Center your Contact: How to Fix Hitting Driver off the Toe

Do you want to hit it longer and straighter on every tee shot? Are you ready to stop hitting the ball off the toe and heel so you can have more confidence on the tee box? 

If so – keep reading to learn how to find the sweet spot more often for longer, straighter drives. 

Learning how to hit the center of the clubface is key to playing your best golf, as you’ll reduce penalty shots and improve driving distance. Longer distance off the tee make it easier to score lower as you’ll have shorter approaches, which can lead to more pars and birdies.

But this only happens when we can learn to avoid the toe and heel strikes. 

How to Stop Hitting Driver off the Toe and Heel

Keep reading to learn how to easily identify where you’re hitting it on the club and fixes to improve your strike fast. 

Key Takeaways 

• If you’re hitting drives off the toe or heel, it can lead to hooks and slices that cost tons of distance. Not to mention hurt your accuracy and lead to penalty shots.
• To hit your driver in the center of the face more often, make sure it’s aligned with the center of the club at setup.
• Then, use impact spray or impact tape to learn if you’re hitting it off the toe or heel more often.
• Once you identify your miss, use the tips, drills, and training aids below to find the sweet spot more often. 

Identify Your Shot Pattern

Before trying to analyze your swing for potential faults, first make sure you understand your current shot pattern. You can do this two ways; impact tape or impact spray.

You’ll need impact tape that sticks to the face of your golf club. Then, hit 7–10 shots with your driver (after getting warmed up) and see if you’re hitting it on the toe, heel, or sweet spot.

The other option to do this is with impact spray such as Strike Spray (or athlete’s foot spray works well too). Spray the face with an even coat and hit 3–5 shots. Study where the ball is striking the face and re-apply to further evaluate (this cleans off the club easily too).

Then, make sure to record your golf swing from down the line and a face on angle. This way you have a few videos of your swing before making any adjustments and can get into the analyzing portion. 

Also, before making any swing changes, start by looking at the video of your setup position. Start by making sure you’re set up to the ball in the sweet spot (not the heel or toe). 

A lot of drivers have an arrow or some sort of mark in the middle of the clubface to line up with the center of the golf ball to get yourself in a proper starting position. Now, let’s get into how to fix common misses off the toe and off the heel. 

Hitting Driver Off Toe

If your analysis finds you’re hitting it off the toe, you’re likely hitting a draw that sometimes turns into a hook shot. Shots off the toe can occur from a variety of reasons including overactive wrists, a grip that is too strong, a swing plane that is too inside, and setup issues. 

Here are three fixes to hitting the driver off the toe so you can straighten out your ball flight. 

1. Setup Adjustments 

The first thing to check out in your golf swing is how the driver is set up to the ball at address. Begin by making sure that you’re not too far away from the golf ball. 

You want about a hand width distance between your leg and butt-end of your grip. Experiment with getting slightly closer to the ball for an easy fix to stop hitting toe shots. Learn more about how far away you should stand here. 

Also, if you’re suffering from a ton of toe strikes, check your balance. A lot of times, an unbalanced swing can lead to inconsistent strikes. 

2. Change Your Swing Path 

The second thing to evaluate is your swing path.

If you’re hitting too many toe shots, this might be from swinging too far from the inside (known as inside to outside swing path). While it’s good to create lag, sometimes too shallow on the downswing can work against you. 

Watch this video and accompanying drill from Dan Whittaker Golf on YouTube for an easy drill to improve your path. 

3. Try Out a Training Aid

If you want more feedback to make swing corrections and improve plane, check out the Eyeline Speed Trap. This unique training aid can help if you’re hitting slices or hooks by learning how to improve your swing path. 

This training aid has four rods that make it easy to dial in your plane and swing more from the inside (or outside) depending on the issue you’re facing. It’s easy to use, works indoors at a simulator, outdoors, or when making practice swings. Plus, unlike a lot of training aids, you can hit real golf balls with it too. 

Hitting Driver Off Heel 

If your analysis finds you’re hitting it off the heel, you’re likely hitting a fade that sometimes turns into a slice that kills distance. Shots off the heel can occur from a variety of reasons including a weak grip, outside inside swing plane (usually from an inside takeaway), incorrect weight transfer, and more.  

Here are three fixes to hitting the driver off the heel so you can hit it straighter and longer. 

1. Setup Adjustments

Start by looking at your alignment of your feet, hips, shoulders, and forearms. It’s very common for golfers to set their feet right (closed stance) with open shoulders. This makes it easy to get steep and lead to a lot of over the top swings.

Learn more about how to aim in golf here to get setup in the proper position. 

2. Change Your Swing Path

Once your setup is good to go, the next thing to evaluate is your swing path. If you’re hitting it more toward the heel like a majority of golfers, it’s from an outside to inside swing path. 

This typically happens from a weak grip and inside takeaway. This makes it easy to get too step on the downswing with an open clubface, resulting in a nasty slice. 

The Eye Align Speed Trap and the PlaneMate are both aids that can help. You might also consider a golf lesson, as this is a common issue among so many golfers. 

3. Consider Switching Equipment

If you’ve tried everything but are still struggling with heel shots, it might be time to consider an anti-slice driver. These clubs are draw biased with extra weighting and design features to help straighten out your slice.

Learn more about the best anti-slice drivers here. 

FAQs About Hitting Driver

Do you have more questions about hitting drivers more consistently? If so, keep reading through the most common questions and answers now. 

Why am I popping up my driver?

Pop-up shots are one of the most frustrating shots in golf and happen for one reason – you’re getting too steep on the downswing. This typically happens for two main reasons; incorrect ball position and too narrow of a stance.

Having the right driver ball position is key – it needs to be off your front foot so you hit up on the shot. Second, make sure you have a wide enough stance – slightly wider than shoulder width apart. 

Why do I keep slicing my driver?

If you’re fighting a slice, it’s time to fix it fast. Click here to read our in-depth guide on how to stop slicing the golf ball. 

Does hitting off the toe cause a hook?

It can contribute to a hook, but the swing path also plays a role too. Learn more about ball flight laws to see how path and face at impact create different shot patterns. 

Does hitting off the heel cause a slice?

Yes, it can lead to a slice, but it also depends on the club path as well. 

My Experience 

The last few years I’ve gone from scratch golf to a plus handicap and one of the main reasons was improving my driving. I’ve focused a lot on my driving and it’s made scoring lower significantly easier.

When it comes to finding the sweet spot more often, always start by choosing the right driver. Get a custom fitting if you can break 90 so you can find the right head-shaft combo that compliments your swing.

Then, spend plenty of time in practice with the driver doing the drills and using various training aids to find the sweet spot more often. Avoiding the toe and heel will help you improve driving distance, which makes it easier to score lower.

Additionally, I’ve also increased my speed using the Tour Tempo and Rypstick speed trainer. Keep dialing in your driver so you have more confidence on every tee box, and trust me, it makes golf a lot easier. 

Final Thoughts

Stop leaving the driver in the bag in favor of 3-wood. This is a course management mistake that is costing you tons of strokes in the long run, as you’re giving up a lot of distance. 

Keep working with your driver in practice to get more comfortable and hopefully find the sweet spot more often. Don’t forget, a lot of toe and heel strikes happen from a few setup mistakes. Get in the right position at address to make it easier than ever to bomb drives.