Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you play smarter, better golf.
Everyone could use a few extra yards off the tee. When you can hit the ball farther, you’re making the game a heck of a lot easier for yourself. The closer you are to the hole, the fewer shots it takes to hole out — it’s that simple.
Finding those extra yards isn’t as easy. It takes some serious work in the gym, a commitment to speed training, or an overhaul of your swing to get that extra power. And most weekend warriors simply don’t have the time to commit.
However, there is a trick you can use to squeeze a few extra yards out of your driver — and you can do it without making significant changes to your swing. In the video above, GOLF Top 100 Teacher Sarah Stone shows us how.
How to hit longer drives
If you’re looking to hit longer drives, your best bet is to hit a draw. By swinging with an inside-out path, you’re generally hitting up on the ball, which increases your launch and helps give you a little more power. How do you hit a reliable draw? Well, you need an inside-out path and you also need your clubface to be slightly closed at impact.
Pros generate power and distance by using their feet. Here’s how you can, too
“On this ball, I’ve drawn an X and a check,” Stone says. “I’m going to have you try to hit the check — the outside of the golf ball.”
The swing feeling for hitting this outside portion of the ball is to have the toe beat the heel through impact. When the heel gets there first, the face is open with very little power. But when you have the toe beat the heel, it generates draw spin and helps get the ball tumbling forward down the fairway.
“People think the draw golf swing, which is a right-to-left ball flight, happens if you hit the inside of the golf ball,” Stone says. “What I want to explain is you do not want to hit the inside of the golf ball. You want the club traveling toward the ball from the right side if your body, and I want the toe to beat the heel to create that curve.”
Once you start consistently having the toe beat the heel to the ball, you’ll generate plenty of draw spin that will increase your distance off the tee.