Is the Driver Really Harder to Hit?

 The driver – is it really the hardest club in the bag to hit?

For years, golfers heads have been filled with the notion that the driver is the most difficult club to hit, but is it really true? In recent years, as the technology behind the design of drivers has improved the manufacturers are telling us that the driver has never been easier to hit. Lower centre of gravity, larger sweet-spots more forgiving heads the list goes on and on.

But which statement is correct? I personally believe neither. Both are statements that bear little more than speculation.

Manufacturers are creating drivers that are more technologically advanced, which for the better golfer is helping to achieve better results; longer drives, more carry, less spin. In reality, the benefits are not all that meaningful to the high handicap golfer.

So does that mean that the driver, for higher handicap golfers is harder to hit well, as the old adage goes? Again I don´t believe it is, in fact I think that the fault lies with how we are programmed to think. What we are doing wrong is over complicating the basic fundamentals of the golf swing when we talk about the driver.

Let me simplify it:

The driver is just another club that we use to propel the ball (hopefully) further down the fairway than with say a 7-iron.

So what is the problem behind the golfers struggles with a driver? A poor understanding of how it should be used.

The golf swing, should in my mind be exactly the same with each club we use from the fairway or tee. This means that if you correctly set yourself up to hit a driver you should have little trouble of executing a shot similar to the rest of your irons.

If you slice the driver, and only the driver then you have an issue with your set-up rather than a mechanical error with your swing. Otherwise you would slice all of the clubs, the driver will amplify the error of course it has less loft, but the error would still be apparent in your all round game.

 So if you want to hit better drives you need to make sure that you have the correct set-up to allow you to do so.

There are two differences between hitting a 7-iron from the fairway and a driver from the tee:

1 – The driver is longer, so you therefore have to stand further away from the ball. Your posture remains the same (or at least I hope it does)

2 – The ball is played from a position forward of where you would play the 7-iron, as you want to hit the ball slightly on the up-swing to get the ball flying up and through the air.

If you want to include a tee as another difference fine, but that again is an aid to help get the ball in the air. Here the differences stop, there should be no additional alterations meaning the driver is no harder or easier to hit than other clubs, as long as you are ready to play with a driver.