What's the best way to hit a tee shot in the wind?

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25: When it’s breezy swing easy?

I was thinking with the strong winds we experienced last week how to come up with a shot to use in the wind.

I have control over my driver and can control the trajectory and shape of its shots pretty much on call.

Now I know this does not sound like a lot to the readers at home, but I want to share a valuable lesson that I learnt at a recent seminar that changed the way I now hit my driver into the wind.

I grew up in England and had learned the traditional ways of hitting the driver low.

These traditional ways were, tee the ball lower, and keep your weight 50/50 versus the correct way of 60 per cent right and 40 per cent left or even more.

And finally the standard swing easy when it’s breezy.

These are the traditional ways to lower the flight of the driver.

What I have learned, however, is to throw all of that information into the rubbish bin.

Looking at numbers from a ball flight monitor is that any time we tee the ball lower we hit the ball lower on the face and therefore create more spin, which the wind will kill. Keeping your weight 50/50 also produces a lower launch but increases spin from the steeper angle of attack.

Swinging easy when its breezy seems easy enough except you don’t practice this shot enough and it closely resembles a non-committed swing. (I however practice this for the Goslings at Belmont and if you do it’s a valuable shot).

Now let me get one thing straight.

Doing all these traditional ways to lower the flight of your driver does lower the flight and it looks like it is penetrating more into the wind, however you are not gaining any more distance because of the increased spin.

I have seen Robert Vallis do this to great effect.

But the great thing now with driver designs is that they are designed to increase the launch and reduce the spin of the driver.

By trying these old school ways of lowering the flight of the driver the problem is it doesn’t mesh with the design of new technology.

Farther

Back in the pre-launch monitor days and pre-large titanium heads this technique may have worked, but my advice to you is to not do anything different.

To hit the ball farther into the wind, my suggestion is to do everything normal. Technology of clubs and fittings with launch monitor has given us the best of both worlds with our driver.

That is high launch and low spin.

Most people struggle with a driver anyways, so why try something we don’t normally do. Trust your swing, hit the ball normal, and the ball will find the fairway as far as you’re playing competitor or even farther than the guy that tries to hit the ball low.

So in summary it is best to not change much in your swing or set up in the wind.

That is assuming that your launch numbers are okay to start off with.

My advice is to work on your balance and tempo, which will allow a solid impact, if you miss hit the ball, it causes more spin which is a disaster in the wind.

If you want more control, try gripping an inch or three down the shaft, this often results in better contact which is key to reducing spin and therefore better shots in the wind. I actually find that I hit the ball just as far gripping down the handle.

Paul Adams is the PGA Director of golf at Rosewood Tucker’s Point.