How Should The Driver Sit On The Ground – Golf Swing Basics

How Should the Driver Sit on the Ground? | Driver Set Up Basics That Actually Work

Are you setting your driver on the ground correctly at address? The way your driver sits on the ground can drastically affect your swing, strike, and shot shape—and most golfers are getting it wrong! In this driver set up guide, I’ll show you the essential driver set up basics to help you hit longer, straighter, and more consistent tee shots.

In this video, I break down:
✅ How the pros like Nelly Korda and Cam Smith position their drivers at address
✅ Why you should avoid setting the driver flat on the ground like an iron
✅ How posture, grip, and driver lie angle all work together for better shots
✅ The surprising way ball flight and swing movement change with different driver setups

Using advanced tech like Golf Tech Optimotion, I reveal the measurable effects of proper driver setup—and why being slightly toe-up at address might be the key to unlocking your best driving ever.

Whether you’re a beginner or trying to break 80, this is a driver golf swing basic you can’t afford to overlook. Learn the simple technique to customize your setup and start shaping shots on command with total confidence.

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Did you know the way you set the driver up on the floor at a dress could affect your entire golf swing? Even if you’re one of those golfers that hover the golf club, it tells us so much about your golf swing. And today, I’m going to show you how to set your driver up in a way that’s going to help you hit longer and straighter drives. And this is a golf swing basic so many of you are still getting wrong. And the last tip in today’s video might surprise you. It’s a skill that good players are using, but amateurs are not. and it could transform your driving forever. Remember to subscribe if you find the information in this video useful. I’ve got a link down below to my weekly newsletter as well. Give that subscribe for free weekly golf tips. So, how should the driver be set on the ground? So, basically what we see from the world’s best is we actually see the score lines of the club. So, whatever grooves or score lines you’ve got drawn on your club, not flat to the ground. They’re not flat to the ground. Yeah, I know that’s confusing because with an iron they often sit flatter on the ground. And it kind of makes sense, doesn’t it? Why would you not sit them flat on the ground? But they’re actually sat toe- ended up. So toe, heel, center, this end, the toe end, the bit furthest away from you, is in the air. And we see this from the world’s best Nelly Cer, she’s 13° towed up. Cam Smith, he’s 15° towed up with his driver. Podrick Harrington is around 18 degrees at a dress. So, as he starts his swing and before he just pulls that club back, 18 degrees towed up. Their score lines are orientating this way. And I’m going to show you why this is such a common pattern as the video goes on. But let’s show you how they achieve this position. So the reason they get the club towed up at a dress is often to do with the angle the club is sitting through their hands and then in turn how they want to stand to the golf ball. So with a club this length. Now remember different clubs are going to be different length. So you might have a driver that’s longer than this or shorter than this. You might be shorter than this or tall. So as a person shorter than me or taller than me. That’s why you see those angles slightly differing. There’s another reason why, which we’ll connect to at the last tip, which is so clever for hitting the ball as straight for you. So, personalizing these ideas. But if I want to set up to the ball with my pelvis back, chest forwards, good spine angle, decent bit of hip flex, and I also want that little bit of grip power juice where it goes through this part of your hand, not up through this part of the hand, which is so common and weak, then the club is going to be towed up subject to how tall you are. You know, if you’re 6’8, I get some people on these videos comment say, “I’m 6’8. Am I 6′ on the floor?” Well, it will if you’re 6’8, unless you have a driver that’s the equivalent length to you that this one is to me, then you would be towed up. So, everyone’s going to be slightly different. But nearly every tour player I look at is towed up. And we’re ranging from, you know, 6’4 down to 5’8 kind of tall players that I’m looking at. So to achieve a good setup and get the club working for you in setup, you need to get it through a certain part of your hand with a certain posture, which will basically make it toe- ended up. And the easiest way to achieve that is to work on the driver setup fundamentals and basics. So number one, we need that club sitting through this part of your palm. Easiest way to get it through the correct part of your palm, place the club out in front of you where it’s somewhere towards parallel to the ground. Point your fingers down to the ground and line it up with the base of your fingers, then wrap around. So, lots of golfers put the club here, put their hand down to the ground. See how my fingers point to the ground? Hold on. That places the club higher through the palm. This palm position is killer. It wrecks golf swings. This grip palm position hold is powerful and professional. Now with that hold established, what you can then do, take your width for stance to get this club on the ground. Just bend forward from the waist. What you’re going to find this will help you with your distance from the ball as well as your spine angles, posture angles. So from here, if I was just to bend shoulders down, knees down, you’re going to see very rounded. If I keep knees straight and bend forwards, we’re going to get the club pushing out a little bit too far. Obviously, legs very straight. So when we get the club parallel to the ground, just bend forward from that waist. Don’t be afraid to relax your knees as you do it. And it’s going to give you an approximation of distance away from the ball. Good score line angle address is being bred by really good grips and really good setups. So let’s examine some of the issues with having the club too flat on the ground, too low, so too toed up or around a good angle using my brand new Golf Tech Optimotion system, which is going to show us. some measured truths of what happens when you stand to the ball incorrectly with the lie of the driver. So swing on the left, you can see I’ve got the club more flat on the ground. Swing on the right is me setting it more how I would normally set it on the ground. If we take both clubs up to the top of the back swing. Now this is hip sway. So hip moving away from target 2.6 away inches with the higher handle. Hip sway with my regular swing is actually towards target zero. So I am not tempting to move away which is what an upright movement will tend to do which is super super interesting. And we compare that as well to the low hands. What’s interesting in the low hand position if we go up to the top again that doesn’t warrant a hip sway. It can move. What this low hand position, so when the toe gets way up in the air, what this one will warrant is much more of a thrust. So hip sway has gone less towards the target, more towards the target from the standard one, but the thrust is bigger. So this number, my thrusting forward. So the hips basically moving up towards the ball as I try to get taller to hit it from that lower setup. Now the most common one which is the more upright one. Let’s use some turn numbers. This is basic shoulder turn. What we see from the more upright swing on the left. So this is the one where I’m getting the club more flat on the ground. Is this we move into impact we see more rotation less rotation with the standard setup because it’s a rotational action. The only way to get to hit the ball is to sway and to turn. really hard to get tilts in to control any kind of club path. Both these shots kind of hit target. So, the more upright turn creates a more rotational action. The standard position creates a better relationship between side bends and turns. The low position creates lots of thrust. Remember, if you’re liking the information in this video, hit the subscribe button down there. Also, let me know what driver are you playing at the moment in your golf bag. Let me know in the comments. So, let’s now use that information with these three balls because one stance is encouraging maybe more rotation. Another stance is encouraging more shift across. Another one’s encouraging more shapes of shots to the others. So, think about it. This is a super tight hole here at ST. This is 16. One of the tightest holes you’ll ever play. Let’s say I want to aim up the left and I now want to hit a cut. I’m going to stand little bit taller. I’m going to aim for my cut. I’m going to still swing trying to do my cut action, but I’m going to use this lie tendency of the club being that little bit flatter on the floor to try and shape the ball, starting out the left, cutting back to center right. I mean, I’ll take that all day long. And that’s made so much easier from the setup out. Then let’s go the other way. Save my standard one. I want to draw this one with the shape of the hole. I mean, this is something I don’t do very often, but there are ch times where you just have to. This is now where I might get slightly stronger grip. Hand a little bit lower. I’m aiming and still going to do some swing ideas to get releases, but my toe ending up is all there trying to encourage those shifts and that lovely little draw into the middle. Like take that all day long. And then what I’m going to do is find my middle ground. So between those two, remember from the tour players, they were all slightly different toe up, but they were all toe up. I’m going to find my toe up posture through setup and then find my standard to hopefully hit somewhere right between those three. Boom. High down the middle. Perfect. Using these ideas to help you hit better shots is a skill. So there doesn’t have to be right and wrong. there can be your standard and you move around it. You can actually play this as a skill of the game. It influences so much as you can see from that information. Now, if you want to learn how to hit your driver longer, not just straighter or shape it, this video is really going to help. Remember to subscribe if you’re not subscribed