Exposing Golf's Biggest Driving Distance Killer (And My Simple 3-Step Fix)

The biggest driving distance killer in golf plagues the game of many amateurs, but we don't have to put up with meek efforts off the tee any longer.

With any issue related to the big stick, it's always worth consulting the 20 best driving tips and drills from expert coaches, but that's not the only way to solve the issue.

Some amateurs go down the route of trying to boost their clubhead speed and others try some of the best golf exercises.

Gym exercises can produce rapid improvements in your golf swing, while avoiding the seven things never to do at the driving range can also help as you partner increased speed with dedicated practice.

Each method is a great ways to increase driving distance, but none will deliver the results you want without addressing golf's biggest driving distance killer...

Exposing Golf's Biggest Driving Distance Killer

Tips by...

Tips by...

Matt Fryer

Matt Fryer is a PGA Pro based in the north east who runs a successful YouTube channel with nearly 300k subscribers that enjoy new course vlogs, challenge matches and tuition content every week.

Golf's biggest driving distance killer revolves around strike location on the face. It's simple, if you can ensure a centred strike with driver you will maximise distance, if you can't - your potential yardage will be severely impacted.

As we know, we want to increase our ball speed to get more distance, but if we are pattering the heel, the toe, the top or the bottom of the face - we dramatically reduce our ball speed and our distance.

Below, I'm going to share something I have used to help countless amateurs to hit the ball further and play better golf - a three-point fix to help you find the centre of the face more often and increase your length of the tee.

1. Understand Your Strike Location

It's so important that amateurs monitor their strike location, helping them to understand where they tend to strike the ball on the clubface.

Often, players think they are hitting the middle when they simply are not - so try one of the best golf drills - as it will give you instant feedback.

Grab some dry shampoo and spray a generous helping onto the clubface of your driver. Take your normal driver setup position, make your typical swing and use the mark left on the clubface (due to the dry shampoo) to assess your strike location.

As you can see in the video above, I hit one out of the heel, which reduced my ball speed and distance, but that gave me instant visual feedback that I could then use moving forwards.

If you are hitting the ball too much out of the toe or the heel, you need to look at what you are doing at address.

A common issue I see with amateur golfers is to do with weight distribution in the golf swing.

If you placed the driver behind the ball (on a tee), take your normal setup and place all your weight onto your toes, you will see the heel of the club move towards the golf ball.

Equally, if I moved all my weight onto my heels the club would slide with me and expose more of the toe at address.

Both faults are going to limit my success rate in finding the middle of the clubface. To fix this, find a nice sturdy address position where you don't feel like you are in danger of falling forwards or backwards if given a light nudge.

Try this to find that athletic position. Stand up straight and lock your knees. This will help to re-centre your weight and reset everything. Then, just soften your knees a touch so that the weight sits in the balls of your feet - just in front of centre.

Make some small, slow practice swings. As you return to an impact position at that slow speed, ensure you return to a similar feeling of sturdiness to the one you started with - avoiding falling away to the front or back as this will impact strike location.

2. Tee Height And Angle Of Attack

Another common fault is to do with hitting the ball too high or too low off the clubface, which could be caused by your tee height.

If you peg it up way too high, the ball will be elevated way above the clubface, whereas if you tee it down too low a slight upward blow would cause the club to catch the ball out of the bottom section of the face.

Using a castle tee is a great way to ensure you have a consistent tee height for shots with your driver, but test the range out to see which height is correct for you.

Otherwise, a great rule of thumb is to have half of the golf ball visible above the clubface when it's on the tee.

Another thing we need to look at is your attack angle. If you were hitting an iron we would want to see a downward angle of attack, whereas with a driver we want a slight upward angle of attack as we strike the golf ball.

I'm using a great training aid in the video above, which is a wedge that mirrors those angles of attack. As you move through impact, you want to feel a gradual rise up the 'ramp' created by the wedge.

If you are someone that comes in with more of a descending blow with driver, you will notice a few signs like broken tee pegs, sky marks on your driver and even little divots after striking the ball.

By creating a slight tilt with the shoulders at address, moving your spine behind the golf ball, you should notice when carrying out some slow practice swings that the motion resembles a sweeping action upwards as you go through impact.

Be careful not to overdo it, as this can cause the club to bottom out behind the ball and lead to topping the golf ball.

You can still use the dry shampoo for this, to assess your strike location, but by practicing how to generate the correct angle of attack on the range you should notice an improvement in distance.

3. Banish The Glancing Blow

Too many amateurs deliver a glancing blow with driver. By that I mean that they either come too much from the inside-to-out with their path, or the opposite with an out-to-in swing.

If you slice the golf ball, the out-to-in path is one that you will be familiar with - but we need to change that to maximise distance.

Here is a simple fix to try in your next driving range session. Take a golf club and place it down on the ground next to your tee, pointing down your target line. Measure a grip length from the tee and another place a tee in the ground in front of your golf ball.

Do the same behind the golf ball, measuring a grip length again and placing another tee in the ground. You can see a visual demonstration of this set up in the video above.

Take the golf ball off the middle tee. We just want to feel in the swing like we have a slight arc between these tee pegs.

The middle one is where the golf ball would be, so we don't want to feel like we are travelling excessively inside or outside that back tee peg as we approach impact.

The ideal path is slightly inside the back tee peg, over the middle tee peg and slightly inside the front tee peg on the way past. This simple drill helps you to swing on a neutral arc, which is the most efficient way to swing a golf club.

Bring the golf ball back in, lower the front and back tee pegs right down so they aren't going to get in the way of the club as we swing through, then take your normal athletic setup that I referenced in point two above.

Swing through on this neutral arc and you should notice an increase in ball speed, a better strike and, ultimately, more distance.

These aren't drastic swing changes, just simple adjustments and ways of understanding your game that will help you to play your best golf this season.