How Important Is It To Hit Your Driver Better?

Just about every time you play 18 holes … you have 14 chances to hit a great drive. The question is: how many times out of those 14 chances are you satisfied with the results?

Yes, your aim should be to hit 14 great drives – that would be a fantastic accomplishment. However, reality says that won’t happen as much as even the best Golfer in the world would hope for. So if 14 out of 14 isn’t going to happen much – what number should you aim for?

Actually, that might not be the best way to go about judging yourself. The old phrase – “play one shot at a time” is as true to today, as it was back in 1860 when Willie Park Sr. won the first British Open at Prestwick Golf Club. I say this because what would happen if you go out for your first round this year and you do in fact hit 14 great drives – can you expect to do that every round you play this year? And if in your next round you “only” hit 11 great drives – does that mean you’re losing your golf swing?

Hitting your Driver well might be the most important aspect in golf. Yes, you need to putt well to score well. Yes, you need to be proficient with your wedges around the green to score well. Yet, it’s a rare person who doesn’t get excited or doesn’t judge how well they played … without relating it to how well (or unwell) you hit the golf ball off the tee.

There’s a reason why new Drivers cost anywhere from two to three times more than most new putters.

There’s a reason why golf courses charge you to use their driving range – but don’t charge you a dime to use their putting green. And I must add that it isn’t 100% about the cost of the range balls. Think about it this way: hardly anyone uses the putting green already – so if people don’t use it when it’s free … would people use it if they had to pay for it?

What’s the reason? Your Driver is fun. Your putter is just something you need to use because the rule book says that you need to get the golf ball into the hole. Yes, your putter can be fun. But your Driver is more fun!

Here’s an example: Most Golfers wouldn’t mind one bit if someone said “that’s good, take it away” on every 3 foot putt you had. However, if you had to choose between hitting your Driver every hole or getting a “gimme” of being able to forgo hitting a tee shot on every hole and being able to drop the golf ball 250 yards in the middle of the fairway … which would you choose?

My guess is that you would take your chances with the Driver. Why do I say that? Well, if you were satisfied with not having to hit Driver and always having an iron to the green – then why wouldn’t you just play a Par 3 golf course the rest of your life? BECAUSE THE DRIVER IS FUN!!!

There’s a certain satisfaction built into ripping a golf ball with your best golf swing. The Driver is king! If you ever get a chance to go to the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando – what you would see is 1,000’s of PGA Professionals flocking to the Taylor Made booth and the Callaway booth and the Titleist booth to first check out the latest …(take a guess) … obviously, the latest Drivers.

I find it interesting that many of these same Golf Professionals get just as excited about spotting the next ‘hot” Driver as teenage girls get when spotting the Jonas Brothers. Yet, these are the same Golf Professionals that are continually preaching to you that you first need to improve your short game and putting before working on your Driver. They’ll say “hitting your Driver farther isn’t as important as putting and chipping.”

However, the same scenario you see each week on the driving range of your golf course will be seen at the aforementioned PGA Merchandise Show. While the indoor range the PGA sets up for us to try the new equipment will be filled with Pros testing out every new Driver (and wait in line to do so) …. the putting green, set-up with every new putter available, will have less people on it than a golf course in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in the middle of February.

So I disagree with the frequently stated assessment that – “hitting your Driver farther isn’t as important as putting and chipping”. Actually, I believe your Driver is more important! Yes, improving your game on and around the green will help you to improve your score. However, continually hitting poor drives will affect your score just as much or more. And mentally – there’s nothing more draining than hitting one bad drive after another.

Yes, putting and chipping is something everyone needs to work on – there’s no debating that. However, there’s nothing more satisfying (on the golf course) as hitting your best Drive. There’s no place on the golf course that gives you a superior feeling of accomplishment than getting that “feeling” at impact and knowing that you just hit a pure golf shot!

So I declare 2010 as – “The Year Of Your Driver”.

Work harder this year than ever before on your Driver. However, that doesn’t mean that you need to go out and just bang Driver after Driver in your effort to improve. Because I know many Golfers that set out to improve their Driver – and they do – but they have worked so hard on a specific “Driver Swing” that they actually have gotten worse with their other clubs.

So improve your Driver … and if you do it the right way … you’ll also improve everything else. How do you do that? It’s not as hard as one might think – it’s something we do every day with people that have traveled from around the world to see us for 3 days. And the reason they continually travel to see us is a testament to how effective our program is.

The Monkey has a “love/hate” relationship with their Driver as they try to perfect their Driver swing, but many times mess up their overall golf swing

The Player understands that to play consistently good golf – they need to hit the golf ball well off the tee

Are you ready to make 2010 “The Year Of Your Driver”?

Go ahead, be a Player!
Regards,

Marc Solomon