Virginia Golfer March/April 2014 | Page 37

Solid Impact—to a Tee MY TAKE ON TEE HEIGHT This is a marvelous exercise to help you learn how to keep the club level at address and to optimize where your driver hits the ball on the clubface. The drill will also assist you in learning how important the tee is in striping shots. It also teaches you how to clip the tip of the tee in order to hit the ball in the optimum place for greater distance and accuracy. Line up three tees, placing a ball on the third tee. Using your driver, proceed down the line and swing, making contact with the tip of the tee closest to you. Move to the second tee and strike the highest point of that tee. Then, go on to the teed-up ball and sweep the ball right off the top of the tee without breaking the tee at impact. Most people hit the ball too high on the clubface with their driver. Since the ball is teed up higher today with larger clubheads, the tendency is to come in too low at impact and the resulting mark from the tee ends up in the middle of the clubface. The tee mark should be on the bottom of the clubface to ensure you hit the ball in the middle of the clubface. You can also do this drill in your backyard without a ball on the third tee. Simply put tees in the ground and see if you can hit each one without breaking the pegs. If they shatter, then the club is hitting the ball too low on the tee. If you clip the top of the tee and the club knocks the tee out of the ground without breaking it, your clubhead is in the right place at impact. See you in the short grass. After going down the row and knocking out the first two tees without breaking them, you’re all set. Go ahead and make the same motion and send the ball toward your target. The longer the tee the more you will want to hover the club over the ball. The danger comes when you tee the ball higher, but don