By Paul Myers
It’s not breaking news that the golf slice is one of the biggest problems plaguing most amateur golfers. If you are stuck dealing with a slice, you may be quite frustrated with the perceived inability to fix it, and it might even have you not wanting to play as much anymore. Don’t give up on your game just because you are dealing with a golf slice – instead, develop a specific plan to fix it so you can move on and get back to enjoying the game that you love.
1) Swing Out More to the Right (for a right-handed golfer)
Assuming you hit the ball in the center of the club face and you are catching the ball at the bottom of your swing arc, for a ball to start left of the target and slice back towards the target, your swing path had to be too far left. So in order to start the ball straight at the target, you need to swing out more to the right.
This can be a bit scary to do, especially if you do not want to hit to the right. It’s like skiing, if you lean back going down the hill, it’s much more difficult to ski well…than if you lean down the hill. So it’s sort of a matter of moving in the direction of your fear.
Since what you think is swinging straight is actually left, you may have to feel like your swinging well to the right in order for it to be straight.
2) Close the Clubface-to-Path Relationship
The other thing that is going on to cause the slice as mentioned above is that the club face could have to be open to your swing path. So the other piece of the puzzle is getting the face-to-path relationship from open to closed.
There are any number of ways to accomplish this. Sometimes strengthening (turning it clockwise) your lead hand grip slightly can help. You might also start the club at address a little more closed. Or you may feel like you close the club quicker on the down swing.
However that gets accomplished doesn’t matter so much, as long as it gets done.
Center Contact
Above we mentioned having center contact. The reason that is important is because another thing that could cause the slice is hitting the ball towards the inner part (the part closest to you) of the club face.
We won’t get in to center of gravity, gear affect, and the other related science behind that, but just know that hitting the inner part of the club face can cause slicing shots. If you want to check your contact, pick up some foot powder spray from your local pharmacy or drug store, spray some on the face, make 10 drives, and see where your striking pattern is located. If it’s on the inside part of the club, you’ll know that this could be causing part of your slice.
The golf slice is a swing fault that certainly can be fixed, even if it doesn’t feel like it at the moment. Start working on your slice by trying out the three tips above and seeing how much progress you can make. It is a challenge that may take some time and practice to overcome, but it can be done.
If you liked the article about fixing your golf slice and you think it would help another golfer, please like it.
To learn more about Swing Man Golf products and hit it longer with swing speed training, click here.
And, if you would like to add 30 to 40 yards to your drives over the next 30 days, like thousands of our customers have before you, you might consider our unique Swing Man Golf Swing Speed Training.
Use the tool below to find out a.) how fast your swing speed should be and b.) how fast you COULD swing it soon: