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Bubba Watson's Secret to Hitting over 310 Yards
Bubba Watson is known as one of the longest hitters on the PGA Tour. Since he came to the PGA Tour, he had finished 1st or 2nd in driving distance. At 2010 Sony Open, he hit it 416 yards.
When he needs extra distance off the tee, he changes his set-up.
His secret to extra distance off the tee is to flare out his front foot toward the target at address.
By flaring out his front foot more than usual, he said he could get through the ball faster and add extra clubhead speed.
But when he does this, his hands and arms tend to stuck behind his body on the downswing. So he has to make sure not to do that and keep his arms and hands in front of his body.
When your hands get stuck behind your body on the downswing, the tendency is to block the shot to the right.
So you need to make sure you start down slowly.
When Bubba Watson's friends at home see that his toe goes out, they know he is going to hit one big.
Flaring your front toe a bit more is also a good way to fix your slice as well. Especially, if you are hitting push-slice, flaring your front toe will help you turn the clubface over through impact.
But if you do it too much, you will tend to hit lots of duck hooks.
Lifting his Heel and Hovering the Driver
I'd like to point out 2 more things that Bubba Watson does to hit it long.
- Lifting his front heel on the backswing
- Hovering his driver off the ground at address
When you watch his backswing, he has tremendous amount of shoulder turn. He does this by lifting his front heel.
There are lots of teachers who think you should keep your front heel on the ground during the backswing.
But I think unless you have a very flexible body, you should let your front heel rise as you swing back for more shoulder turn and better weight shift.
When Bubba Watson hits his driver, he tees the ball high and hovers his driver off the ground at address.
I think if you tee it up high, hovering your driver behind your ball rather than resting your driver on the ground will make things much easier.
Especially, if you tee it up so that more than 1/2 of the ball is above the driver head, you might want to hover the driver head off the ground.
See the related articles below for the correct tee height and more.