Instruction
Three slice patterns and how to fix them
Nothing makes golfers more aggravated than hitting the dreaded slice: a shot that moves left to right for a right-handed golfer when they don’t want it to do so.
Many slicers think their doomed to slice forever, but it’s far from a golfing death sentence. It’s my goal with the photos below to help you understand how to control your left-to-right ball flight, no matter how severe it might be, and make sure you never move the ball left to right again unless you WANT to do so.
Photo 1
The two constants in Photo 1 are the orange arrow, which represents the target line, as well as the blue arrow which represents the average golfer’s in-to-out club path. The red, green and black arrows denote different face angles at impact relative to blue line.
Note: As I go through the following examples, remember that the ball always starts in the direction that the clubface is pointed and curves away from the club path on shots that are struck in the center of the clubface.
The “Pull Fade”
The pull fade is created when the path is out to in and the face is right of the path, but left of the target as in the red arrow. This ball will begin left of the target and fade back to the target.
This type of fade pattern is the most desirable and the one that tends to be the most powerful. The only thing you must be careful of when using this swing sequence is to not let the path drift too much out to in; thus monitor your alignments at address so this does not happen.
The “Straight Fade”
If you have your clubface pointing at the target at impact (see the green arrow) with a path that is left of the target line, you will hit a shot that starts toward the target and curves to the right of it.
In this left-to-right pattern, the key is to understand that the face must be CLOSED to the target at impact so the ball can start left of the target as it begins its flight. That will create the desirable pull-fade trajectory. It’s not a path issue that’s causing the bad shots from this swing pattern as most believe here; it’s a face issue.
A simple drill to fix this problem is to place an alignment stick in between your ball and the target and practice hitting small shots that start left of the stick and fade back to the stick. If your ball starts right of the stick, then your face isn’t closed enough at impact.
The Slice
If you have an out-to-in swing path and your club face is pointing right of the target at impact (as shown by the black arrow), you will hit a shot that starts right of the target and moves farther right. Most golfers identify this shot shape as a slice and it is often a killer to your score.
The key to changing this pattern is to move the path of your swing more right and shift the position of the clubface so that it points left of the path as shown in Photo 2.
Photo 2: The Push Draw
The path is the king and the face angle is the queen of this kingdom. Fix the path as best you can and then alter the face angle accordingly.
The best drill to get rid of your slice is to go back to being a kid and try to hit huge, swinging, right-to-left shots that start right of the target and draw back to the target. If you’re left-handed, simply do the opposite, hitting swinging left-to-right shots that start left of the target and draw back.
Work on these drills and you can learn (or relearn) to create consistent curvature from your shots.
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Instruction
Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?
Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!
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Instruction
The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic
My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?
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randy
Jun 18, 2014 at 9:29 am
Tom, if you reply to every question on here nobody is going to need to come to you for a lesson.
Tom Stickney
Jun 18, 2014 at 3:23 pm
Ha. Nothing like the real thing….I hope. 🙂
gdb99
Jun 18, 2014 at 5:58 am
Believe me, some of us do not like looking at a pull fade. I can’t stand looking up and seeing my ball crash into the trees that are lining the left hand side of a tee-box.
I need some drills to start hitting a draw, please?
Thanks,
Glen
Tom Stickney
Jun 18, 2014 at 8:19 am
See my previous article on shifting your path to the right or you can find these drills on my youtube channel at http://www.tomstickneygolf.com.
gdb99
Jun 18, 2014 at 10:32 pm
Thanks!!
3 putts
Jun 17, 2014 at 5:00 pm
What are some good drills to get to solid impact if someone is hitting it towards the heel? Happens with woods but not irons. Any idea why that occurs? Is it try to guide the ball left with the hands maybe?
Tom Stickney
Jun 17, 2014 at 6:33 pm
Sounds like the swing is too in to out. Place a head cover outside your ball and make a few swings trying not to hit the it.
3 putts
Jun 17, 2014 at 8:33 pm
Thank you. Will give that a shot.
Pingback: Three slice patterns and how to fix them - I'd Rather Be Golfing
Sira
Jun 16, 2014 at 9:26 pm
Thank you Tom. A little questiin:
What about those of us who have in to out path? It is very easy for me to hit a big high fade if i am not careful with my club face at impact.
tom stickney
Jun 16, 2014 at 10:39 pm
Anytime you have an in to out path and you push fade it the clubface is right of the path at impact or you are hitting the ball off the heel. I’d get some Dr. Scholls and check out impact, then, I’d audit my grip to make sure it’s in the correct position and not too weak.
Zra
Jun 17, 2014 at 8:27 am
Yep. Your analysis is spotted on, Tom; my misses tend to be thin and toward heel (i’m a sweeper).
My grip is in neutral to slightly strong.
I can hit the ball pretty well, and usually shoot sub 80. The problem is that i dread the push fades (and if i try to overcompensate, snap hooks) so much, as they can ruin my round in a hurry. Once in a while when these issues do not creep up during a round, i can go square par or under par relatively frequently.
Tom Stickney
Jun 17, 2014 at 8:57 am
Your fades might be less about the face to path issue and more about the gear effect from the heel hit. Fix the overly in to out path first getting the marks in the center again and I bet you’ll better control those fades.