[educationonlines]

If I hit a straight ball my jaw drops down like an Olympic diver off the high platform . I have been working on a fade and swore I would stick through the process.. With that said at the local two man scramble last night under pressure, it was my draw that took honors. With my draw spot on my partner and I shot 5 under par. With the two handicap strokes we get ( myself a 15 & he a 14) off the total score we blowed the doors off the competition. My draw was working better than ever and the shots I hit were simply some of the best I have ever hit. I love my draw when it is working like I know it can. On the other hand I absolutely HATE a duck hook. I think the devil himself thought of that shot to piss folks of,f when their smooth draw shots turn evil. A faster tempo and strong right hand can give you a case of ill arse.

[EnubreBense]

I played in a charity tournament a few weeks ago with a guy that was an All-American and played on the Nationwide Tour last year and he hit a little draw on every single shot. He was amazingly consistent and had great control over it. He worked it around the corners off the tee and used the draw to attack the pin. It was really cool to watch. Obviously, he couldn't do that if he didn't have a lot of talent and put in a lot of practice, but there is something to be said knowing how you are going to shape the ball and being able to rely on that.

It's amazing how much you can learn from just watching someone play who is that good. I realized that instead of trying to fight my natural draw and hit it straight, which I have no idea how to do anyway, and I end up spraying the ball all over the course, it is better to work on controlling it. Not being sure about how you want to hit the ball creates doubt, and that is never a good thing in golf.

I would say to work on hitting the ball with a little draw as your pro suggests.

[enfoires]

Honestly, I hope the pro wasn't trying to get you to try this from now on and maybe he was just trying to let you know his logic and where you could be someday in the future. I personally tend to hit a fade and now for some reason tend to hit a draw with my driver. I've been playing for a long time and decided that I want to hit it straight. That's it. Sure, I will mess around at the driving range or maybe even on some dog legs, but it takes some real skill to be able to draw/fade the ball and land remotely where you want it to land. If it's not natural and you can't normally hit it straight with some accuracy then I wouldn't try anything fancy.

He's basically right but, way too early. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a pro on tv line up for a draw/fade and then you see them leaning and groaning after the shot. They missed it and they're professionals that get paid tons of money. It's really tough to do even for the pros.

It was a drill to help me learn to flip my wrists more. I never used to do that before our first lesson and I still have a tendency to not close the club face on my bad shots. He said that when I don't hit the ball straight, he'd rather I draw/pull then slice.

We just got to talking about that theory since I was interested in what he was saying. He wasn't trying to have me do that on all shots on the golf course.

When trying to hit it straight, when I would miss, I would fade/slice sometimes and draw/hook others. When I was trying to draw and I would miss, I would hit it straight or hook. I can see his logic that at least when I miss, I know which way I will most likely miss. It's something that I will consider doing once I am able to strike the ball more consistently.

[chppjdf]

If only i could hit it straight every time hahaha

[UncoonsKala]

It was a drill to help me learn to flip my wrists more. I never used to do that before our first lesson and I still have a tendency to not close the club face on my bad shots. He said that when I don't hit the ball straight, he'd rather I draw/pull then slice.

We just got to talking about that theory since I was interested in what he was saying. He wasn't trying to have me do that on all shots on the golf course.

When trying to hit it straight, when I would miss, I would fade/slice sometimes and draw/hook others. When I was trying to draw and I would miss, I would hit it straight or hook. I can see his logic that at least when I miss, I know which way I will most likely miss. It's something that I will consider doing once I am able to strike the ball more consistently.

Same thing for me. Whenever I try to hit it straight, my misses can be all over the place. When I try to hit a draw, my miss will be either straight, which is usually not far from off target or a hook. Learning how to control your misses is the key--something I am still working on.

[HoniSoniproca]

The more difficult the golf course, the narrower the fairways, the smaller the greens the more hazards there are the more important this becomes, on your average golf course though most people can get away with mostly just hitting whatever they are hitting that day, it will vary unless you are a pretty good ball striker. I usually on easy golf courses stick with hitting the ball straight as possible, which is usually a little draw for me. On more difficult layouts I will go with bending a driver some either way as it does help to keep you on the fairway as long as you can control the bend. A narrow fairway that doglegs right you almost have to hit a fade at the outside corner to keep it on the fairway, so it is important there also not just hitting to the green. Opposite for a right to left fairway bend, tee up on the left side of the tee box and aim at the right edge of the fairway and hit a draw. One of the best tips I ever got was to setup aiming at the edge of the fairway but make sure the clubface is aimed at the middle of it and it will bend that way 80% of the time if you make a good swing. The rest of the time that it doesn't bend much you are still ok because you are aiming at the edge and a straight ball with a tiny bend or no bend at all should still be ok. The small percentage of the time that it actually goes the opposite way, with a double cross, bending right when you are trying to go left, well then you are in the woods.

[jokiruss]

I had my 2nd lesson last night and the pro had me try to draw the ball a little bit with each shot. We worked on hybrids, woods and driver.

After the lesson we were discussing this and he said that if you can consistently hit a draw/fade, you can in essence not have to worry about the hazards on half of the course, ie. if you draw the ball, the hazards on the right really don't come into play since you never hit it right.

We then spoke about Nicklaus(I believe it was him). He gave me an example that say you have a 20 foot wide green, if you aim for the pin and miss 10 feet or more, you will be off the green on either side. Nicklaus would always fade the ball a bit, so he would aim 8 feet left of the pin. If he hit it straight, then he would still be on the green putting for birdie. If he hit a fade from a baby fade to a larger one, he still had 18 feet of green to work with, thereby increasing his margin of error.

This got me thinking.

So, do you you use that strategy when hitting onto the fairway or green or just try to hit it straight?

That was Nicklaus, i'm reading that book now. I'm not a consistent enough ball striker yet to be planning on a particular ball flight. I pick my spot, generally center of the green away from any trouble, water / bunkers and try to hit the ball straight.

[nretdjuend]

That was Nicklaus, i'm reading that book now. I'm not a consistent enough ball striker yet to be planning on a particular ball flight. I pick my spot, generally center of the green away from any trouble, water / bunkers and try to hit the ball straight.

Which book is it so I can pick it up, please?

Thank you.

[huntbytnkbel]

I'm for hitting it straight. Somedays my irons will fade a bit but my swing isn't the same every time so I usually play for straight. My driver however I always aim down the left side of the fairway. I used to slice the crap out of it and it's getting better.

[paydayloanfasters]

After the lesson we were discussing this and he said that if you can consistently hit a draw/fade, you can in essence not have to worry about the hazards on half of the course, ie. if you draw the ball, the hazards on the right really don't come into play since you never hit it right.

We then spoke about Nicklaus(I believe it was him). He gave me an example that say you have a 20 foot wide green, if you aim for the pin and miss 10 feet or more, you will be off the green on either side. Nicklaus would always fade the ball a bit, so he would aim 8 feet left of the pin. If he hit it straight, then he would still be on the green putting for birdie. If he hit a fade from a baby fade to a larger one, he still had 18 feet of green to work with, thereby increasing his margin of error.

This got me thinking.

So, do you you use that strategy when hitting onto the fairway or green or just try to hit it straight?

This is pretty much how I do it, yes. But on the days you don't have a shot in your bag, or you can only hit a fade (happens to me) then you have to work with what you got. If I haven't been able to pull off a draw all round I'm not gonna keep trying - go with what you got and what you trust.