How to get more distance on your drives

When I hear interviews from the up-an-coming big hitters of today (eg: Holmes, Watson etc.), the first question always is: "how'd you learn how to hit it so far?" Without hesitation the answer always is: "Ever since I got my first club, I've tried to hit is as hard as I can." Great advice for kids just starting to play the game....but how about for the rest of us? Uh...more specifically....us old guys.

The older we get, the less we rely on strength, and the more we rely on flexiblity. This is the first cardinal rule in learning how to hit it further. Once we figure out that the only thing we're going to accomplish by swinger harder, is that we'll end up in traction the next morning. We're going to learn to hit smarter.

First off, I'm assuming you're swinging a graphite-shafted 400cc or higher driver, and you're using right-handed clubs.

Weight:

The first thing we need to do is get our weight off our heels. Take a couple racquet balls. On the practice range, put them under your heels. This is where you want your weight at address.
Next we want to get the weight over to the right side at address. Stand on the side of a hill, with your right leg on the downslope. This is how we want our weight at address.

Ok, let's look at what we have. We're at address: weight is in 2 positions slightly forward, and on your right leg. Good!

Ball position:

I'll never forget at a recent trade show, a guy was in the booth, and he asked me why no one took his freebies from the glass jar. I looked in the jar, and there were tees....not just any tees, these were tees we used when we used to hit Persimmon.
Say goodbye to short tees. They will not work with the newer drivers. TRUST ME ON THIS! Go buy the longer tees, and never look back.

OK, Lay your driver on the ground. Take a tee and ball and tee it up. Put the headface next to the ball, you want to see the top quarter of that ball above the top of the head. Next, (say you're looking at the face of the club), line the club and ball up to left of the center of the face. Don't line it up in the center of the face.Why? Because when you come down through the ball, the inertia of your swing will push your swing plane out. If you line the ball up in the center at address, you'll hit off the inside heel.
Now, we want to address the ball off of our left foot, put 2 clubs on the ground in a cross pattern. Put the ball at the top of the cross, and put your left foot at the bottom of the cross. That's where you want to be at address.

Ok, let's see what we've got. You're at address, you're at a comfortable distance between you and the ball, weights off your heels, and on your back leg. Ball is teed up higher than the face of the club, and is lined up left-of-center on the clubface. Your left foot is in line with the ball at address. Good!!

Ok....take a deep breath, and.....hold on....I see our time is up.

To be continued.

Thanks for reading, keep it in the short-grass.

JFB