How to Align for a Golf Drive

Aligning a drive in golf uses the same basic tools as any other alignment--picking a target, using an intermediate target and setting shoulders, hips and feet parallel to the target line. But a golfer wants to coax as much distance as possible from a drive. This is different from an iron shot that is hit to a specific distance and stops (hopefully). This means alignment for a drive must be altered slightly from other shots.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Pick a target line for your drive rather than a specific target.

2. Choose a line that offers the safest and most efficient path for your shot.

3. Make sure the line you choose is one that will not penalize your drive should you gain a bit of extra roll. If you know that hitting a great tee shot means your ball will run through the fairway into trees, you will start that shot uncommitted. Being uncommitted produces golf's biggest mistakes.

4. Accommodate for your normal ball flight. If you fade the ball, tee it up on the right side of the tee so that by aiming to the left side of the fairway you use the entire fairway instead of half. If you hook the ball, tee it on the left side.

5. Visualize your drive as the ball's flight on your chosen path. That path will be directed towards a target, but the visualization of a path and not the target acknowledges your commitment to distance as well as line.

6. Use the swing thought of whipping the golf ball on your chosen path.

Tips & Warnings

• The safest and most efficient path is the one that will offer you the shortest shot to the green without risk. In other words, if the hole is a dogleg right, a tee shot down the right side of the fairway will maximally cut the dogleg. But if the right side of the fairway is lined by an entrance into woods so dense that it's possible to loose a caddy, the safest and most efficient path is one that favors the right side of the fairway--not its right edge.

Who Can Help Sponsored

• Tired of Being Tired? Fight Fatigue and Try FRS for FREE!