How Should a Golf Driver Sit On The Ground?

As a beginner golfer, it is quite frustrating when you hit the ball with all your force and don’t get where it should be. The problem may be the driver setup because alignment is the most important factor when aiming to hit a great shot. So it is important to know How Should a Golf Driver Sit on the Ground?

The right way to do it is to toe up the driver at a small angle from the ground. It will make your club head hit the ball correctly during impact. As a little tilt up or down can make a big difference that’s why most professional golfers take a while to set up before hitting the shot.

Otherwise, if you put the driver flat on the ground during the address, the centrifugal force as you swing the club would make the Toe tilt a bit down than the heel at impact. And you never want this because it will decrease speed on one side and may also increase the number of slices and hooks.

Here I have listed how you get the driver to sit correctly to get the upward swing as you wish.

How Should Driver Sit On Ground

The driver should sit on the ground with a little bit of tilt, lifting the Toe at a small angle of about 5° to 6° degrees. One thing you must remember here is not to uplift the Toe too much. Instead, you should only lift it a bit so that you can easily slide a coin beneath the Toe.

With this position, you not only get a clubface hitting the ball strongly at impact, but it also gives your wrist some fluidity. Hence, you get a natural flow and consistency as you swing, resulting in good speed and better deliveries.

How To Address The Ball With A Golf Driver?

“The longest deliveries are planned at address” Hence, the wise practice is to start off right rather than impulsively jumping to the swing part. When you address the ball right, the chances are higher that you will attempt a longer shot than your competition.

Setup and striking are quite different when you use different clubs. So, you would need to know how to hold a driver’s golf club. and a different strategy with irons and a different one for the driver.

Following are a few handy tips that would help you get the best shot with a golf driver;

Lining Up Driver On Toe

As we discussed above, you should toe up the driver at the address. The Toe of the club should be no more than a few degrees up in the air. This is because all you want is that your clubface hit the ball right in the center, not at an edge.

Another key angle to look for is the “lie angle” of your club at its heel, it should be ideally between 56° to 60° for drivers. If you toe down, the shaft will make a higher angle with the surface, and if you toe up at a larger angle, the line angle will become too small.

And as a golfer, you want to avoid both of these conditions because it will end up as slices and hooks, making it difficult for you to reach the hole.

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Golf Driver Grip

Grip pressure affects your delivery speed and how far you can get the ball in one shot. You should hold the driver firmly to give off a good shot but not so tightly to lose mobility and momentum.

Holding the club too tightly would make it difficult to impact the ball straight in the face. That is why you must adjust the pressure in your hands at the address. The pressure gradually builds up in your hands when you hold the club for a long time.

Hence, it is better to re-grip the driver before you swing if you have been standing in the address position for a while.

Tee Height

While a lot of discussion goes about the right tee height, it all eventually comes down to your equipment. Every club tends to perform differently at different tee heights, and you may need to experiment for a while to figure out what works best for your golf club.

The same is the case for drivers. However, there is a kind of consensus that for drivers, you need the ball to be teed high. Some experts like Rick Shiels believe that drivers tend to give the best shots when tee height is equal to the crown of your club head.

Others say it works well if half of the ball is above the crown when you place the club flat on the ground. When you switch to other clubs, you can lower the tee height depending on your equipment.

When playing a shot on the ground, your club should not hit the ground before hitting the ball because it results in weak, inconsistent strokes. And no golfer ever wants weak strokes, right?

Your Setup

Yes, you need to look if your club is properly aligned beside the ball and toward the goal, but your body position and posture are equally important. To stand in the right position, you need to take care of the following;

• Your shoulder tilt
• Your stance
• Your weight placement as you swing

Shoulder Tilt 

Sightly lower your right shoulder than the left one for a correct driver shot. This little tilt would support your body, providing stability as you hit the ball with a swing. Plus, it would help you grip the shaft more firmly.

Stance

A correct stance is what gives you stability when you are aiming to strike longer shots. However, no one stance suits all golf clubs. You must adjust your stance using an iron, a wedge, or a driver.

The stance is the widest with a golf driver compared to other club types. That’s because you need to hit the ball with good force and distance is necessary for stability and consistency as you swing. In this position;

A useful tip here is to set up the club first, then build your stance around it.

This is useful because if you set up your position first, you will align the shaft with your eye level, resulting in a wrong setup as your eye level is not in line with the ball in a wider stance.

Then comes your feet position; your left foot would be positioned closer to the ball while the right one is positioned distantly. The ball should be just level with the inner side of your left foot. Your club shaft would also be squared, aka. aligned at the straight line from the ball and the inner side of your left leg, facing towards the hole.

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With 7-iron, the general rule is to stand shoulder-width apart because you don’t have to open up as much as you need with a driver. However, you still need some mobility and pressure in the swing, so a moderate distance will work perfectly.

With a wedge, your stance should be a little less than shoulder-width apart because, in this case, you are not looking for distance to build strength, but you can have perfect control. Hence, you can narrow down the distance between your legs with this club.

Your Weight At Stance

Just like you need to vary the distance between your legs at the address to match the requirement for speed and precision. You must also balance the weight between your legs to transfer the right amount of force as you hit the ball.

Evidently, it also differs for different club types, and the general best practice is as follows;

• With a driver, more of your weight will be on your right leg.

This distribution complements the shoulder tilt and wider stance and provides consistency to your driver shots. You would need to hit with more pressure to get a longer shot than iron clubs. That is why you need more stability as you swing the club in the air.

• When using a 7-iron club, distributing your weight equally between both legs is the most stable position.
• You will get the best shots by putting more of your weight on your left leg when hitting with a wedge.

As a rule of thumb, your weight distribution with different clubs should be as follows:

With these precautions, you would be able to make your ball go farther with each shot, reaching the holes pretty quickly. To become an excellent player, you will need to master setup, alignment, and swings with all different types of clubs, and drivers are a good starting point. Once you master the shot with this golf club, learning with other clubs will be a lot easier.

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Conclusion

Getting the right driver set up and knowing How Should A Golf Driver Sit On The Ground is necessary for hitting great shots, but you should know how to address the ball, what is the ideal stance for a golf driver, and how your driver should sit on the ground correctly.

To sum up the discussion, you should toe up the driver a bit at address, take a wider stance, keep the ball closer to your left leg and tilt your body down at the right to get the best shots with a driver.

And, like anything, the best way to master driver shots is through practice. Hence, practice the above-mentioned driver instruction as much as you can, and soon you will see an amazing improvement in your performance.

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