How to hit driver off the deck, according to major winner — and how not to

Padraig Harrington says he’s 276 yards out, the carry to safety is 240, and there’s a breeze. Seemingly winking at him is the DOD. 

Driver off the deck time, right? Time to pull the head cover off the 1-wood, right?

Maybe on a practice day, the three-time major winner says. He has a concern. 

Harrington is talking on a video recently posted on the PGA Tour Champions social media feeds — which you can watch in full here — and he’s in his element. He’s equally happy playing as he is teaching, and the subject is one of golf’s more daring shots. Driver is meant mostly for tee shots, but, if done right, playing it away from the tee box can give a player extra pop. 

If done right, though, and Harrington said there’s a tendency to make at least this mistake: 

“If anything,” he said on the video, “you don’t want to help a driver up because you’re going to get behind it and hit it fat and basically mis-hit it.”

That said, the DOD is a hoot, though, and he gave it a go on the video, with these tips:

— “If anything,” he said, “I’m going to try and pull my driver a bit;

— “Get a little steep;

— “But I’m not going to keep the face — I’m going to keep the face pretty square so that it doesn’t slice too much.”

At this point on the video. Harrington played the shot. “So slight pull on it,” he reminded himself ahead of the stroke. “OK, so a slight bit of pull across.”

He hit. He said it was good, though he said he “hung back a little bit.”

“Again, that’s the problem when you’re hitting the driver off the deck — you’re always anxious to get it up in the air and if you do any hang-back, it’s harder to get a good strike,” he said on the video. “Obviously if you can, stay forward and cover it; that’s what you’re trying to do. It ended up a very nice shot — just in the left-hand hollow. 

“I did get the 270 out of it, into a cold wind, but I ain’t doing that in the tournament.”

Let’s keep the DOD conversation going. In 2022, GOLF.com’s Jessica Marksbury wrote a story headlined “The 4 keys to hitting a driver off the deck,” and you can read that story by clicking here, or by scrolling below. 

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Let’s face it — we could all use some extra distance, not only off the tee, but once we get to the fairway too.

But many of us leave the longest club in our bag — the driver — on the sidelines when we’re faced with a long approach or a second shot on a par-5.

As it turns out, hitting driver off the deck is easier than you think, and GOLFTEC instructor Brad Thorberg — with an assist from PGA Tour player Jim Knous — has the keys you need to be successful.

How to hit driver off the deck 

1. Set up like you would with a 3-wood.

2. Think about employing a downward or flat-attack angle — this is different from the usual upswing you use when you hit the driver off a tee.

3. Move the ball back in your stance a bit, so it’s in line with the inside of your heel on your lead foot.

4. Choke up on the club — about one inch — and move a half-step closer to the ball. This will make the shaft more upright and move the toe of the club down, making it more level.

You can expect to have a lower ball flight using a driver off the deck than you would with the ball on the tee, Knous says, and for a right-handed player, the ball may want to work a little bit to the right, so make sure to plan for that.

Finally, driver off the deck works best when you have plenty of room in front of you to run the ball up to the green. Give it a try, and enjoy the results.