I very recently started golf and after playing a few decent (ish!) rounds I then went completely and utterly to pieces. Lost 5 balls over 9 holes and one of my drives landed behind me!!

I went to the driving range today as everytime I even considered teeing off from the 1st I went into a cold sweat! I had been using a borrowed Big Bertha for driving but I've sacked that as it was the primary culprit in the lost balls situation.

If I hit my 3 wood, it flies away off to the right.

If I hit my recovery iron (4) it flies off to the right, but less than the 3 wood.

The only consistency i achieved was with my irons. In particular, I was able to consistently hit a target 150 yards away with it and, while admittedly not that far, I will be teeing off with the 5 iron tomorrow to save my blushes. I can hit it straight and believe me, that is an occassion for celebration!

 So how come, if I am swinging the same, the irons go straight and the woods just embarrass me. I don't think I'll use a driver ever again after the last week!

its quite simple realy, a driver is longer, and has alot less loft. longer shaft means u swinging faster which makes any small flaw worse.

and less loft means u get tons more side spin, so if u hit a 9 iron on a swing path thats out to in it has say 45" loft ther will be some side spin but it would look proberly like a weak fade (starts left finishs right) the same swing on a 10" driver would impart lots of side spin and mean a slice, hence ball going in to lake.

but dont be too downhearted chris 90% of golfers suffer from this, most for years and they ingrain it into there swing and find it really hard to sort out, as you have just started it should be easy to fix

Chris'

If you have only just started playing, I should stick to your irons on course until you can have a lesson with your woods. You'll get more enjoyment from hitting good shots with your irons and improve at the same time. It was a couple of years before I could use any woods and that was many years before the advent of rescue clubs.

Just back in from 9 holes, much better, woop woop!

For most of the holes, all I used was my 5 iron (2 or 3 times) the PW to get to the green, then the putter. 3 clubs!

Hit 50 on a par 34 which is much, much better than the shambolic display on Sunday. My mate who seems better than me and used his driver hit 49. 1 stroke difference!

I have now fallen in love with golf generally and my 5 iron specifically.

Happy days

Don't ever be ashamed to use an iron off the tee if it is the right thing to do, for ages I battled against the macho image of "Me cave man, drive every hole" but after a while I figured that on shorter par 4's when I was belting the driver I would either end up in the rough or too close to the hole, now I use a 3/4/5 iron which still gives me a shortish iron into the green.

Also on Par 5's think about if you can hit the green in 2 with a driver + wood/long iron as most par 5's I play I find that I need a decent drive and a decent wood to reach them - now it is more sensible to go with 3 irons to reach the green.

By using the above I have a goto shot if my driver is being naughty I leave it in the bag and go with a 3 iron which 90% of the time will go long and straight.

Same thing happened today. My shots with the iron do pull to the right as someone mentioned, whereas this is increased with the driver and the result is I end up in bushes/trees/water.

So how do I correct that then? Someone is making my shots pull to the right.

I'll try film a swing when I'm next out.