The sliced golf shot is probably the most chronic problem that beginning and higher handicap golfers struggle with.
It’s an easy thing to explain, but certainly a much tougher problem to correct. So, without getting into a very lengthy article on the subject of the sliced golf shot, I’ll do my best to give you an understanding of what causes the slice and a couple of tips that will get you on your way to forever correcting this game robbing problem.
First of all let me make perfectly clear that there is a difference in a fade (shaping your golf shot from left to right) and slicing your golf shots. A fade is a perfectly legitimate shot that many people and professionals use. A slice is not.
Let’s begin with the bottom line cause of the slice.
When your clubface enters the hitting zone either the clubface itself is open or your swing path is coming from the outside in (from away from your body coming toward your body).
The part about the outside to in swing path is probably the more difficult of the two swing anomalies to correct, so in the interest of time let’s take a look at working on that for you.
Let’s fast forward just a bit, and envision that you are now at the top of your golf swing. And let’s assume that all has gone well to this point. You’ve made a good shoulder turn. The majority of your weight is on your back foot braced against the instep of your right foot and not rolled over to the outside of your back foot.
O.K., so we feel pretty good about the swing so far. Now what do we do about transitioning to the downswing?
Well… for those of you who struggle with the slice and are reading this article, the next action to occur that sets the stage for a slice is to initiate the downswing with the hands and arms. You may have heard the term that someone is swinging from the top or coming over the top. When this happens you’ve set into motion and outside in swing path in which the result for the vast majority of cases with be a slice. When you swing path comes through the hitting zone in an outside in fashion, your clubface ‘cuts’ across the golf ball.
First let’s discuss physically what you need to do, then a quick drill.
In order to correctly transition from the top of your swing to the downswing, you have to initiate this from the ground up not the top down.
Let’s try to grasp this by breaking this down into a smaller more manageable movement first.
From your setup position, just start slightly swinging your club to and fro only a small distance each way. The key element here is I want to set your club in motion by using a slight weight shift from front back and back to front… just like a pendulum on a clock… right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, … tic toc, tic, toc. Keep the hands and arms relaxed and passive. Work you way up to about only a half backswing at this point using only weight shift and a slight hip rotation to propel your mini-golf swing. As you do this, watch and make note of your swing path. We want to achieve a slight 7 o’clock to 1 o’clock swing path (inside out through the hitting zone).
Once you feel good about your mini swing path, try this drill. Pick out a divot or mark on the ground that will represent your ball (we aren’t hitting a golf ball at this point) and set up to. Now, from your setup position mark with a couple of tees a nice 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock swing path that passes through your divot mark. Now take a 3rd tee and place it a few inches in front of your divot mark (pseudo golf ball) at about 1 o’clock.
With the tees in place, begin your right foot, left foot… tic, toc swing as mentioned before; only this time our goal is to just clip the 3rd tee ( your 1 o’clock tee) on our follow through.
One very important key at this point is to accomplish this… the proper weight shift accompanied by the hip rotation… not by moving your head and your entire body forward. Keep your head positioned over your divot mark (pseudo golf ball) and let the proper weight shift and swing path take care of hitting that 3rd tee as you being to get proper extension and follow through.
As you become more proficient at this with your mini or half swing, use this same drill as you work your way into a full swing.
As this become habit through repetition and practice, the good inside out swing path will begin to become the norm and what once felt awkward will feel natural; and what once felt natural (your slice golf swing) will feel awkward.
Word count: 835