Do you play the high towering drive or the lower more piercing shot with the driver!?

Tim, think I am more of the older school in this discussion. The higher shot for me just gets caught up in the winds and I find that hitting one the starts out low and climbs toward the end is better for me and also gives me more distance than the one that starts out on a higher line of trajectory. Spin of course does enter into it, but with the lower start of the ball into flight there seems to be better a spin rate as far as I can tell.

I have 2 drivers just because of this issue, One is a medium ball flight with some run and the other is a bit higher.

Same degree of loft just diffrent shaft setup.

I play a low piercing shot with the driver.  Do I lose distance?  Probably when it is wet.  But my drives are usually in the fairway, so I can't complain.  I learned how to play golf on tight, hard fairways.  That probably has as much to do with my ball flight as anything. 

I have a lower ball flight and my carry is about 275 on a decent day.  I can hit my driver pretty high but I lose distance because I don't get the roll I do with my lower ball flight. 

I don't have a preference either way, but in a front wind, its a little more helpful and in a tail wind, I just tee the ball a little higher to get it up in the air a little more and let the wind help me carry it a little further.

The only solution is to start hitting the 3-wood stinger.  Keeps it out of the wind and will go as far as your playing partners drivers into the wind.  I still can't hit it consistently but I sure like to try it.  On my range, I try to take out the top of the flag sticks with the 3-wood, looks a lot easier when Tiger does it. :)

I have embraced technology and play the high launch low spin shot.  At first the ball flight seemed way to high but when I saw how far it was down the fairway I learned to like it real quick.

Tim you already know I play it high with my irons and low with the driver.

My natural ball flight is pretty high. I have worked with a club fitter over the last few new drivers to get the flight down to a 12-14 degree launch angle, which most people agree is optimal. When I play in the wind, I can hit it a bit lower if I need to, but I don't try to change my swing to do so. All I think about is SLOWING my swing down in the wind and making solid contact. If I do this, I don't really loose a lot of distance and my accuracy tends to improve.

generally it's the lower ball flight from my driver through 5 wood, 7 wood is quite high.

3-5 irons stay low  and 6 on up i play high.

Hmmm....  It seems that the majority of us have gone against the new conventional wisdom.  I am surprised to hear that most of us are partial to the lower ball flight.  This is very interesting. 

I have recently switched to a 8.5* driver head and I am loving it.  I was hitting some piercing bombs yesterday.  I tend to find more fairways when I am hitting the ball a little lower.  It is harder for me to clear some of the corners at my club, but I have learned to adjust my setup to gain more launch.

Keep the replies coming!

Tim

It seems to me that you have a slight ballooning ball flight.  It would be interesting to see what kind of spin numbers you are getting off the driver.  I would imagine that if you lowered your spin a little bit you would get even more yards out of your ball flight. 

A buddy of mine, real good player, has this same ball flight and he spins the ball in excess of 3500 rpms.  Someone who swings as fast as he does is leaving a lot on the table. 

Tim

memphisunited

I play a low piercing shot with the driver.  Do I lose distance?  Probably when it is wet.  But my drives are usually in the fairway, so I can't complain.  I learned how to play golf on tight, hard fairways.  That probably has as much to do with my ball flight as anything. 

I have learned to play on a similar course setup.  Our course is very tight off the tee.  The higher flight allows me to eat up the doglegs, but I lose accuracy.  Our fairways are usually fairly lush and moist so we don't get much in terms of roll so the lower ball flight helps to produce some extra roll but not much.

Tim

EMKelly0106

I have a lower ball flight and my carry is about 275 on a decent day.  I can hit my driver pretty high but I lose distance because I don't get the roll I do with my lower ball flight. 

I don't have a preference either way, but in a front wind, its a little more helpful and in a tail wind, I just tee the ball a little higher to get it up in the air a little more and let the wind help me carry it a little further.

The only solution is to start hitting the 3-wood stinger.  Keeps it out of the wind and will go as far as your playing partners drivers into the wind.  I still can't hit it consistently but I sure like to try it.  On my range, I try to take out the top of the flag sticks with the 3-wood, looks a lot easier when Tiger does it. :)

I have tried to hit the stinger with the three wood to no avail.  I can't keep it down low enough to get the added distance.  Caddy13 can hit it pretty well.  His regular swing produces some low piercing shots with his woods and some beautiful towering shots with his irons.  I am going to have to have him teach me something for a change instead of my coaching him LOL!

Tim

jas904

I have embraced technology and play the high launch low spin shot.  At first the ball flight seemed way to high but when I saw how far it was down the fairway I learned to like it real quick.

It is wonderful when you are optimally fit for your clubs.  I believe that higher handicaps will benefit more from the high launch low spin idea more then the better more skilled players.  The better players have the ability to change ball flight and shape on command for the most part anyways.  I am glad to hear that you picked up some distance with the new swing.

Tim

19hole

My natural ball flight is pretty high. I have worked with a club fitter over the last few new drivers to get the flight down to a 12-14 degree launch angle, which most people agree is optimal. When I play in the wind, I can hit it a bit lower if I need to, but I don't try to change my swing to do so. All I think about is SLOWING my swing down in the wind and making solid contact. If I do this, I don't really loose a lot of distance and my accuracy tends to improve.

 

I hate manipulating my swing to hit different shots.  You might pull the shot off, but you don't know what you are going to get on the next swing.  Into the wind I will pull three iron or choke down two to three inches on the driver and hit more of a knockdown 3/4 driver that stays low and runs like a dog.  This has worked for me most of the time, but I usually hit a snipe hook on the next regular driver swing.

Tim