Club selection: Just because it is the tee doesn’t mean you have to hit driver. If you struggle early with your driver go to your 3 wood or hybrid. Don’t keep hitting driver after driver out of play. Be flexible with your tee strategy. Select the club that will land in the widest most generous landing area.
Focus on the process not the outcome. Each of us has something that we need to try and feel and do in our swing that we are doing when swinging our best. Focus on that thought when struggling off the tee in tournament play. Don’t focus on where you don’t want to miss or what poor tee shots have happened. This guarantees more poor tee shots to come. Get more involved in the process and stick to your routine.
Rhythm: when tension gets high and the driver gets wayward rhythm almost always increases. I can frequently be heard telling students to try and go 60 percent speed. Try this with your driver next time you struggle and see if you don’t gain your control back slower rhythm will help get you back to more solid contact. I always use the analogy that a car wreck at 50 mph is worse than one at 10., same principle here. If something is going wrong in your swing fast rhythm only makes the results and damage worse.
Tee it lower. When struggling off the tee. Go old school and tee the driver down lower. Make sure that the top of the ball is not sticking up above the head of your driver. The higher the ball is in teed up the easier it is for the driver to get underneath the ball and impart more curve spin on the ball. A ball teed higher also lends itself towards leaning back and swinging up at the ball which can produce erratic tee shots.
Try these suggestions next time driving the ball is a premium and your are struggling to get the ball in play off the tee. See if you don’t shoot lower scores.