Driving & Distance

Fairway vs Distance Drivers

Pick the right driver for your arm speed and the hole.

Why it matters

The most common equipment mistake in the sport is throwing a driver faster than your arm. A disc above your speed never reaches the part of its flight where it does anything interesting — it just fades left early for a right-handed backhand, which looks like a form problem and is not. Most amateurs score better with fairway drivers than with distance drivers, all season.

How to do it

Fairway drivers are roughly speed 6 to 9. They need less arm, hold a line better and are far more accurate in the woods.
Distance drivers are roughly speed 10 to 14. They need real arm speed to fly as designed.
A reasonable gate: until you are throwing a fairway driver around 300 feet reliably, a distance driver is not adding anything.
Judge a disc by whether it finishes where you aimed, not by how far it went on your best throw.
If a disc fades hard left early for a right-handed backhand no matter how you throw it, it is too fast for you right now.

Common mistakes

Buying speed 13 drivers because that is what the professionals throw.They are throwing them at speeds you are not yet producing. The same disc in your hand is a completely different flight.

Blaming your form for a disc that is simply too fast.Try the same shot with a fairway driver. If the problem disappears, it was the disc.

Carrying five distance drivers and one fairway.Invert it. Most of your drives on most courses want control, and the driver you throw best is the one you should own several of.

Key points

Most players score better with controllable fairway drivers.
Move to distance drivers only once your form supports the speed.

The drill

Drill · Fairway versus distance — 15 throws with a fairway driver and 15 with a distance driver. Same target, same day, fifteen of each. Pace out both groups and note not just the distance but how wide the spread is. Most players find the fairway group is barely shorter and dramatically tighter — and the tightness is what a scorecard measures.

Watch: Are You Ready for Drivers? | Fairway and Distance Drivers | Disc Golf — Gladiator Disc Golf