Ever wondered how even the smallest professional golfers can drive the golf ball so far? Well, it is not all about strength when you are dealing with golf. Being able to hit the golf ball far boils down to the golfer’s technique as well as some external factors.
In this guide, we will be focusing on how you can hit the golf ball as far as you possibly can. We will start with the proper technique of hitting the golf ball. As we go farther into the subject, we will talk about how other factors can help you with the process.
By the end of this guide, you will have learned all the necessary techniques and tricks. All of which you can use in a golf course to hit the golf ball farther than you thought you could. Therefore, without stretching any further, let’s start.
The Drive Technique
You can break down any sport out there into small parts. You will find that every sport is heavily based on techniques. Golf is not different in that case. If you want to be up there with the best, you have to have the techniques of golf down.
Speaking of golf techniques, golf drives are only partly dependent on the golfer’s strength. The process to perfect your golf drives to hit the ball far is easy, but you have to consider and fix a couple of things to do it right.
Let’s talk about the golf drive technique step by step. To start with the golf drive, you begin with your posture.
The Posture
The posture is basically how you are positioning your body to take a golf drive. This is the foundation for taking the shot. If you are not doing it correctly, you might not be able to hit the ball very far; even if you use all of your strength. Here are the steps to get the correct posture.
Step 1
Put down the sole of the club behind the golf ball. Then measure the approximate distance from you to the ball while holding the club. Now hold the club up and stand straight.
Step 2
Once you stand up straight, keep your legs together. Try to guess the distance from one shoulder to another. Spread your legs aligning with the distance of corresponding shoulder. Then lock your knees.
Step 3
From standing straight, start bending your torso to address the golf ball. Do this while maintaining a straight back. Once you are addressing the ball, unlock your knees but keep them in a firm state.
There are a couple of things to keep in mind while taking on the posture. Firstly, when you are addressing the ball, make sure your shoulders are aligned with the target line.
Furthermore, from a side, your one arm should be blocking the view of your other arm. Try to keep your arms straight and aligned with each other.
The Swing
When it comes to taking a swing at the ball, it is not just taking the club around and hitting the ball. You also have to maintain the alignments of your club and body with imaginary lines if you wish to take a distance traveling shot. Following are the steps to get your swing right or swing on plane.
Step 1
Once you have figured out the posture, imagine a line created by the shaft of your club. You will be using the line to perfect your swing.
Step 2
Now start pulling your club opposite to the target from the ball. Keep the club parallel to the line you imagined. Likewise, keep your arms straight while rotating your body. At one point in the process, the club will become parallel to the ground and the target line.
Step 3
From the position of the second step, start pulling the club again. Keep doing so till the grip end of the club is pointing towards the target line. The club and the target line should be perpendicular to each other.
Step 4
Now rotate your body farther with the club. You will end up with the club being parallel to the target line again as the second step. However, this time the grip end of the club will be facing away from the target.
Step 5
In the fifth and final step, you will be taking the downswing. In this step, you will be repeating the first four steps in a reverse order to hit the ball. Following the same path you used to go up, drag the club and hit the ball.
Accordingly, avoid focusing on your arms to focus on hitting the ball for the swing. The key to taking swings to get the ball farther is in your body rotation. Use your torso to focus on dragging the golf club. Your body will be working as a pivot for the club.
The Other Factors & Tricks
We have talked about the first and major steps to focus on. These will put you in the right track to hitting your golf ball way farther. Now we will dicuss about other things that you can change or focus on to get that ball distance.
Consider Changing Your Golf Ball
One of the essential parts of playing golf is the golf ball itself. The quality and type of ball often determine the aerodynamics of the ball. You might think that more expensive balls will always be better. However, that is not always the actual case.
Premium or the more expensive balls might be great in terms of overall performance. At the same time, they are not necessarily the best choice when you are trying to get the golf ball farther.
For the extra yardage or distance, you would want to get a golf ball with low compression. You can also get those with bigger cores. These balls tend to be cheaper than the premium ones. Thus, you might be able to save yourself a bit of money in the process.
Tweak the Height of Your Tee
Your tee height might be preventing you from hitting the ball farther. You think you are hitting the ball properly, but the golf ball is not reaching very far. In that case, try putting the tee less deep than you are.
A lower tee might provide a flatter trajectory for a shot. On the other hand, if you put your tee higher, it gives you more of an angle to hit. The ball will get an uphill hit on it in that case.
Moreover, a higher tee will help you with the ball’s angle of launch with extra active loft. In the process, you get less backspin on the ball. Concurrently, it provides you with the space to hit the ball from the inner side more. All of these factors work together to give your shot a longer distance.
Try Increasing the Loft
To get the ball farther, you want to keep the ball up in the air as long as you possibly can. To do so, you need to focus on balancing three things:the backspin put on the ball, the speed of your club swing and the angle of the ball’s launch.
If you want that distance with your golf ball, increase the loft a little bit. See loft as a friend of yours and not as an enemy.
Back in the day’s people used to use seven degree drivers for their shots. However, now the scene is different. The amateurs benefit from higher lofts. Nowadays the usual loft for beginners is twelve degrees or more.
Get a Launch Monitor Fitting
Launch monitors are trackers for your shots. These gadgets monitor your launch statistics. These stats will include various things. They include things like the angle you are hitting the ball, the ball spin and direction and much more.
The machine provides you with numbers to deal with. If you get fitted by an instructor or academy, they can help you to understand the numbers. They will help you to fix the error you are probably making. These errors can vary from golfer’s technique to their equipment.
A lot of golfers do not know about this technology. You might want to get that extra yardage to impress your friends. If so, get a professional checkup with the launch monitor.
Change Your Old Grips
As you use the golf club more and more, you end up wearing out the grip of the club. Consequently, when you hold the club, you end up holding it tighter than normal. That is because worn out grips tend to slip more.
If you are holding the grip of your club tighter than you have to, you end up wasting strength as well. In addition, this limits the length of your normal swing. As a result, your swing does not get enough of your control and speed. Therefore, you do not get to send the golf ball that additional distance.
According to a study, when you replace your grip with a newer one, you get enhanced swing speeds on average about two miles per houron the older grip. Hence, try replacing your grips to see if that helps to hit the golf ball farther.
Try Keeping Your Lead Arm Straight
A straighter lead arm will help you to send the golf ball that extra distance. This concept makes obvious sense because, if you are keeping your lead arm straight throughout the swing, the clubface travels farther.
Likewise, the golf ball will be hit with a longer swing. That will cause the impact to be stronger and make the golf ball travel farther.
Get New Golf Clubs
A lot of times happens that the players get their techniques right, but the problem begins with their golf equipment. Faulty or old golf equipment can be restricting you driver lengths. This occurs especially in the case of golf clubs.
Throughout the last twenty years, technology in terms of golf equipment has improved dramatically. For that reason, the newer golf clubs are way better than the older ones. In that sense, your older golf club might be your issue here.
Currently, the golf balls are tweaked with a center of gravity that is lower than before. As a result, the golf balls tend to get up in the airway quicker than before. Moreover, the eight-irons are performing much better than the seven-irons.
Consequently, if you want to get your golf ball farther into the greens, try getting a newer set of golf clubs.
Find Correct Shoes
Your getup might also affect your playing apart from your technique, strength and other factors. The right sized shoes might help you out with putting power in your swings. You also might want to check out types of shoes to determine if any other type provides better control as well.
Speaking of types of shoes in golf, Foot Joy proved the type of shoe could matter. The correct type of golf shoes can help you to acquire an extra three to four mile per hour on your speed of the clubhead. Furthermore, the sort of shoe can be both mobile or structured.
Considering the data, you get on average an extra ten yards to your drives. In addition, the tour players are performing better with the shoes they were recommended and over ninety-five percent players there benefit from the idea.
Shift Weight During Swing
The power of your swing and the trajectory of your shot both depends on your weight; more specifically, how you shift your weight throughout your body during a golf drive. It is important if you want to hit the golf ball as far as you can.
When you are almost done with your backswing, focus a little more than half of your weight on the back leg. Once you start pivoting through the golf ball using your hands and hips, shift weight again.
Your weight should now be focused on your front leg. Your front leg will get about ninety percent weight of your body at the end of the swing.
Following the proper shifting of weight throughout your body, you are enabling your swing to be more effective. That will cause your golf ball to get more air and go a farther distance.
Fetch a Driver that is Low-Spinning
As much as you like how backspin looks on a golf ball, it should be avoided during drives, especially if you are trying to get that extra edge in terms of distance. Backspins tend to reduce the travel distance for the golf ball.
Higher speed on your swing will provide you with proper air and little backspin. You will benefit further from this as you get a driver that specializes in a low spin. Anyone from an amateur player will see improvements in the distance with low spin drivers immediately.
A standard club head with low spin specialization can lessen the rotation per minute by five hundred. Moreover, the ball will carry forward an extra six yards or so. These are given that the club head speed exceeded a little over a hundred mile per hour.
Exercises to Build Strength
If you follow and try these out, you will be able to gain a few more yards on your drives. However, do not neglect physical strength completely. Core strength can help out a lot with the techniques and tricks. Let’s discuss some exercises that can help build up your core.
The Bird Dog
This exercise will help you out with your core and your balance. Do this exercise every other day for about ten minutes to see better results for your body. Here are the steps for the exercise:
- Get down on your knees and put your palms down on the floor imitating a dog. Make sure that your shoulders and hip are square and your back is flat.
- Now stretch your right hand and left leg. Here you will be balancing on your left hand and right leg.
- Then pull back your stretched hand and leg to touch the elbow to the knee of the corresponding body parts. Do this a few times.
- Go back to the initial position and repeat the process for the other hand and leg.
The Swimmer
This exercise will help out with your arms build as well as your shoulder flexibility. Similar to the bird dog, try to repeat the exercise regularly. The steps for this are the following:
- Lie down flat on your tummy on the ground. Keep your arms and legs stretched. Your toes will be touching the ground.
- Now from an extended position, use your hands to replicate a circular motion with your palms. Your hands will go from front to your back and touch each other.
- Go back to the initial stretched position and repeat the process for a couple of times again.
Our Final Thoughts
We have covered all the things you need to know to hit your golf ball farther distances. If you thoroughly follow the guide, you will be able to get the extra yards on your shots. Besides, try to experiment on what works the best for you from the suggestions.
