Set up the ball properly before thinking about distance

A good driver tee shot starts before you move the club. Place the ball in line with the heel of your left foot; if you’re right-handed, that’s the foot closest to the target. That forward position is what leaves room for the club to reach the ball at exactly the right moment.

The second detail is the tee. Raise it high enough for half the ball to sit above the top of the driver head when you rest it behind. At that height you can strike it on the upswing, which is the move the driver is looking for. If the ball sits too low, the club meets it too early and the shot loses flight and cleanness.

Spend a few seconds checking both things on every driver tee shot. They are small adjustments, but they shape everything that comes after.

Widen your rotation without sacrificing balance

The temptation with the driver is to hit harder. The advice goes the other way: don’t sacrifice balance for power. Distance comes more easily from a full turn than from a yank of the arms.

On the backswing, turn your shoulders fully and feel the weight loading onto your right side. That load is what prepares you to start the downswing with controlled power, without rushing or losing your base. A balanced driver tee shot repeats the same movement shot after shot, and that’s worth more than the occasional long drive.

Finish with confidence for a clean, straight strike

The swing doesn’t end when you hit the ball. Keep the club accelerating right to the end, without braking at impact. A good finish, with your weight fully on your left foot, ensures a clean, straight strike.

That’s why the finish is a good mirror of your driver tee shot: if you end up stable with your weight forward, the shot has followed the right path. If you wobble or your weight stays back, check your rotation and ball position before looking for more speed.

From the driving range to the 1st tee

These three keys settle in with repetition. The Meaztegi driving range is the place to work on your set-up, turn and finish calmly, ball by ball. When the move starts coming naturally, take it to the first tee that Seve designed on hole 1 and put your driver tee shot to the test on the course.

Put them into practice in your next round and start to notice the difference on your card. Your driver tee shot will thank you from the very first hole.

Frequently asked questions about the driver tee shot

What if I’m left-handed?
These tips are written for a right-handed player. If you’re left-handed, swap the sides: the ball in line with your right heel, the load on the backswing onto your left side and the finish resting on your right foot.

How do I check the tee is at the right height?
Rest the driver head behind the ball before you start the swing. If half the ball sits above the top of the club head, that’s the height you want to strike it on the upswing.

Where can I practise these moves at Meaztegi?
On the club’s driving range, before taking them onto the course. There you can repeat your set-up, turn and finish without the pressure of the scorecard.

The shot that opened the course

The photograph tells the whole story without a caption. Seve is caught in his finish, weight already over his left leg and his eyes following the ball, while half a dozen photographers crowd in behind him so as not to miss the moment. That is the exact instant of the honorary drive: the gesture that turns a newly built course into a real golf course.

An honorary drive is not played, it is given. It doesn’t count on any card and it doesn’t touch anyone’s handicap, and that is precisely why it carries so much weight. It is a club’s way of saying who it wants to be, and Meaztegi said it out loud: it chose the player who changed Spain’s relationship with this sport forever to hit the first shot in its history.

Seve’s signature goes beyond the layout

Severiano Ballesteros did not come that day as a courtesy guest. Meaztegi carries his signature as its designer, so the honorary drive was also an author unveiling his own work. Anyone walking these fairways today is walking through his decisions: where to reward the player who takes a risk, where to punish the comfortable option, how to force you to think before pulling a club out of the bag.

That is the difference between a course that is merely signed and a course that is genuinely designed. Seve’s honorary drive was not a photo for the next day’s press; it was the natural continuation of months of work on the ground, and that is why the club still claims it as its birth certificate.

The 1st tee holds the whole story

Every time you stand on the 1st tee you are playing on the legacy of a legend. It is not a brochure line: it is literally the same spot that drive was hit from. It doesn’t matter whether you are here for a club competition or for your first full round; the place where you push your tee into the ground has a memory.

Knowing it changes the routine for a lot of players. They take an extra second before the swing, look down the hole and understand that golf here did not start with an administrative opening, but with an honorary drive struck in front of the lenses. That small, free detail is part of playing at Meaztegi.

Bizkaia provided the stage

The image of the honorary drive shows more than a golfer: it shows the hills, the pine woods and the freshly cut paths of a Biscayan valley. Meaztegi looks nothing like a coastal course or a plateau course, and that day made it clear. The relief is in charge, the Cantabrian wind comes in whenever it feels like it and the green is local.

That contrast still surprises anyone arriving from outside. Seve’s honorary drive was hit in a landscape that needs no make-up, and the course was built respecting those shapes instead of flattening them. You can check it hole by hole in our course guide before you come and play.

What is left of that first shot

What is left is a way of understanding the club. The honorary drive set a high bar: if the course started with Seve, the least we can do is look after it as if he were coming back tomorrow. That means demanding greens, well-tended fairways and a school that teaches technique and etiquette in equal measure.

And above all, a story to share is left. Members tell it to the guests they bring for the first time, the coaches tell it to the children who are starting out and we tell it every time someone asks why this course feels different. A well-chosen first shot lasts for decades.

If you haven’t played here yet, the best way to understand it is to walk up to the 1st tee, look down the hole and hit it. It won’t be an honorary drive, but it will leave from the same place.

Frequently asked questions

What exactly is an honorary drive?

It is the symbolic shot that opens a new course or starts a competition. It doesn’t score and it doesn’t affect anyone’s result: its value is purely ceremonial and it is reserved for a leading figure.

Who was Severiano Ballesteros?

He was the golfer from Cantabria who popularised this sport in Spain and took it to the front line of the world game. After his playing career he worked as a course designer, and Meaztegi is one of his works.

Can you play the course Seve designed today?

Yes. The course is open for play and any golfer can start from the same 1st tee that appears in the club’s historic photograph.

Where is Meaztegi Golf?

In Bizkaia, in the middle of the natural landscape of northern Spain and a short drive from Bilbao. The button above has the exact location on Google Maps.

Why the approach defines your card

Most shots lost during a round don’t come from the tee, but from around the green. A well-resolved approach shot turns a possible bogey into a comfortable par and takes the pressure off the rest of the hole. The key isn’t power, but consistency: repeating a controlled motion that leaves the ball close time after time. With that idea in mind, it’s worth setting three basics in your routine before playing every approach.

1. Rhythm: accelerate without decelerating the club

The first fundamental of the approach shot is rhythm. Accelerate smoothly through impact, without decelerating the club. If you hesitate or slow down on the downswing for fear of hitting it too far, you’ll end up hitting it fat or thinning the ball, two very common mistakes in the short game. Trust the motion and let the clubhead pass naturally through the hitting zone. A decisive, steady rhythm will give you a much cleaner contact than a timid swing full of last-minute corrections.

2. Club selection: don’t always play the same wedge

The second fundamental is choosing the right tool. Don’t always play the same wedge out of habit: every approach shot calls for a different club depending on the space you have to the pin. Assess how much green lies ahead of you. Use more loft when you need to stop the ball quickly, because there’s little room to the hole; and opt for less loft when you have plenty of space, so the ball bounces and rolls towards the pin. That prior read is what turns a risky approach into a high-percentage play.

3. Swing length: control distance with the backswing

The third fundamental of the approach shot is regulating distance with the length of your backswing, never with power. A controlled swing up to the nine o’clock position will give you far more consistency than trying to moderate the power with a full swing. When you govern distance through the length of the motion, every approach becomes repeatable and predictable. Practise several backswing lengths on the range and memorise how far the ball flies with each one: that little distance map is pure gold inside 50 metres.

Train your approach shot at Meaztegi

All of this is internalised through smart repetition, and for that Meaztegi Golf offers a privileged setting in Bizkaia. Our course, with the unmistakable stamp of Seve Ballesteros, and one of the best practice ranges in the north, let you work on rhythm, try different clubs and calibrate the length of your swing with views over the Abra bay and the mountains. Spend a few minutes on the short game on every visit: you’ll see how a more reliable approach lowers your handicap without needing to hit it longer. As Seve himself used to say, imagination and touch around the green are worth as much as any drive.

Frequently asked questions about the approach shot

What exactly is an approach shot in golf?

It’s the short shot you play near the green to leave the ball close to the pin, usually within 50 metres. A good approach shot seeks precision and distance control rather than power.

Which club should you use for the approach?

It depends on the space to the pin: more loft to stop the ball quickly and less loft when you have green ahead for it to roll. The recommendation is not to always play the same wedge.

How do I control distance in the short game?

Regulate distance with the length of the backswing, not with power. A controlled, repeatable swing gives you far more consistency than trying to meter the power with a full motion.

Where can I practise the approach near Bilbao?

At Meaztegi Golf, in Bizkaia, you have a large practice range and a course designed by Seve Ballesteros to sharpen your approach shot just minutes from Bilbao.

Why do we miss shots from the fairway?

The most common mistake comes from a good intention badly applied: trying to «help» the ball into the air by scooping it up with the wrists. In reality, clean contact from the turf works exactly the other way around. The ball comes off better when the club strikes it on its downward path, and it is the loft of the face itself that takes care of lifting it. Once you internalise that idea, the fairway shot stops being a lottery and becomes a repeatable movement. You do not need a champion’s swing to achieve it, just to properly order three factors that almost always work together. Let’s look at them one by one.

Key 1: the stance, the foundation of a solid fairway shot

It all starts on the ground. Make sure you begin from a solid, stable base, and keep your weight slightly forward —towards the foot closest to the target— at the moment of impact. That small detail is what favours clean contact with the ball before touching the turf, and not the other way around. If the weight stays back trying to lift the ball, the club reaches the ground too early and the «fat» shots or thin strikes appear. Feeling your chest and weight move towards the target while the club descends is the sensation you want to memorise. Without that stable stance, no fairway shot ends up being entirely reliable, because balance is what lets you return time and again to the same point of impact with confidence.

Key 2: the angle of attack, dare to take a divot

Here is the heart of the fairway shot, and also the amateur player’s biggest fear: the divot. Do not be afraid to take turf. A good shot from the fairway requires a downward angle of attack, so that the club is still descending at the instant of impact. The natural consequence of that movement is the divot, that piece of turf that flies off… but notice a decisive detail: it is created just after striking the ball, never before. If the divot appears behind the ball, it means the club has touched the ground too early. Strike the ball first, let the divot fly towards the target, and the contact will be much cleaner and more solid.

Key 3: tempo, control beats power

A good stance and a correct angle are of little use if we then ruin them by suddenly accelerating. A good fairway shot comes far more from tempo than from power, and on the fairway control always beats strength. Keep a smooth, steady tempo throughout the whole swing, from the takeaway to the finish, without jerks or abrupt bursts chasing extra distance. Forcing the shot usually translates precisely into poor contact: the body gets ahead, the hands lose coordination and the point of impact shifts. Think of a smooth, balanced swing that completes itself. Paradoxically, when you stop fighting the ball and trust your tempo, that is when the cleanest, most solid fairway shots arrive.

Put your fairway shot into practice at Meaztegi Golf

Theory settles in with repetition, and there is no better stage than a course designed to enjoy the game. Go over our layout hole by hole to discover where to test your contact from the fairway, and if you want to come and train these three keys, here is how to get to Meaztegi Golf. Book your tee time online and turn every fairway shot into a chance to lower your scorecard on the turf of Bizkaia.

Frequently asked questions about the fairway shot

How do I get clean contact on the fairway shot?
Strike the ball first and then the turf. To do this, keep your weight slightly forward at impact and let the club reach the ball on its downward path, without trying to lift it with your wrists.

Is it okay for a divot to appear when hitting from the fairway?
Yes, and it is a sign of a good angle of attack. In the fairway shot, the key is that the divot is created just after striking the ball, not before; if it appears behind the ball, the club has touched the ground too early.

Why do I miss the shot when I try to hit harder?
Because on the fairway control beats power. Forcing the swing throws off the coordination of the movement and shifts the point of impact. A smooth, steady tempo throughout the whole swing produces much cleaner contact and makes every fairway shot come out more solid.