow.

3. Lead with the Hands

Your hands are essential to the effectivity and efficiency of your hit as it is the body part that makes direct contact with the club.

With this, another factor to keep in mind when learning how to drive a golf ball straight is to have your hands lead the club head at impact with the ball. You may have heard others say, “Let your wrists break,” and that is exactly what they mean — lead with the hands.

A common mistake of many golfers is trying to suddenly stop their swing as soon as they have made contact with the ball. In order to avoid this habit, you should let your arms and body move and flow all the way through the swing. And take note, this includes the follow-through.

4. Appropriate Grip

Tying to the topic and importance of hands, grip seems simple, but having the right one goes a very long way.
When a player is trying to learn how to drive a golf ball straight, it is imperative to not grip the club too lightly. Most golfers concentrate on whipping the golf ball with the club, rather than chopping at it.

If you are a player that carries the tendency to slice the ball, a great tip is to try and slow your downswing. This is often tied to you coming down too fast or too hard, which causes you to come out and deviate from the proper swing path.

Another tip to avoid slicing the ball is to examine your grip by measure. If you cannot see two or three knuckles when looking directly down at your grip, you are currently setting yourself up for a slice. This same technique applies to those with the unfortunate habit of hooking the ball. If you look down and see more than two or three knuckles, your grip will change at impact and result to a severe hook.

To fix either of these issues, you must keep rotating and adjusting your hands until you see the golden rule of two or three knuckles.

5. Check Your Divot

To conclude our strategies and techniques, we’ve got one more on our list.

For learning how to drive a golf ball straight, the last tip we have is to make sure that you are not pulling, nor pushing the ball. Whether you are coming off the tee or hitting off the fairway, either of these can occur.

Though, how can a player tell if you are pushing or pulling the ball?

To answer this, after your swing, you should check the divot that is left behind. If the divot is pointing to the left or the right of your target line, your body is not properly aligned. To fix this, check your stance at address — keep your feet, shoulders, and hips squared.

Final Word

Now that you have a list of strategies, you have one more thing left to do — practice and apply!

With any golf skill, the best thing to do is to keep at it. And with that, if you want to drive a golf ball straight, you must keep applying and practicing.

Remember, do not try and tackle them all at once. Once you are in the process of training, you should only apply one or two changes to see if these were your previous issues. If they weren’t your issues or if they are now fixed but you still need a little bit more of adjustment, you can move onto the next pair of techniques.

After each adjustment, you can observe to see how it improved and how much it improved until you’ve reached your desired goal.

Happy golfing!