In this final lesson of this eCourse we’re going to look at the place a lot of golfers turn to first in their search of longer drives. This, of course, is equipment. However, it should be the last place a golfer turns to in search of longer drives in our opinion, because it can be expensive to get golf clubs custom fitted for you only to find they no longer suit you when you gain 10 mph in swing speed and you’ve developed a late release etc.

So you should work on your technique first and then go through The Golf Swing Speed Challenge programs first to max out your swing speed. Once you’ve done that then you can look at equipment to gain some more yards. There are three main things you can look at to add some distance to your drives. Those three things are:

1. Tees

2. Balls

3. Drivers

Let’s look at tees first.

As far as longer drives is concerned there are things called performance tees. No matter what performance tee you get the idea of them is to launch the golf ball with less resistance and lower spin. One performance tee claims you can add 7 yards in distance. Another one claims you can gain 5 yards and you’ll be 7 yards more accurate than any other performance tee.

So what to do?

Well, the best piece of advice we can give you is to just try some performance tees and see what works best for you. If you try a performance tee and you actually notice another 5 yards in distance, along with more accuracy, then great. It’s only about $5.00 to get a pack of performance tees so give some a try to find the best tee for you.

Alright, that’s pretty simple. Let’s now look at something a bit more complicated…golf balls!

We’re not sure how many golf balls there are out there, but it’s a lot. So how can you choose a golf ball that is right for you out of the 100+ type of golf balls available for purchase?

Well, first you need to define what you want a golf ball for.

If you play golf purely for fun and you would rather have longer drives than a great golf score then you would choose a different ball than someone who wants long drives but is willing to sacrifice a little distance for some feel around the greens.

Now when it comes to golf balls there are three major factors you need to consider:

• Distance
• Control
• Feel

You need to understand right up front…there is no perfect golf ball. But there will be a couple of golf balls that suit you and your golf game, you just have to find them.

There are services online that apparently help you to find the perfect golf ball, but that stuff is very subjective. For example, an online service may tell you that a particular golf ball is perfect for you but when you play it you may find that you don’t like the feel of the ball, or you may not like the sound, or you may not like the look of the ball for whatever reason.

So here’s the best piece of advice we can give you as far as golf balls are concerned.

Find a golf ball that you think helps you to achieve the sort of goals you want for your golf game. Once you have your “normal” golf ball then get a sleeve of golf balls that are different than your “normal” golf ball. Use them in a game to see if you like them better than your “normal” golf ball. If you do like the “new” golf ball then make them your new “normal” ball. Every 10 rounds or so get some new golf balls to try so you can see if you can find a new and better “normal” ball.

I bet you wish there was some plug and play type of service that will tell you the “perfect” golf ball for you, right?

Well, as we said, there are services that will supposedly do that, but we’re human beings not machines. So experiment and find the best ball for you right now and then keep experimenting to try and find something better.

To help you, on all the major golf ball manufacturing websites they have online tools to help you choose a ball that is (they think) right for you. So use them to help you narrow down a search for a ball to try. Also, if there are companies doing ball fittings then try that out as well. Just don’t get sucked into thinking there’s a perfect golf ball. As we said, there will be a couple of different golf balls that perform well for you. You just need to do the testing to find them. By doing this it helps to keep things fresh anyway. So look on this golf ball finding process as a positive thing for your golf game. And here’s one final important point:

We know of quite a few men who have used lady golf balls because they liked them better. So don’t just limit your search for your “normal” golf ball to the stock standard other options. Sometimes try a completely random golf ball to see how it performs. You may not want to do that in a semi-serious game, but certainly do it if you’re having a quiet nine holes. Because who knows, you might just find a better ball for you that the golf ball experts would not recommend for you. Sometimes people can be wrong. 🙂

Ok, let’s now look at equipment.

There’s a couple of options as far as equipment is concerned. You can buy off the shelf or you can be custom fitted for golf clubs.

If you want to add 10 yards to your drives here is the best piece of advice as far as doing this.

You need to go to a qualified club fitter that has a launch monitor etc. to get the crucial numbers to help you find the perfect number. Like with the golf balls, there are online services that supposedly can fit you with some golf clubs, but that’s obviously not the best method. You’re never going to get some tour pro entering in some numbers into a form and then be told a driver that will fit them perfectly.

Now here is a warning on getting a custom fitted driver.

It will be expensive. To gain 10 yards in distance with a custom fitted driver it is going to cost you hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

If you do this however, it will be helpful if you know a bit about what a club fitter is looking for when selecting a driver for you. When fitting a person club fitters look at two critical numbers when you hit a drive. Those two numbers are…

1. Launch angle

2. Spin rate

Through research it has been found that a higher flight off the clubface combined with a lower spin rate can help golfers to hit the ball further.

A good launch angle for a driver is between 10-14 degrees. This is largely determined by the loft on a driver.

Next up you have the spin rate and, generally speaking, the less spin on the ball the better. You should have between 2,500 to 3,500 RPM’s when hitting a driver. To help you get this range a club fitter will experiment with driver lofts, shafts and different kinds of balls.

Before we finish up this equipment section, if you are going to go the off the shelf route here’s three things most average golfers do wrong when choosing a new driver:

Loft: Most average golfers get a driver with loft that is too low. Here’s a loft guideline to help you in selecting a driver. If you swing about 90 mph you should have a driver with about 11-12 degrees of loft. If you swing about 100 mph then your driver loft should be about 10-11 degrees. If you’re over 110 mph in swing speed then you can start to experiment with lower lofts if you’re hitting it too high.

Shaft flex: Most average golfers choose a shaft flex that is too stiff. Instead golfers should try and find the most flexible shaft that they can handle, and that will give them good accuracy.

Club length: Most average golfers use a golf driver that is too long. Most golfers would drive it better if they had a driver that is about 44-45 inches.

Ok, so you can most certainly add 10 yards of distance to your drives by getting equipment that will help you, but it will not be cheap – especially the custom fitted driver aspect. Alright, that’s the last day of this eCourse so let’s wrap it up.

Conclusion

I put this eCourse together to show you how you really can add 42 yards to your drives. This 42 yards was an estimated figure, assuming you would…

• Add 10 yards by improving your setup and swing.
• Add 22 yards by increasing your swing speed by 10 mph.
• Add 10 yards by getting a driver fitted for you.

Now clearly the biggest bang for your buck is increasing your swing speed, and that’s where The Golf Swing Speed Challenge comes in.  To find out more about that click here.