Golf Tips

  Common Faults in Driver Set-up

By Dave Dolengowski
Senior Instructor- Faldo Golf Institute in Orlando, FL
888-463-2536 / GoFaldo.com

 

Posture
	The most common fault I see in posture is too much tension in the arms and shoulders (see picture 1). Sometimes this is caused from a driver being too long and upright in lie angle. Today’s drivers have a lie angle that is similar to your 5 iron. All your clubs get one degree flatter as the club gets a half inch longer. So, if your 5 iron has 60 degrees of lie angle your driver should have around 55 degrees. Unfortunately, most drivers cannot be bent in a loft and lie machine. Naturally you will be a little taller in your posture with a driver compared to your 9 iron, but it is real important to get some relaxed arm hang. Hands should be under chin.
For you shorter golfers, I would prefer to have the relaxed arm hang which will cause the driver to sit on the ground a little toe up.

Aim and Alignment
The most common fault here is shoulders aligned left. This can be caused from two things, ball position too far forward or compensation for your slice. The more it goes right the more we aim left.
	Very critical to get squared up and get your feet, knees, hips and shoulders on a line parallel to your target line.   Lay some clubs or sticks on the ground when you practice and have a friend stand behind you to help.

Ball Position
Ball position too far forward is a common fault we see with the driver (see picture 4). This can be caused by not having enough loft on your driver and you are doing whatever necessary to get it up in the air.
	Remember, having it too far forward will start to effect shoulder alignment, too much left.  Once you get your sticks down for alignment, lay a stick down perpendicular to your target line or foot line, it should touch the inside of your left heel (picture 5).