Tommy Fleetwood has long been recognised as one of the best drivers in professional golf.
His outstanding form off the tee was a key factor in his first PGA Tour win, which came at the Tour Championship back in August.
At 34, Fleetwood is already an established name on the DP World Tour and has contributed to three winning European Ryder Cup teams.
So when it comes to picking up a few tips, there are not many better people to learn from than the Southport native.
Tommy Fleetwood explains the common driver mistake he sees from amateurs
Fleetwood is known for his reliable driving. He hits it further than most and keeps it in play more often too, a combination that has helped him succeed at the highest level.
While speaking on Rick Shiels’ YouTube channel, the Englishman pointed out a mistake he frequently notices among amateur golfers when they are using their driver.
“So what the driver is, it’s the only club in the bag that you hit up on in a sweeping motion. What a lot of the amateur players do that I see, is that they don’t sweep up on their driver. They peg the ball up high, low, whatever it is, but they focus so much on making contact with the ball, they hit down on the ball. That results in a spinny, cutty, slicey drive,” he began by saying.
“There’s a few tips for what I do and what other Tour players do, specifically we would call it we are working on our attack angle.
“What we do, simply is, there are certain things. The ball position plays a vital part, knowing where that is.
“You could take your right foot back, you could think about your head staying behind the ball and being centered, creating the upsweep motion, rather than getting on top of it.”
Tommy Fleetwood’s advice for hitting longer and straighter drives
Fleetwood’s drill is straightforward and easy to put into practice.
He explained: “One of the things I really like to do is I like to use a tee in the ground. This is going to create something that is going to be a task for you to miss.
“So I put a tee in front of the ball and what I’m going to do is try and miss the tee. If I was going to hit down on this, obviously I would hit the ball, the driver would hit the tee, meaning that I’ve hit down.
“To miss it, clearly I’m going to have to sweep up, the driver is going to come in higher than the tee and that is going to create a nice sweeping motion which will hopefully hit the ball higher, a bit of a straighter flight and you’re going to hit it longer as well.”
If you tend to strike down on your driver with an over-the-top swing, there is every reason to give this drill a go next time you are at the range.
Following Fleetwood’s advice may help you quickly achieve longer and straighter drives with your driver.
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