One of the reasons so many golfers struggle with their tee shot is that the driver denotes power, and relatively sane humans become Conan the Barbarian wannabes as soon as they place this club in their hands. Trying to hit a golf ball "hard" leads to a variety of swing errors which can be fixed with a few simple adjustments.
Grip
Many golfers hold their club in a death grip because they want to hit the ball "hard." This leads to tense forearm muscles, which results in deceleration of the club during the forward swing. A slower swing means less club head speed at impact and less distance. A tense grips also leads to players using too much arm and too little leg, decreasing the power created by the lower body.
Hold your club in your hands as if it were a loaf of bread or a bird---tight enough not to lose it, but not so tight that you crush it.
Push, Don't Pull
The longer your backswing, the more distance your club will travel forward to the ball, and the more acceleration you'll have on the club when it meets the ball. While you'll want to start your backswing by taking your arms back, if you try to pull your torso back with your arms, you'll bend your elbows earlier and shorten your swing. Let your upper body propel your club back after you initially start your backswing, and you'll get more upper body rotation and a longer take back.
Open Your Hips
If you try to rely on your upper body to swing your club, you'll force an unnatural motion and lose control of your swing path. Since you generate more watts of power per pound of body weight you use, you'll get more power on your drive if you use your lower body (where there are more pounds of muscle) more than you use your upper body.
Opening your hips slightly prior to contact (before your club gets below your knees) will accelerate your club naturally, and create the internal shoulder rotation that provides the most power on a baseball, tennis or golf swing.
Take Three
The pendulum motion some golfers use creates an equal-speed backswing and forward swing. This is often viewed as a two-part swing: back and forth. In truth, based on the eccentric muscle contractions used during the backswing and the change to concentric muscle contractions during the forward swing, a slight slowdown after the backswing occurs is needed to transfer power from backswing to forward swing.
Think of your drive as a 1-2-3 stroke, with a slight pause or slowdown at the top of your swing, rather than as a 1-2 stroke with equal timing on the back and forward swings.
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