Driving the ball is one of the most fun parts of playing golf.

We all love hitting a drive that soars into the air and travels down the middle of the fairway but, unfortunately for many golfers, this doesn’t occur often enough.

Any golfer who seeks to hit the ball longer and straighter will have heard of the need to get some ‘width’ – which is essentially the distance from the clubhead to the centre of your turning torso – in their swing to increase the distance the clubhead travels, which means it will be travelling faster at impact.

But how do you get width?

Many golfers try a one-piece takeaway to try to keep their swing wide but then they cast the club at the start of the downswing as they try to maintain that width (pic 1), which will only lead to poor shots.

The best way to create width, so you can hit it long and straight, is to hinge your hands earlier in the backswing (pic 2) and maintain that angle as you rotate your body through to the end of your backswing. Then start your downswing by rotating your hips (pic 3) while keeping the width you created.

The downswing is really simple. All you need to do is rotate your body (pic 4) and keep your hands neutral to maintain a square clubface through to impact (pic 5).

The sequence in your downswing should be as follows: hip rotating, upper body rotation followed by the arms flowing down to the ball and beyond as momentum and body rotation continues.

accuracy