When I moved back to SoCal in 2014 and subsequently got back into the real estate development industry, I thought it was a good time to learn. So I bought a fancy bag and a co-worker buddy had an old set of clubs that he either gave to me or sold to me for cheap (I forget). I "used" them ONCE (went to a driving range in Palm Springs as part of a buddy's bachelor party).
I CANNOT use a driver. I don't know what it is. I can chip fairly well and putting is no problem, just can't tee off.
So I just gave up. I guess I could go take lessons but meh. All I'd want to do is slam watery beers all day.
Am I reading right that you tried it for one day and then gave up? I mean you don't necessarily need to take lessons or anything but if you were expecting to be crushing drivers down the middle on day 1 then it's mostly an expectations thing.
If you just want to hit the ball an acceptable distance and in play then 99% of the time the answer is to not swing so hard. Yea it's fun to watch the pros swing themselves out of their shoes (almost literally, for someone like Scottie Scheffler) and still see the ball go perfectly straight, but that is incredibly difficult. But if you're fine with 200-225 and in play then you'd be surprised at how far the ball will when you just swing nice and easy. Do a quick youtube on how to set up properly for a drive, and don't too hard, and you can get there (at least to the point where you're only shanking it as often as a high handicapper that plays a lot) reasonably easily.
99% of the people I see on the tee box take a nice easy practice swing and it looks great, but then when they step up to the ball their swing is nothing like their practice swing, mostly because they're swinging way way harder.