Slice

With most golfers, the body moves too early and races ahead of the hand-and-arm action (the opposite problem is unusual). This is one of the main causes of a sliced drive: the shoulders and upper body unwind too fast in the downswing, throwing the hands and arms outside the ideal swing plane, causing the clubhead to cut across the ball from out to in.

If you slice, strengthen your grip.

The slice: poorly aligned setup.

It is hard to say which fault comes first — an open clubface or an out-to-in swing path. However, both these problems arise from a poor address position. The typical slicer is aligned to the left of the target, and the swing path simply follows the lines established at address. An open clubface at impact may be the result of not releasing the club properly. Soften your grip pressure for a free “swish.”

To cure a slice you must start by straightening your address position. Stand square to the target line, with your shoulders and feet in parallel alignment. This will promote a more correct path in your backswing. Then attempt to strike the ball so that it starts on a course to the right of the target line, encouraging an inside path of attack into impact. Also feel yourself rotating your forearms through impact to promote an aggressive release of club.

With a short shot that requires a lofted club, it is easier to hook or draw the ball than it is to fade or slice the ball.

With a longer shot that requires a less lofted club, it is much easier to fade or slice the ball than it is to hook or draw the ball.

Keep these factors in mind when considering which shape shot best gives you a route to the target. One option may be considerably easier than the other.

If you have a tendency to slice the ball, you can try smaller grips that help your hands work faster. If you have a tendency to hook the ball, you can use bigger grips that will slow down your hands and help you beat that hook.

If either tendency gets to severe and develops into a full-blooded slice or hook, you should stop playing. Go get a lesson. Such severe faults tend to be obvious to the trained eye. One session with your local pro should get you back on track.

In general, slicers use too much body action and not enough hand action in their swings. Golfers who hook have the opposite tendency — too much hand action, not enough body.

From a scientific standpoint, golf is a game of opposites. I think that’s what makes it such a hard game for some people. A lot of the things that occur when the club strikes the ball are just the opposite of what your instincts tell you should happen. For instance, a shot that slices to the right occurs because the clubhead, square to the target line, is traveling to the left at impact. Another example is grip pressure. If you grip the club tightly in an effort to hit the ball harder, you end up swinging the club even slower, because tight muscles don’t move as fast as loose muscles.

The best example falls in the area of iron play. In order to get the ball airborne, you must hit down on it. Countless golfers try to help get the ball in the air by swinging up on the ball. That makes it go down — a toppled shot, or a thin one at best.

Notice that when you swing 5i to wedge, you are much more likely to brush turf along with the tee. The reason is the shorter the club, the steeper the plane.

With a longer club like fairway wood or 4i you really don’t want to brush much ground. If you brush the ground, then the club is coming in too steeply and you’ll probably hit a slice.

If you are slicing shots, the first thing you should do is check your ball position. Many players tend to place the ball too far forward in their stance, believing that it makes it easier to get their shoulders behind the ball on their backswing, thereby adding power and distance. Actually, having the ball too far forward makes slices even more pronounced. Since the golf swing is somewhat circular, your club is likely to cut across the ball if the ball is positioned too far forward.

The next step is to go back to P1 and P2 to see why your plane is too vertical. Remember, you want to make sure you aren’t bringing the club back too low and inside. And go through the P2 checklist: Are your hands in front of your sternum at the top of the backswing? Is the back of your left hand square to the back of your forearm? Is the back of your left hand pointing in the same direction as the clubface?

For a number of years during Ben Hogan’s prime and thereafter, many golf teachers taught the neutral grip — in which the Vs of the thumbs and forefingers point more or less toward the nose or right eye.

This was Hogan’s grip, and it was the right thing for him because he was always fighting a hook. In fact, most good players tend to be hookers. This neutral grip worked well for the good players and still does.

For players who are not good, the neutral grip encourages a slice.

The first essential for the consistent slicer is to square his shoulders to the target line at address. Often this will give him the feeling that he is closed — aiming right of target. But it is imperative that he gets his shoulders square, and he will usually only do this if at first he feels closed in his upper-body alignment.

Another vital factor for the inveterate slicer is head position at address. Most slicers set their heads too far to the left — over or even in front of the ball — which forces them into the open shouldered, open-bladed setup that guarantees a slice. They should observe how the very good golfer always sets his head behind the ball, and looks into the back of it — the bit he wants to hit.

We cannot get away from the fact that golf is basically a matter of grip and setup. If you set yourself so that you must swing across the ball with an open clubface, you are doomed to slice — no other shot is possible.

The slicer is the supreme example. The ball goes to the right, and the more it does, the more he sets himself to the left — shoulders open, head in front of the ball, and, worst of all, a slicer’s weak grip. Eventually he gets to the stage where the only thing he can possibly do is produce feeble banana shots from far left to far right.

Thus, the slicer’s first task must always be to get himself into a square address position — shoulders, hips, knees, and feet parallel to the target line, or even slightly “inside” it. This will enable him to grip the club in a way that will let him swing the clubface through the ball looking at the target.

Play the ball an inch or so closer to the body on high and low shots.
Don’t change the grip except for exaggerated slices and hooks.
Set the left thumb straight down the grip for a big slice, but more under for a hook.
Use a basic chipping stroke for the bump and run.
Aim to land the ball on a flat spot, avoiding side-slopes at all costs.
Don’t try the bump and run in lush, long grass. It’s ideal for dry, firm conditions.

The fact is, a top player can change his grip enough to cause a draw or a fade, a slice or a hook, and an observer can’t even see the change.

Many slicers don’t realize that moving the ball forward in their stance causes an even more pronounced slice. The clubhead travels in a circular path. During the downswing, once the clubhead passes your sternum, its circular path starts to arc toward your front foot. So moving the ball forward causes the club to cut across the ball from an even sharper angle, producing more spin.

Many amateurs straighten or even lock the right knee immediately as they start their backswing. That causes their hips and shoulders to turn at the same amount, so they aren’t building any coil for power. They end up throwing the club over the top to get back to the ball, which further reduces power and leads to slices or pulls.

Instead, maintain the flex of your right knee throughout the swing. This encourages the shoulders to turn more than the hips, storing power. On the downswing you’ll be more on plane and can release the club later for a more powerful hit.

Fluffing is hitting the ground behind the ball, or hitting shots “fat.” There are 2 common causes of this depressing disease.

Among both good and indifferent golfers alike, it can often be caused by nothing more complicated than bad posture at address, leading to loss of balance during the swing.

The most common cause of fluffing among reasonably accomplished golfers is poor coordination of body and hand action in the downswing. It is the opposite of a topper’s problem — a tendency to hit too early with the hands and wrists, before the hips have cleared a way for them to swing past the body and out toward the target.

As most slicers are prone to topping, so most hookers are liable to fluff occasional shots. What happens is that the fluffer lengthens his swing radius by letting the clubhead catch up with and pass his hands before they have arrived back at the ball.

How to slice: To cut the ball, I align my body left of target and aim the clubface at the target, then swing to the left along my stance line.

How to hook: I align my body to the right of the target, aim the clubface at the target, and swing out to the right.

How to hit low: It is a matter of ball position. I move the ball back in my stance. Moving the ball back reduces the effective loft of the club.

How to hit high: Move the ball forward in my stance.

A 9-iron shot won’t hook or slice as much as a 5-iron shot. The more loft you have, the less sidespin you can impart on the ball.

If you slice the ball: The clubface is open at impact. Often the culprit is the wrists and / or the forearms. The forearms rotate too much on the takeaway and the left wrist is cupped at the top of the backswing. The result is an open clubface at the top, meaning it points more vertically than horizontally. Open at the top usually means open at the bottom, too, and a huge slice. Combine that with a swing path too much from the inside and the ball has to go right. You want more of a flat left wrist and a square clubface at the top of the backswing. You can attain that position by having quieter hands and restricting forearm rotation on the backswing.

If you hook the ball: The clubface is closed at impact. Most hookers suffer from a lack of body rotation on the through-swing. They start with the chin buried in the chest on the takeaway and never really rotate fully away from the ball on the backswing. Since they can’t unwind what they don’t wind up in the first place, they fail to rotate fully toward the target. What small amount of weight they have transferred to the right side remains there. To compensate on the downswing, they flip their wrists, toeing in the club and producing a snapper — the ball starts left then hooks. To fix the problem, stay connected. That is, make sure the triangle created by your hands, arms, and chest at address remains intact throughout the swing. If you maintain that connection, your weight will naturally shift into your right side on the backswing and transfer to your left side on the downswing.

Grip the handle in the fingers for straighter and longer shots. Many golfers hold the handle in the palm of the top hand. This is a weak position and results in a slice and a lack of power. To get the proper feel of finger and palm, turn your club upside down so you are holding the shaft. Take your hand on and off the shaft a number of times until holding the club in your fingers begins to feel comfortable.

Right-handed golfers who straighten their left leg and knee too soon will tend not to transfer their weight, creating an outside-to-inside swing, resulting in a high, weak slice. Strong players who tend to hook the ball too much would benefit from straightening the left leg sooner. Most average players would benefit from keeping the front knee bent as long as they possibly can in their swing.

If you slice, it’s probably because you’re not closing the clubface fast enough through the hitting zone. To improve your ability to deliver a square clubface (relative to your path), make practice swings with your hands split apart on the grip.

Separating your hands like this makes it easier to square the face through impact and keep the handle pointing at your belly button as the clubhead slings out toward the ball. Make sure to brush the grass aggressively. If you can recreate the feels in the drill on real swings, you’re money.

A push slice happens when the clubhead is traveling directly down the target line or slightly inside-to-outside at impact, while the clubface is pointed right of this path. The rightward sidespin causes the curve.

One more bit of encouraging news: With an inside-to-out clubhead path, you’re just a square clubface away from turning your slice into a draw.

When paired with an open clubface, it’s swinging over-the-top and cutting across the ball that causes a big slice. To combat this and to get your swing moving more from in-to-out, Trevino wants you to take the club back along the target line, then letting your arms drop inward.

If we have a tendency to slice the ball, we are apt to see the shot drifting from left to right; we may even see it running away from us across the green. If we take our golf seriously, we shall not feel satisfied, if we allow ourselves to yield to the inclination to play the shot in this way. We must resist and counteract the tendency by visualizing the shot as being held up firmly with even a suspicion of draw in order to strengthen our resolution. The club generally follows the inclination of the mind. We must positively see the ball flying as we wish it to, and the time will come when our technical ability will triumph over the weakness which previously would have mastered us.

Dropping the arms too far below it, Hogan contended, would produce an overly flat swing and result in a vicious hook, while going too high — and “breaking” the glass — would result in a nasty slice.

If your shots tend to fade and slice, or you thin quite a few, then your leg action is too strong for your hand and arm action. You must concentrate on a stronger arm swing, practicing hitting balls with your feed together until the strike improves.

If your shots draw or hook, and you hit a lot of fat shots, then your leg action is not lively enough. You should put more emphasis on pulling with your left arm, and moving your left knee more emphatically from the top of the swing.

If you can master impact, you can control and shape your shots. However, if you make a tiny mistake and your clubhead is left open as it hits the ball, even just a hair, you could slice the ball 20y wide of your target. That’s how important impact is. In fact, a small but crucial difference in clubface position at impact is exactly what separates total hackers from the best players in the world. I’ve heard people say that golf is a game of inches, but when it comes to contact, it is a game of fractions of fractions of inches.

If the sand is very light and loose, you can afford to take plenty of it, and you also can hit your hardest. If it is heavy and wet, there is no need to hit so hard or to take so much sand. To play any of these shots you must remember above all things that the head and body must be kept absolutely motionless; in other words, the body may pivot but must not move laterally.

You stand fairly open with the ball about opposite the left heel, and you play the stroke as a slice. That is to say, you aim to the left of the hole, and in taking the club back you take it away from the body. Your forward swing is across your body, and you will finish your stroke with the club well to the left of the line.

There are many reasons for a slice but there’s only 1 way how it’s done, and that’s by bringing the clubhead across the ball — outside in — and giving it a right-way spin.

Of the ways to slice, the No.1 enemy is getting the right side into the shot too quickly. You generally do this because you sway on the backswing, rather than pivoting around on your hip.

Good players come to me and say they are hooking. I ask them to do so. They hit a few shots, and, true enough, they ball goes to the left. But in many cases it does not “bend” to the left. It flies straight to the left, or starts left and then goes more left. These shots are not hooks. They are pulls and pulled hooks. And the important thing is that they do not stem from the sort of action that produces a genuine hook. They stem, indeed, from the very opposite, from a slicer’s action, an out-to-in swing. All they lack is the slicer’s open clubface at impact.

Most intermediate and advanced golfers have been playing for years, so more than likely they have conformed their grip to suit their swing and ball flight. For instance, if their tendency is to slice the ball 15y, they probably have 15y of hook in their grip. In other words, they use a strong grip. Actually, this is a mistake made by players at all levels. They assume the best and easiest way to alter their ball flight is to change their grip. What you will come to understand as you learn the two-position method is that the factors that most influence your ball flight are the plane of your swing (where your golf club is in relation to your arms, hands, body, and setup) and the path of the club as it travels down and through the ball.

If you are a beginner, it’s a good idea to start with a neutral to strong grip. Since 90% of beginners slice the ball, it’s better to err toward a strong grip than a weak one.

Conversely, if you position the ball farther back in your stance, you have a much better chance of getting the club into the back of the ball sooner, with less spin. That is why I tell beginning and intermediate players, who are more likely to slice the ball, that if they err in their ball position, err toward the middle of their stance, or even a couple of inches back from the middle.

Advanced players generally can play the ball a few inches forward in their stance, because the path of their swing tends to come from the inside and they usually draw the ball.

Let’s start with the wrists because your swing largely is built around proper wrist action. Your wrists are the igniters, providing the final bursts of speed and power through impact. Moreover, if you cock your wrists correctly, your hands and forearms usually are positioned properly as well, because those parts are so intertwined where you swing is concerned.

Most players never learn how to use their wrists correctly and consequently never really get their games off the ground. That is because poor wrist action makes it extremely difficult to get the clubface square to the ball at impact. Hitting slices becomes all but a certainty.

Players who draw or hook the ball almost always finish with their right hand square to their wrist. Players who slice the ball almost always finish with their right hand bent back toward their wrist, creating a cupped appearance.

Notice that when you swing 5i to wedge, you are much more likely to brush turf along with the tee. The reason is the shorter the club, the steeper the plane.

With a longer club like fairway wood or 4i you really don’t want to brush much ground. If you brush the ground, then the club is coming in too steeply and you’ll probably hit a slice.

About 90% of amateur golfers hit mostly slices. Most players who have double-digit handicaps are slicers.

The quick fix is to strengthen your grip by moving your left hand well over the top of the club. That’s unwise because again, you are stacking a mistake on top of a mistake without getting to the root of the problem.

The takeaway: You either bring the club back on the right path (parallel with your feet line), or too far to the inside, or too much to the outside. If you err, do so slightly to the outside. Bringing it back too much to the inside causes your plane to be too steep and leads to slices.

In short, a heel hit with your driver will want to produce a fade spin (slice) on the ball, all other things being equal.