Can you hit driver off fairway

There are some circumstances where making this choice can lead to great outcomes — and there are other circumstances where it will almost inevitably lead to failure. Just as with any other shot you hit on the golf course, decision making is going to be critical when it comes to playing your driver from the short grass.

Of course, it is important that you wait to try this shot out on the course until you have already built some confidence with it on the range. It is a mistake to try any new shot on the course before it has been tested and refined in the practice area, and that is certainly true in this case.

Simply hitting a couple of drivers from fairway lies before your round doesn't really count as practice, either — you need to work on this shot over a period of several practice sessions before it should be trusted to handle duty during an actual round of golf. All of the content below is based on a right handed golfer. If you happen to play left handed, please be sure to reverse the directions as necessary. You don't want to make any drastic changes to your swing mechanics when preparing to hit a shot with your driver out of the fairway.

The same technique that you used from the tee to drive your ball into the fairway is the same basic technique that you are going to use to hit this shot. With that said, there are a few minor adjustments that will need to be made in order to achieve the best possible results.

Consult the list below to make all of the necessary changes to see success when hitting the driver from the fairway. As you can see, none of the changes on this list are particularly drastic. You aren't going to need to radically change the way you swing the club in order to hit the driver from a fairway lie — rather, you are just going to need to make some simple adjustments. While practicing this shot on the range, use the points on the list above to adapt your technique as necessary and you should soon start to see some positive results.

This is always going to be a challenging shot, so you should expect to hit a bad one from time to time, but it is possible to attain reasonable consistency once you put in the work.

A well-struck 3 wood, which is easier to hit than the driver, will result in more optimal launch conditions and so more distance.

The low launch and extended roll-out can be useful, it can also help you get the ball further out of danger than other clubs.

The tendency can be to hit a big slice so if you catch it you could be looking at a lost ball right. You can make it a little easier for yourself by getting good at hitting your driver from a really low tee.

This makes the shot slightly easier so you can build confidence whilst not being miles away from hitting off the deck. This is the most spectacular of golf shots and when you pull it off on tour you are likely to make the highlight reel. Bubba Watson hit driver-driver-putter to eagle at Kapalua Plantation in One of the most creative golfers of modern times, Bubba delighted the crowd with this incredible display of ball-striking and went on to get a well-deserved eagle.

From yards, Tiger smashed this driver off the deck and gave himself an eagle chance at the PGA Grand Slam event in The amazing thing about this shot is how quickly it settles on the green so he must have hit it really high to achieve that.

In , at the Dubai Desert Classic, Colin Montgomerie ripped a driver over the water and in close to the flag to seal his victory. Whilst the driver head is considerably smaller than modern equivalents, this was a phenomenal shot in the heat of the battle.

It will also look a little easier at address as some driver heads can make the ball look like a grain of sand! The TaylorMade M5 is a great option here as the Twist Face technology can help you in keeping the ball straight when you attempt this shot.

This driver is a bit of spin-killer so it may be difficult to get the ball off the ground when you hit it off the deck. However, the adjustable hosel means you can add loft to make that a little easier. Then, as the swing begins, do your best to swing the club back along the line formed by your feet.

When all is executed correctly, the ball should start just a bit to the left of your target for a right-handed golfer and gentle fade back to the right as it flies. Rather, you should turn to easier options first, and only go for the driver off the deck when you are sure it is the best possible choice given the situation at hand.

Is it necessary to know how to hit your driver off the deck in order to lower your scores and play good golf? Of course not. Give this shot a try on the range sometime and see how it goes. If you seem to be getting good results, add it to your repertoire and pull it out of the bag when the time is right.

The same is true of irons because, as Jack Nicklaus once explained about whether to tee up an iron shot on a par-3 hole, "air offers less resistance than ground. Driver clubheads have gotten much larger today than they were in the golf era when hitting driver off the fairway was a more commonly scene shot.

Back when driver clubheads were below cc in size, the odds of making good contact with a driver off the fairway were much better. Remember that the original Big Bertha driver was only cc in size. Today, most drivers are at or very close to the maximum size allowed under the rules, cc. That huge size makes putting the face of the driver onto the golf ball in a good position so much harder when the ball is sitting on the ground rather than on a tee. So, as that introduction above stated in other words, hitting driver off the deck is a very difficult shot and one that recreational golfers should probably stay away from.

But, hey, we all enjoy trying to pull off those high-degree-of-difficulty shots, we all want to "take a shot" at those shots, so to speak. So if you really want to hit your driver from the fairway to try to reach that par-5 hole in two strokes, what's the technique? Set up to the ball with the ball forward in your stance. Play the ball slightly more forward than you would for a teed-up driver.

Align a little bit left of the target for a right-handed golfer ; the ball position and driver loft will work to create a fade ball flight, so accommodate that in your set-up position. If you are someone whose normal shot is a draw or, especially, a hook , set up with an open stance.