Driver Fits

One of the most popular services we offer at the United States Golf Academy is a 30 minute session on how to find the correct settings for your new adjustable driver. We think that the invention of the adjustable shaft for drivers could be one of the most beneficial technological advancements we have seen. Unfortunately, like all good things it depends on how you utilize it.

The most common problem we see is a player that slices the ball off the tee. When you use technology to solve the slice you limit your ability to get better. Why? Golf is a side on game and the spin of a draw golf shot best matches the rotation of the swing and golf club. In other words the best golf swings produce a right to left ball flight for right handed players and the opposite for lefthanders. All good players can draw a golf ball, although they may chose not to, while poorer players often play a fade or slice because that is all they have. So as an example of a techno fix, you buy a driver with a draw bias, or an adjustable driver set to a closed position, to correct the slice. Then you come to one of our schools to improve your swing. Unfortunately, our job is now to teach you to hit the ball left with your new driver, because your best golf swing when using a draw bias or closed face driver, should hit the ball left. That is what the driver is built to do! It is a tough assignment because as we see an improvement in your swing, you see the results of a ball out of bounds left. You think we have lost our minds because we are encouraging a swing technique that produced poor results. Because we are all result oriented, you fall back to a swing that steers the ball into the fairway sacrificing the speed and potential distance you could utilize with the better swing.

The advantage of an adjustable driver is that it allows us to improve your golf swing and enjoy good results, without having to buy a new driver every time we see some progress. We start with an adjustment that gives you the best results for that day. If it is a bias for a draw, good! Keep working on your swing to hit a bigger draw. When the ball flight is out of control adjust the driver to a new setting that has less bias. Don’t stop there. Keep going! You will know you have gone too far when you can’t hit anything but a low push or fade. We call this technique “bending the left out of the shot” and what you will see is an increase in distance every time you can make an adjustment away from a draw bias.