Golf tips: How to increase the lengths of your drives

Posted May 21, 2019 1:00 am

By John Platt Director of Instruction/Mistwood Golf Club

I have been teaching golf more than 30 years and the No. 1 thing students say to me is, "I want more distance!"

Everyone wants distance, if you're a tournament player, you have to have it, if you're a weekend player, you don't want to be hitting first on your approach shots, and most ladies I teach are always asking "how can I hit it farther?" The question is how can you get more distance?

One answer I would tell students was to try and swing harder. My other answer was move up a tee box. Two good answers, I thought, but swinging harder didn't necessarily get them to hit the ball further and moving up a tee box wasn't the answer if you were already using the most forward tee!

Let me explain how I instruct my students to hit it as far as they can and the technique I use to accomplish this. If you have ever seen the long driver contestants on the Golf Channel, you will notice that their lead (front) foot will leave the ground and turn out and come backward a bit. Why is this? Their using the ground to create more distance by pushing up with their lead foot as they are attacking the ball creating a hit-up swing on the ball, thus creating as much speed as they can produce.

How do you do this? This

This photo shows a swing that has too much lateral movement by driving my right leg to quick toward my left leg, which created my left hip to slide and move up, thus not creating more speed just more push shots and hooks. Courtesy of John Platt

photo shows a swing that has too much lateral movement by driving my right leg to quick toward my left leg, which created my left hip to slide and move up, thus not creating more speed just more push shots and hooks.

Here is a drill I use for my students to start using their legs correctly.

Step 1: Place a basket between your legs Courtesy of John Platt

Photo 2 shows me putting a basket between my legs. On the

Step 2: On the downswing let your knees separate by leading with the lead knee. You do this by letting the lead hip move down first, creating a squatting position. Courtesy of John Platt

downswing (photo 3) let your knees separate by leading with the lead knee. You do this by letting the lead hip move down first, creating a squatting position (you see Justin Rose do this during his practice swing all the time). This will help the club shallow out (more inside), and as you rotate, push up from the ground with the lead foot as hard as you can just before impact, creating a straight front leg right before impact. If you keep the lead knee bent (photo 1) you will slide and have a result as I mentioned before.

After you practice the basket drill, I recommend going to a range and swinging at about 30 percent in the beginning with a lofted club (7 iron) and work your way up to your full swing. Many of the shots won't be pretty at the start but stay with it and you just might be telling your playing partners "you're out" more often!

• John Platt is the director of instruction at Mistwood Golf Club in Romeoville. He was the 2011 Illinois PGA Teacher of the Year and a member of the Callaway Hall of Fame. Contact him at jplatt@mistwoodgc.com or 815-342-2277.

Article Comments

Article Categories
Golf Other Sports Sports Sports Types

Article Comments

Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.