Why Your Driver Might Be the Key to Lower Scores

I played in a corporate golf day recently, and something caught my attention. Each of the players in my group chose a fairway wood or iron on every tee. Not because the hole demanded it, but because they simply didn’t feel confident with the driver.

It’s a familiar story. The driver can feel like the “risky” option — the club that sends scores sideways if things go wrong. So many golfers see the 3-wood or long iron as the safer choice.

But is it really?

To find out, I ran a simple test in the TrackMan Performance Centre: five shots each with driver, 3-wood, and 4-iron, measured using Strokes Gained vs a scratch golfer.

Here’s what the data showed:

• 4-iron: –0.27 SG

• 3-wood: –0.15 SG

• Driver: +0.15 SG

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The difference is clear. Even with the occasional wider miss, the distance advantage of the driver outweighs the risk. Both 3-wood and 4-iron lost shots overall, while the driver gained them.

This matches what we see across the game. If you can get a driver in play most of the time, you’re playing your next shot from significantly farther forward — and that leads to easier approaches, more greens hit, and lower scores.

The key isn’t avoiding the driver.The key is learning to use it with stable confidence.

And that’s something almost every golfer can achieve with guided coaching and practice. A small change to setup, alignment, or understanding your ideal shot shape can make an immediate difference — often within a single session.

If you’re someone who’d like to feel more comfortable with the driver and start taking advantage of the scoring opportunities it creates, I’d love to help you get there. You can book a coaching session anytime — let’s make your next round the one where you swing your driver freely and see your scores benefit.