Low Spin, High Power Tee Shots

In every round you’ll face a series of tee shots where you must find the fairway, but still need distance. The answer is to develop a driver technique that takes spin off the ball, giving you accuracy with a fast, flat trajectory. Find it through an easy, body-dominated swing that focuses on a solid strike.

Club: Driver
Rhythm: Quiet
Key concept: Shallow the attack for a low-spin strike

Set-up

Promote a shallow angle of attack.

Tee height

Tee the ball down a touch, so its equator is a little under the crown of your driver. This helps you find the middle of the face, a key element to removing unwanted back and sidespin.

Shaft angle

Your driver’s shaft should be pretty much vertical, with no forward or backward lean. The former promotes a downward strike, the latter an upward blow. We’re looking for a shallow, level impact and this vertical shaft position encourages it. Play the ball just inside your left heel.

1

Normally with the driver you’d be looking for a big turn and powerful wrist setting, with the clubshaft reaching parallel at the top. But for this low-spin swing, keep the chest turning but forget the wrist cock; we are looking to shallow the arc, and a wristless swing will help that. The club should fall short of parallel at the top.

2

You are looking to make a body-dominated motion, one that promotes quiet rotation, rather than a hands-and-arms-led action that will tend to make your swing more upright and add spin. This feeling applies right through to impact, where the sensation is of hitting with the chest, not your hands and arms. Keep the swing rhythm easy to stop your hands and arms being left behind.

3

Your ending position is always a good indicator of how you’ve hit the ball. Here, my upper body has rotated well to face the target while my hands are only above my head; it shows how my chest has dominated the action while my hands and arms have stayed quiet. It’s a calm end to a quiet swing that keeps spin off the ball. If it looks a touch power-free to you, don’t underestimate how much distance a solid strike can give you.