Want to hit more fairways? This simple drill will boost your performance off the tee and help you find the short grass more often.
GOLF
Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.
For a long time, driving was my strong suit. I was long off the tee and had precision to boot. And because my drives always found the fairway, I had a ton of confidence off the tee.
Lately, though, my drives have been lackluster — often veering into the rough, if i’m lucky, and more often than not sailing out of bounds. Disappointing, to say the least. And as a result, my confidence off the tee took a hit.
Instead of trusting my driver, I’ve found myself nervously trying to steer these shots into the short grass, which rarely ends well.
So, I turned to Debbie Doniger, a GOLF Top 100 Teacher, to help me develop a fairway-finder drive and rebuild my confidence off the tee.
She shared a great tip that has changed the way I practice and play, giving my driver a much needed boost early in the season.
Play your natural shot shape
It might sound like a no-brainer, but when you’re standing on a hole with a hazard or out-of-bounds down the side, it can be tempting to aim down the middle in hopes of avoiding trouble.
But, as I’ve learned, this strategy can put unneeded pressure on your tee shots — often exaggerating your ball flight, or worse, a harsh miss to the other side.
Rather than trying to hit it perfectly down the middle, Doniger explains that selecting a target that allows you to play your natural fade or draw is the smarter option.
“I believe that it should be the same ball flight every single time,” Doniger say. “How much it curves we don’t really know, but you can rely on that curve no matter what hole you’re on.”
How to put it into practice
While this tip is straightforward enough, executing it properly starts with knowing your natural ball flight and the only way to develop a feel for that is by spending time on the range.
One drill that’s helped me develop my feel and fairway-finder drive is picking a distant fairway target and seeing if I can consistently keep the ball within that boundary. Usually, I give myself a 30- to 40-yard window to bend the ball, since that’s the width of most golf holes.
This approach allows me to track how often I’m hitting my fade, which is my natural ball flight, and even helps me gauge how far left I need to aim. After a few practice sessions with this drill, I’ve found that I’ve hit more fairways on the course.
