5 Golf Tips on Driving – Keeping it in the Fairway

Let’s talk about golf tips on driving the golf ball and keeping it in the fairway.  In order to score well in golf, you have to be consistent off the tee.

Finding the short grass off the tee is more important than hitting a 300 yard drive.

Considering that a golf course is set up in a way to challenge your game, your need to know how to control your drives. Not all drives are going to be the same.

Depending on weather conditions, layout of the hole and the location of the flag, you need to be able to play your drives differently.

Here are 5 golf tips on driving to help you improve your game.

• Tail Winds – Tee your golf ball a bit higher to take advantage of the extra distance you can gain with the wind at your back.

When you tee the ball up a bit higher than normal, the golf ball will tend to get more height.  With a tail wind your ball should carry further.

• Head Winds – Tee your golf ball a bit lower when you are playing into a head wind.  Your ball will tend to be pushed higher by the wind when you are driving into it. By teeing your ball lower than normal you can reduce the affect of the wind with a lower trajectory.

Depending on how windy it is, you may need to consider using a long iron instead of your driver to keep the flight of the ball low.

Crosswinds – dealing with wind that is cutting across the fairway is more difficult to predict than a headwind or tailwind.When playing crosswinds you have to determine how strong the wind is and whether the wind is a cross headwind, a cross tailwind or a direct crosswind (90 degree).

If you are able to play a draw or a fade, then you can consider shaping your shot to compensate for the wind.  For most golfers, playing a shot that allows for the wind to move the ball naturally is easier.

There is no exact science to compensating for the crosswind, but I have found that my ball tends to move about 7 to 10 yards for every 10 to 15 mph that the wind is blowing.

This changes a bit depending on which type of crosswind I am dealing with at the time and whether I have played a low trajectory or high trajectory shot.

In most cases, playing your tee shot with a lower trajectory is the safe bet.

Narrow Fairway – there will be times when you will be faced with a narrow landing area in the fairway.  When faced with this challenge you need to seriously consider sacrificing distance for accuracy.

In times like this you need to leave your driver in the bag and play a club that gives you better control of your outcome. For some golfers that will mean using a long iron and other golfers will use a 3-wood, 5-wood or maybe a hybrid.

• Doglegs – There are going to be holes on every golf course that are going to have a dogleg, a hole that moves from right to left or left to right from tee to green.

When dealing with this type of golf hole, you need to be concerned with driving the ball through the fairway.  You will need to be able to control your distance in these situations.

By choking down on your club a bit you can still take a full swing and avoid driving the ball through that fairway and into trouble.

You can also work on taking 5 or 10 percent off your back swing to reduce the distance your ball will travel.  For many golfers, this is the more difficult approach.

Choking down on the club does not require you to change your normal swing.

If you have played golf at all you recognize that everything in golf has variables, even when using the same club. The best solution is to practice golf tips on driving to help you understand the results you can expect from adjustments you may need to make during a round of golf.

No matter the situation that you are faced with when you step up to the tee, take time to determine what the best approach is for that shot.  Then commit to any adjustment before setting up and executing your shot.

Try these 5 Golf tips on driving the next time you are on the golf course.