White Card
Way off
There seem to be two schools of thought in golf. Well, there are of course many more, but I am talking about the different opinions you hear about when to use your driver.
One group says that you should start using the driver from day 1. In fact, on the very first lesson we had with a pro we started up with the driver.
"Get that ball as far away as possible", seems to be the motto. And the idea is that at one time or another you have to know how to use the driver - so start practicing now. At one time you will succeed.
The other group says that the driver is the most difficult club to hit with.
It is long and somehow the swing is different from that of other clubs. The fact that the distance from your hands to the clubhead is so long increases the chances that something will go wrong from the beginning of the swing and until the clubhead happens to hit the ball.
In my case, I started carrying the driver with me and used it at the tee off to get as far down the fairway as possible. The only problem was that I did not usually hit the fairway. If you wonder why that is so, I recommend that you look at some statistics. At the time I am writing this, Fred Funk is at
the top of the PGA statistics for Driving accuracy. He is able to hit the fairway 77.9% of the time. Steve Stricker is at the bottom of the list with "only" 48% fairway hits, and even Tiger Wood is not that much better! And he is the very best golf player in the world!
So, ask yourself the question: if the best golfplayers in the world only hit the fairway two or three times out of four, what are the chances that an amateur like yourself will do better?
Let me break that chain of thought to tell you another story. I met a golf player who told me: "If you are able to hit the green using 3 strokes and then use 2 putts ? you are happy. If you use 2 strokes and 3 putts you are disappointed. Why is that? The score is the same!" Think about it.
2 of those and 3 of that is 5. It does not matter. So stop thinking that you always have to whack the ball with your driver. Instead take out a club that gives you a better chance of hitting the fairway and placing the ball at a good position. This is better than hitting the bushes half the time.
And this is nothing new. You know it already; the first shot has almost nothing to do with your score. Has it not happened to you many times that your first shot was wonderful, long and to the middle of the fairway and still you lost the hole to the other guy who was able to compensate for a bad start by playing a superb short game (the pitches, chips and putts) within the last 100 meters of the hole!
