What to Do If you Are Struggling With your Woods

There are a lot of golfers who struggle with the woods. When I say woods I mean both the driver and fairway woods. The reasons that golfers struggle with their woods can be due to many things. It could be that the ball is placed incorrectly in the stance, it could be that you are not transferring your weight correctly, it could be something in your swing etc.

If you are a golfer who is currently struggling with your woods, be this slicing, pulling, topping, fatting etc then there is no reason to lose heart. The first thing to do is to book a lesson with your local PGA pro so that he/she can analyze the problem and give you valuable advice as to what the problem may be and how to rectify the issue. Practice as often as you can at your practice are or driving range and before long you will be hitting them sweetly again.

On the golf course though if you are struggling with your woods then this could be causing you to lose shots, lose confidence and in extreme circumstance cause you to give up this wonderful sport. Many beginners to the game find it hard to hit drivers, fairway woods and long irons, this is normal as beginners tend to try to hit the ball rather than swing the club through the ball, with a driver, fairway wood and long iron this is hard to do and can end up being a pull, slice, topped shot etc.

If you are a golfer who is struggling then why not leave your fairway woods and driver at home and play with just your irons. Sounds strange doesnt it but if you think about it you should be able to reach most of the green in regulation or at worst one over regulation. For example you are on a par five which is 500 yards long, you know that you can hit your six iron 160 yards and your 5 iron 170 yards so hit your five iron off the tee, then off the fairway hit your six iron leaving you another six iron to the green, two putt and walk off with a par.

Hitting an iron is a lot easier than hitting a driver, you should be able to hit your ball more accurately. Granted there is nothing as satisfying as hitting your driver down the middle of the fairway but if you dont know if it is going to go left or right then what is the point in hitting it. If you play the game with your mind using your irons as much as possible then you should be able to get some good scores, build your confidence and still enjoy the game whilst you are working on the issues with your woods.

If long irons are an issue as well as your woods then maybe you could try a hybrid wood from your local golf shop, these are designed to replace the long irons and are much easier to hit.

Of course you can still use your woods on a practice round which will help you to work out what is wrong or work on the drills which your pro has given to you, but during a competitive round, or even a practice round if your shots are getting you frustrated then pull out an iron and play if off the tee.

The biggest bit of advice that I can give is to sat 'dont worry about it'. If you worry about it then you will become frustrated which will cause you to tense which in turn will cause a bad shot which will get you more frustrated – can you spot the circle which happens here. There is nothing to be embarassed about if you decide to take an iron from the tee. Have a look at your golfing partners face when you birdie that hole after teeing off with an iron.