Simple four-point advice for big drives

By Kim Jeong-kyoo

A big drive banged by your friends will cause your envy and jealousy. That can put a damper on your play. But you don’t have to feel intimidated. Don’t remain discouraged. You can also leave them between envy and admiration. Four-point simple advice here will help you wow your friends, throwing a counter-blow to your opponents.

Let your shoulder tilt increase

When you hit your shots off the tee, you need to whack your ball on the upswing. To this end, you need to set up with your spine tilted noticeably to the right. That sets your left shoulder higher than your left, thus promoting an upward blow.

Your original spine angle alters or increases in the downswing when you shift your weight forward and rotate your hips toward the target. The lower part of your spine shifts forward, your upper part tipping more. That allows the side tilt of your spine to become roughly double the tilt you’ve created at address.

To put it another way, you need to increase your shoulder tilt at impact. If you get your shoulders tilted more, loft increases at impact. It also promotes a powerful delivery from inside the target line. Eventually, you’ll enjoy high, low-spinning shots that travel farther and straighter.

Your goal is to get your right shoulder lower than your left armpit at impact.

Speed up your clubhead to the maximum through the shot

When you are standing on the tee box of an opening or closing hole, you can easily get tense. When you are nervous, you have a tendency to try to steer your ball down the fairway. That, wittingly or unwittingly, pushes you to decelerate. Deceleration plays havoc with your ability to hit your shots far and straight.

You need to relax first to speed up your club to the maximum through impact. Then, let your club fall about waist-high before swinging it fast through impact. Make sure your clubhead speed peaks in front of your ball. You’ll lose your power and accuracy if it happens before your club meets your ball.

Importantly, you need to know speeding up your club does not necessarily mean you need to employ your hands and wrists through the shot. If your hands get overactive, you will hit nasty pop-ups with your driver, leaving scars on the crown. You’ll have fat or thin shots thrust on you with an iron. You need to keep your hands and wrists staying quiet during the entire swing.

Picture you’re kicking a football

You cannot produce solid, powerful shots unless you swing your club with a circular motion. To make a powerful, circular swing, you need to swing your club from slightly inside to outside the target line. A great way to achieve this easily is just imagining you’re kicking a football.

Picture you’re a kicker. As you step into your kick, you push into the ground with your left leg. That allows your right leg to swing with powerful circular force through the football.

For accurate, powerful kicks, you need to kick out to the right goalpost and draw your ball back in. For maximum distance and accuracy, you need to do the same in your golf swing. Indeed, draws result from a slight inside-out swing path, which opens your body and promotes a more powerful free-flowing swing.

To recap, just imagine you’re kicking a football with your right foot. Then you will move your right foot and right knee correctly, enjoying beautiful draws that travel farther than straight shots or fades.

Driver shot off the tee differs from iron shot

There are big impact differences between driver shot and iron shot. You need to hit your driver with an upward blow, with your hands even with your ball at impact. To this end, you need to tilt your spine away from the target at address, tilting more at impact.

With an iron, you need a more downward blow. Your hands should lead your clubhead through the ball. You need to hit your ball first and then the turf. You create a divot past or after the spot where your ball was resting. Toward this end, you need to set up with a neutral spine angle with your hands slightly in front of your ball.

At impact, you need to get your hips more open than your shoulders. You need to do this with your driver and your irons as well. Toward this end, you need to start down by shifting your weight left as you tuck your right elbow close your side. Once you’ve started down correctly, all you have to do is just turn your left knee vigorously through the shot. Move your left knee over your left foot or simply get your belt buckle facing your target at impact.