The smile on my face could not be any bigger. For over two years I have been an, over the top, slicer of the ball. Unfortunately, I was never able to get myself in the correct position after my takeaway to properly draw a driver, 3 wood or 5 wood. That all changed yesterday at Alexandria, Virginia TopGolf. After some adjustments this swing happened:
Note that my lines going back are close to perfect (I could get my left arm a tad higher, but that will come with time). Although this may seem like a short driver swing it is much longer than my old fade swing. I still have a tendency to jerk my shoulders when I transition to come back to the ball but I am consistently hitting a five to ten yard draw as opposed to a ten yard fade that can often turn into a slice. I was so happy with my driver draw results that I went back to TopGolf later that day. This is what occurred:
I am still aiming a little bit right and double crossing but I am confident this is something I can clean up when on the course. Standing on a tee box is much different than standing on a double decker driving range. I am extremely pleased with the flight of the ball. I was able to carry a driver about 250 in the air with a draw. This means it will roll out to 270 or 280 which will completely change my game.
The struggle with my game prior to hitting a draw is I was left with 160 to 190 yard shots all the time. I am deadly when I can get inside of 150 yards but that was very difficult for me with a fade/slice driver swing. While there were times I could hit a 250 yard fade it was more common that I would hit a 225 yard fade that would leave me a 5 wood into the green.
Speaking of that 5 wood, it was a club that I normally hit about 200 to 210 yards with my old fade swing. Last night I was able to carry the 5 wood 235 yards. This is going to be monumental for me if I can keep it consistent. My home course of Hasentree plays very long and there are numerous shots that require a 230 yard carry to a green.
I am going to go try out my new draw swing today at Hasentree. If it is even close to what I was doing at TopGolf yesterday I will be ecstatic. My sight lines are going to be completely different now as I have lined up to hit a power fade off the left side of the fairway for over two years. Now I will have to aim at the right side of the fairway to hit a gorgeous draw. It will be very interesting to see how quickly I can adjust to this new ball flight. To say I am excited would be putting it mildly.
When I started my transition to a draw I was a 13.6 handicap. Let’s see where that goes.