Allow me to recall all the appropriate synonyms from the thesauri. For golf connoisseurs the purpose of the drive is to steer, direct or guide the ball from the tee down the fairway.
There are not too many of them around in our golfing-school as part of which I do duty on Saturdays. Any direction is good provided that it is appropriately acknowledged.
Accolades of “WELL HIT” or “YOU HIT THE BALL A MILE” are always welcome if the following shot is in a reasonably playable position. Bolder and less refined golfers use it to hammer, force, thrust or propel the ball towards some coordinate long forgotten by the creator - which is usually followed by a loud CUT or FORE! Occasionally an even louder f-related four-letter word blemishes your pose just before you sink, plunge, send or hurl the club in a direction from where you will hopefully be able to retrieve it after many apologies for behaving like a real jack-ass.
I have witnessed drivers travelling much further than well hit balls. I have a tendency to push the ball – off course of course. I have seen drivers plunged and sank into lakes, earth and marshes without any intention to swim, stand or float. I have seen them snapped and dented.
In earlier days such behaviour was associated with a bad temper or signs of weakness. As respected professionals practise it more and more, judgement or comment swayed towards frustration, irritation, or even better – OH SO competitive. All are seemingly quite acceptable depending on abundant logos on your cap, shirt and golf-bag.
That is perhaps what we as amateur players are doing wrong – we don’t look the part. This behaviour never helped anyway except for the momentary joy of taking it out on the REAL culprit.
I already hinted that I am a man small in posture. Towards my goal of living and playing golf until I am a hundred years old, I am already past the halfway mark towards mission accomplished. It has become increasingly more important for me to use the ‘big stick’.
Fate forced me to have a special relationship with my driver. What I have learned was that a driver has a personality like a faithful and loyal dog. It is fully trainable if you treat it with the respect it deserves.
Training your driver - as with Rover, Chum and Jasper, Rapture, Burner or Diablo – it requires plenty of fortitude, a fair share of luck and also the acceptance that it will probably bite you every now and then. Thereafter you can confidently play it from the tee-box, fairway, rough, semi-rough or ‘mielies’ (maize field).
Chris told me once that he heard a comment that a golfer that is using a driver from the semi’s, has a head made from the same material as his driver to which I replied – Let it be. Well – be it as it may, I now enjoy a success rate of more than 95% doing everything the text books tell me I shouldn’t try with a driver. Listen to yourself sir – practise makes perfect.
The driver is particularly useful when you have small spaces to clear from any distance between 50 and 200 meters when you need to play around or under annoying trees.
Three things are very important; Assessment of the obstacle, concentration of the execution and the duration of prayers. However, my driver suffers from worst case ‘fear of sand’; Out of bunkers it without exception fails to cooperate.
Why then is it always so willing to drive the ball into a bunker? Perhaps it is a hint to manufacturers that they should consider packaging drivers and sand-wedges as matching pairs – almost like a hammer and a rake.
Cleary, effectively chipping with my driver off the deck is something I have yet to master. I have not given up on it though and have another forty odd years to train it.
So take your stance and perfect set-up, take dead-aim, swing back slo-o-o-w-ly hit through the ball - AND KEEP YOUR HEAD STILL!
A friend says it is all about tempo; backswing: “My mother in law is…” through-swing: “a witch!”
