Best Way to Do Tee Shots with Wooden Club

All full golf swings, including the tee shots; must be played with a target area in mind. The target area must be so large that a shot that is less than perfect will still put the ball somewhere within it. When the first shot lands anywhere in the target area, you can play the second shot with a normal swing too, without looking for your ball in the woods or rough. Have a realistic and conservative landing area in mind when you plan the tee shot, so that the second shot can be played from a good lie on the fairway.

Tee up the ball so that half of it is above the top edge of the club head. The stance and set-up are the same as for the wooden shots from the fairway, except that the ball is a little further forwards in the stance and the feet are a little wider apart. This, together with more weight on the right foot, allows you to strike the ball after the club head has reached its lowest point on the downswing. In fact, the ball is struck very slightly on the upswing.

The great danger when playing wooden shots from the tee is that you tighten the arm and shoulder muscles, thinking that this will send the ball further… it won’t! All it will do is shorten the backswing, causing loss of rhythm and a faulty upper body movement that then causes the shoulders to turn to the target too early, resulting in a slice or, even worse, a topped shot.

Be sure with all full swing movements to use your imagination, see a successful result, go through your normal pre-swing routine, and above all swing the club freely and smoothly from the address position to a well balanced finish of the follow through. Your overriding thought should be of a fluid movement, not of the number of positions through which you are swinging the club.

The tee shot routine

• One or two mini-swings back and forth just to loosen up and relax the muscles.
• Stand behind the ball and choose a suitable intermediate target, a club length in front of the ball.
• First place the club head behind the ball, pointing it at the intermediate target before taking up your stance.
• With the stance taken, check that the club is still in the correct position and that your eyeline, shoulders, hips, knees and feet are parallel to the target line.
• Preparatory to starting the backswing, make your usual number of waggles, at the speed at which you intend to start the backswing.

• The ball is struck and on its way. Hips have moved out of the way to the left to allow the arms to continue from the target line to the inside before moving up.
• The swing is completed by a well balanced and fully relaxed follow through.