Driver has always been my weakest club in terms of consistency and I have recently come to a low point where something needs to change. I've tried all sorts of drivers over the years (looking for a quick fix) - even no driver for a while! However I really want to have more confidence off the tee and I don't want to avoid playing a driver anymore.

If I'm honest with myself I would be lucky to hit 3-4 fairways a round on average (most of those with my 4 wood) and I can't remember the last time I hit 50% of fairways in single round. My home course pretty severely punishes you for missing fairways which is killing my handicap as generally my irons and short game are much better than my current 17.6 cap would suggest. My previous low of 11 was when I was a member of a more open course (less trees) which did not punish my errant tee shots.

Therefore I am setting a short term goal over the next 3 months to vastly improve my game off the tee and particularly improve my driver. I feel that even if I could average 50% fairways off the tee I would likely shave 4-5 shots off my cap by virtue of less recovery shots per round.

My current assessment of why I am poor off the tee:
1. Swing Tendancies
I tend to get quite far inside on my backswing and then flip it at impact (not good for consistency when hitting a driver). I think I get away with it with my irons but it shows more in my driving. I do try to counteract this with a wider takeaway and smoother transition but old habits return fast.

2. Confidence
As with anything if you suck at it for a long period of time you lose confidence leading to even worse performance. This has led to quite a bit of anxiety off the tee. I feel much more settled on second shots. I need to turn this around.

I do have a coach who I will see to make some technical swing changes and to work on the mental aspects but I'm not looking to rebuild my swing from the ground up either. This post is more for me to track my journey and keep me accountable to progress. I'll keep my fairway stats for each round moving forward so I can track the progress and report back.

I wondered if anyone has been in a similar situation and turned their driving around to make it a strength of their game? If so what what worked for you?