Still getting my swing under control and have been focusing hard on my irons/wedges to hit down on the ball. Making good, consistent contact now but my driver game has gone to crap as a result and I find myself popping the ball up now.

What should I try to change? Tee it up lower, swing flatter? I pretty much cannot use a driver at all now as its gotten so bad.

What do you mean by "popping the ball up"? How far is it going? How far do you expect a good drive to go?

Too steep

Where is the ball in your stance?

By popping up I mean going so high that Im only making it about 100-125 yards when i notrmally get 200-250 on my drives.

Ball is about a club head inside my front foot. Stance is about shoulder width apart. Im sure im swinging too steeply down at it but not sure how to fix it.

youre too steep / too upright. you're basically lifting the club or picking it up. like going from low to high.

think about swing around your body. you said flatter - that's the key.

visualize swinging around your body with the thought that the club goes back with the shoulders and you're not going to left the club head get above your waist...

it will end up well above your waist, but that visualization is how you make a change to be flatter

remember practice makes perfect, so you have to make big changes to make any change at all.

and you'll think you've changed, but unless you see video - you'll make tiny change....

Boo, you need to charge for your advice in your posts - sounds spot on!

So flatter swing for the driver, but keep the steep swing for the irons/wedges?

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So flatter swing for the driver, but keep the steep swing for the irons/wedges?

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I am not a golf swing expert, but your driver swing shouldn't change drastically from your swing with other clubs. I would suggest getting a couple of lessons. You could also post a video of your swing here and let the board take a stab at fixing it.

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So flatter swing for the driver, but keep the steep swing for the irons/wedges?

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Your swing plane is different for every different length of club in your bag.

The longer the club, the flatter the swing.

Unless you're a swing geek, probably not a great swing thought. If you're struggling, go get a lesson.

Anytime your ball is on a tee your swing should be slightly different than hitting an iron off of their ground. I would also contend that if you are consistantly hitting pop ups , you are not transfering your weight through the ball and to your left side enough.

Good suggestions. Will try this out when i get some more range time this weekend.

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So flatter swing for the driver, but keep the steep swing for the irons/wedges?

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Ball position has something to do with it as well as the length of the club.

but i'd keep it simple. remember we're trying to keep you from popping up...
weak foul balls to right field. those come from picking the club up (steep) and swinging down at it.

remember the balls on a tee... the tee is there to help you launch the ball. so the driver is a low to high motion.

and the flatter you are - the more you can swing up with a wood to launch the ball.

when you move the ball back in your stance to hit a ball on the ground with an iron, the more downward the swing is...

but I don't think about the swings being that different. just keep it simple and launch the driver.

and I don't want to sound like an expert. there's days when I can literally hit it everywhere... left, right, etc...

I always found when I first started that a good way to practice bringing the club back instead of lifting the club was to put a ball behind your club and push that ball backwards to where when you came back through it wasn't in your way.

May not work for everyone, but I know different things work for different people so there you go. Booradley has some good thoughts though. Good luck.

You have to shallow out the downswing. Its not an easy thing to fix. Check youtube, look for Bradley Hughes golf or perhaps Dan Whitaker golf. You'll get an understanding of shallowing it out.

thought for me is to push the club back the first half of the swing with my left shoulder, with quiet hands. That's at least what it feels like to me.

Talked to the club pro and showed him what i was doing. Said too steep for iron play and way too steep for driver. Got me to relax my grip and level it out. Better, but got some work to do to adapt a new muscle memory.