Hitting Your 3-Wood Off the Tee

One of the most common questions I get is “When you’re teeing off with the 3-wood and you put the ball on the tee do you hit it the same way as a driver or do you hit it as if you’re just hitting it off the ground”

That’s what we’re going to look at in this video.

Teeing up for your 3-wood

With your 3-wood you don’t want the same upward, ascending motion that you want with the driver so step one is to tee it up much lower than you do with your driver. I suggest the top of the tee lines up with the bottom groove or the next groove up on your 3-wood’s club face. What you are doing here is trying to mimic the perfect lie you could get on a fairway.

The 3-wood Swing When the Ball is Teed Up

The difference between the 3-wood swing and the driver swing off the tee is that you want your weight shift to bring the club through the ball with your body leading first. Your chest is outracing the clubhead which is the opposite to what you want with your driver swing.

Swinging this way means that the clubhead gets to the ball while it is descending rather than ascending. When the ball is on the ground it is a lot easier to make good contact with a descending path because an ascending action would be more likely to make you hit it fat or top the ball.

So, remember, when you are teeing off with a 3-wood, tee it much lower than you do with your driver, and get your body leading through to the ball before the clubhead.

I hope that helps you next time you need to tee off with your 3-wood.