3 T's To Drive Like A World Champion

By Martin Hopley

Now I am sure all of us would like a few extra yards from the tee, so I met up with Callaway Staff Player Joe Miller who was the 2010 World Long Drive Champion and runner-up in 2013.

Obviously being physically bigger and stronger gives Joe the edge over most of us, which is why his record drive is 474 yards. His clubhead speed is 150mph and the ball speed is 225mph, but what was interesting for me was how good Joe is at knowing every tiny aspect of his technique.

It is all about maximising the results from your effort and Joe showed me three 'T' tips that he uses when he is looking for those extra yards:

1. Tee It Up
Most amateurs tee the ball too low, so tee it up so you can hit the ball on the up. Then the loft will work with you to get the ball launching higher with less spin. Joe launches it at 15° with 1700 rpm of spin, so if you add his ball speed into that equation, then that is how he gets the distance.

2. Tee It Forward
In order to hit it on the up with maximum power, you need to position the ball where your leading arm returns fully extended to the address position. For a driver this is usually in line with your left shoulder so tee it up in line with that point.

3. Tilt Your Spine
If you are going to hit the ball on the up you have to stay behind it and the best way to do this is to set up with your spine tilted away from the ball. This does not mean your whole body, just the spine from the waist up and then try and maintain this angle through your swing to impact.

Joe Miller Long Drive Challenge
Armed with these tips I took part in a video challenge with Mark Crossfield of 4GolfOnline, where we took on Joe Miller using his 2° Callaway X2 Hot driver with a 48 inch XXX stiff shaft and here is how we got on: