If you want to hit longer drives, it starts with this

Hitting the ball longer off the tee is something that would help everyone play better golf. The data backs it up, too. The closer you are to the hole, the easier it is to get the ball close.

But just wailing away and hoping for the best is not going to do you much good. To really get the most out of your drives, you have to understand the optimal way to hit the ball.

One key ingredient of longer drives is hitting up on the ball at impact. Unlike with your irons, you want your angle of attack to be positive when you have a driver in your hands. Essentially, you want the clubhead to be on the way up from the bottom when you hit the ball.

“What you’ve got to understand is these modern clubs are designed to start upwards as they hit the ball, not down,” says GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jonathan Yarwood. “You’ve got to get the attack angle up. You have got to get the low point — where the circle of your swing goes around you — to hit the ground behind the ball.”

That might seem like a simpler task to accomplish, but like most things in golf, it’s rarely so easy.

To teach yourself this upward-striking motion, place an alignment stick a few inches behind the ball on the range. When you go to hit the ball, try to tilt your spine away from the target on the downswing.

“Just rehearse going back and get your pressure and weight to your back foot,” Yarwood says. “Make a little shift and a shallow move, but here’s the key point here. From here, we see the upper torso goes back [and] the chest back up.”

This is a move that is almost the opposite of what you’d do with an iron, so you really need to focus on your upper body hanging behind the ball in the downswing.

“To get the club behind the ball, once you’ve shallowed it, really think about left side going up, head going back, and try to hit the ground behind it, level with the alignment stick.”

If you can execute this move, you’ll be able to properly hit up on the ball and see your driving distance get a nice little power boost.

Zephyr Melton

Golf.com Editor

Zephyr Melton is an assistant editor for GOLF.com where he spends his days blogging, producing and editing. Prior to joining the team at GOLF, he attended the University of Texas followed by stops with the Texas Golf Association, Team USA, the Green Bay Packers and the PGA Tour. He assists on all things instruction and covers amateur and women’s golf. He can be reached at zephyr_melton@golf.com.

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