One of the most crucial shots to have in your arsenal is the fairway finder, a go-to option to get around during a bad driving day or for when you need to lock in and hit a tight fairway.
Lots of teachers will tell you to tee it low, and they are right, but Joe Hallett, director of instruction at the Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin, Tenn., and a long-time GOLF Magazine Top 100 Teacher, has another option.
“Grip the driver all the way down to the bottom of the grip,” said Hallett, while at GOLF’s Top 100 Teachers Summit at Cabot Citrus Farms in Brooksville, Fla., last year. “It is amazing how straight you can hit the ball.”
Hallett said it’s a move he teaches his players, and it’s one they like to use for something like a short par-4 with trouble tight on the fairway.
“For my better players, it’s like, I don’t want to launch it way up in the air with a 3-wood,” he said. “So this way the swing gets shorter, the tempo gets better and the ball kind of takes that mid-trajectory flight. It’s awesome.”
Hallett says he also agrees with the tee-it-down tip, although adds that going lower on the grip might be all you need to do anyway.
“You’d be surprised how straight it goes,” he says.
Time to find out for yourself. For more from GOLF’s Top 100 Teachers, click here.
