Slicing

Finish Factors

Finish Factors
One of the best indicators of a good golf swing is the finish. If there’s balance when the swing is over, it means there was probably balance during the swing. Often, players who slice do so because they don’t finish correctly. See the photo of the finish below? Not only did my arms collapse and my feet remain flat, but I didn’t make a full body turn. This bad finish is due to the excessive tension in my hands and arms that restricted the proper body movement.

Getting in a full and relaxed finish position is a must so you can learn to synchronize the hands and arms with the body and to control the clubface at impact. Look at my key finish factors and see what it takes to finish the golf swing the right way. Then, try using a full-length mirror and see if your finish position matches mine!

Pam Wright, LPGA, teaches at the We-Ko-Pa Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. For more information, visit Pam online at pamwrightgolf.com.

Fight the Right

How many times have you been told the reasons why you slice, without being told what you actually need to do to stop slicing? Too often I hear instructors explaining the cause and effects of sliced shots, without providing a shred of information on what kind of swing is required to prevent banana balls. If you find yourself agreeing with me, then my lesson in the next few pages should be right up your alley. Unlike other articles, we aren’t going to figure out why you’re slicing. That’s not going to get you anywhere, considering it only deals with half the problem. Instead, I’m going to teach you what it takes to draw the ball so you can start hitting more approach shots from the fairway instead of the right rough. Sound appealing? Good. Let’s hook that slice once and for all._Ê

Balance Your Setup In All Directions
To eliminate the slice, let’s start from the beginning. The address position should reflect an even weight distribution in every direction. In other words, your weight should be evenly distributed over both feet and proportionally on the balls and heels of your feet. For example, think of an infielder ready to catch a line drive. By flexing his knees and balancing himself in every direction, he’s ready to spring in any direction to catch the ball. As a golfer, you too should be in a similarly athletic position to be ready to make a golf swing. If you’re leaning one way or the other, it’s a sure bet your golf ball will lean to the left or right as well.

Avoid leaning
The natural inclination to fight a slice is to lean away from the ball, but in actuality, that will make your slice worse! Keep your balance in every direction, and you’ll see it’s easier to turn through the golf ball.

Tilt Away Before You Start
Once you’ve established an evenly weighted stance, the next ingredient for slice busting is to tilt the shoulders away from the target. This means lowering your back (my right) shoulder so that your shoulders slope downward away from the target. This is key! Many golfers who struggle with slicing do so because they invert their shoulders at impact and swipe down on the ball with a forward shoulder that’s lower than the rear shoulder. That position is both a weak and inconsistent one. Come time to hit a draw, the left shoulder must remain above the right to ensure the needed inside-to-outside and upward swing path that’s required to put draw spin on the ball.

You’ll Hit It Higher
Tilting your shoulders will produce an upward blow into the ball that will help you not only draw it, but hit your tee shots higher. That means not only will you kill your slice, you’ll hit it farther down the fairway with added carry and roll.

Swing Underneath Your Shoulders
Now that you’ve gotten the setup and shoulder positions ready, how you move during the onset of the downswing makes a big difference on whether you’re going to hit a slice or draw. To draw the ball, you have to swing below the shoulders. If your hands get above or out in front of your shoulders, you’re going to come over the top of the ball, hitting either a double-crossed hook or a big slice (depending on whether or not the clubface is open or shut). Check out the photo. Notice how my clubshaft is below my shoulders and not out in front or above them. That’s a sure sign I’m swinging from the inside and not over the top. My hands are also inside of where they were at address, further illustrating the inside-out path.

Move Inside Out
At address, the target line extends from the clubface to the target. Anytime the golf swing gets out to the right of the line before contact, it’s a sure sign you’ll pull it, slice it or both! Start the downswing from inside the line and swing away from it.

Flatten Your Wrist At The Top
To fight a hook, Ben Hogan used to cup his left wrist at the top of the swing. What that meant was, he would create an angle between the back of his left hand and left forearm. Now, since we want to do the opposite of Mr. Hogan and try and draw the ball, it’s critical that the left wrist (right wrist for southpaws) remain flat in order to avoid rotating the clubface too far open at the top of the backswing. With the left wrist flat, the clubface will remain square or closed at the top of the swing, helping to prevent an open face at impact that would then send the ball veering off to the right. Keep a flat left wrist, and don’t forget to periodically check in front of a mirror to make sure you’re in the right position.

Hand Action
Not only should the back of the gloved hand be flat with the forearm, both hands should reside right above the back shoulder at the top, like you see here. This will help you make a swing from the inside out with a square clubface at impact.

Arm Rotation
I’m willing to bet if you’re a slicer, you probably don’t rotate your hands properly during the downswing. Also, you may not realize that the way to a square clubface at impact is to continually close the clubface through the downswing. If you stop closing the face and start sliding, the face will open, causing—you guessed it—a sliced shot. To get your hands moving, here’s a simple drill to encourage more rotational movement with the hands. Start with the left hand, as I’m doing here. As you make your backswing, rotate the hand in slow motion until the left thumb points up on the backswing. Then as you begin the downswing, allow your hand to roll open, with the thumb pointing straight out in front of you as your hand crosses your sternum. Through the finish, the left hand should open completely. Make the same motion with your right hand as well, and concentrate on rolling the hands as opposed to sliding the hands as many slicers do. This drill will help you ingrain the proper hand rotation necessary to close the face through impact.

Keep Your Head Behind The Golf Ball
One of the biggest myths in golf instruction is the one about keeping the head still during the golf swing. If you do that, odds are you won’t be able to transition your weight toward your back foot on the
backswing, invariably leading to a reverse pivot or some other slice-inducing move. Instead, allow the head to shift back as the body shifts its weight on the backswing. On the downswing, allow the head to move forward, but not too far that the head gets out in front of the golf ball. If the head leads too much, the body will follow and the hands will have no chance of catching up! The result? Usually a nasty slice. Keep the head behind the ball throughout the swing, and you’ll be more likely to swing from the inside and avoid hitting a slice.

Thumbs Up
Notice how in both scenarios, my hand is fully rotated and my arms are extended? That’s important! My extended arms mean the hands can freely rotate, while my body stays behind the ball.

_Ê

Square Your Shoulders
In theory, when someone tells you to aim at the target, you’d assume that means aim everything at the target, right? Wrong! The correct way is to aim the clubface at the target and position your shoulders parallel to that line. Aiming the shoulders to the left only accentuates a swing that cuts across the ball from outside-to-inside the target line, producing a weak slice. Conversely, if the shoulders point to the right of the target, you’re likely to either force the upper body to over-rotate or even swing too much from the inside. The goal is to swing from the inside, but not too much that the hands get stuck behind the body on the downswing. Stay neutral! The key to hitting draws involves a swing path dictated by the turn of the whole body, not just the shoulders.

Use A Club For Help
It’s not uncommon to see Tour pros use a club like this during their warm ups to remember to stay square. If you open or close too much, timing the right impact position becomes a real chore. Stay square to hit more draws!

Extend Your Arms
Sometimes, putting an end to the banana ball requires a simple swing thought that will inevitably control the entire swing. In this case, reminding yourself to extend your arms will help you close the clubface and prevent a slice-inducing, bent-arm, chicken wing position at impact. Also, extending the arms will likely encourage the rest of your body to continue turning, which in and of itself is another necessary ingredient to hit a draw. Speaking of which, hitting a draw (and not a snap hook) requires you to swing from inside out, and doing that requires your forward (my left) shoulder to remain above my back shoulder. Do that as you extend your arms and you’ll see that hitting a draw is a lot more natural than you might have thought!

Right over left
After impact, the ungloved hand should be on top of the gloved hand (as I’m doing here). If not, it’s a sign that the hands haven’t rotated properly. Rolling the hands will help you draw the ball and hook your slice once and for all.

No Spin Zone

Square The Clubface And Hit It Straight!
As most of us know, the slice is probably the most common fault in all of golf, particularly for the recreational player. Though that fact isn’t particularly surprising, what is surprising is how long people are willing to struggle before seeking a legitimate method of eradicating the slice from their game. One of the typical methods players pursue in hopes of straightening their slice is trying to develop more of an inside-out swing path, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, though an outside-in swing path definitely promotes the production of left-to-right spin (slice spin), the ultimate cause of slicing is an open clubface at impact. Learn to get the clubface square through the hitting zone, and that left-to-right spin—and those banana balls—will quickly disappear.

The basic fact that all slicers have to accept is that, though other factors contribute to poor golf shots, more than 70-percent of shot shape is due to clubface angle and nothing else. Controlling the clubface is the secret to both solid contact and accuracy, and is the one thing you must focus on if you hope to improve. To help accomplish this task (which isn’t as daunting as you might think), I’ve come up with three simple clubface keys that just about any golfer can learn. Work on these keys, and I guarantee your slices will become significantly less severe, and maybe straighten out completely.

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Learn My Three Clubface Keys And Eliminate Slice Spin For Good

#1 Proper Grip
The hands have a bigger influence on the clubface than any other element in the golf swing. Due to this oft-overlooked fact, golfers regularly lose focus on the grip and allow it to play a major role in creating a variety of slices. To begin eliminating left-to-right spin, make sure that the grip of the club is running through the fingers and not the palm of your glove hand. The V’s formed by your thumbs and forefingers should point toward your right shoulder at address in order to ensure a square or even slightly closed clubface at impact. I recommend placing tees in the webbings of your thumbs (as seen below) to help see clearly if your grip is correct.

In the photo on the below left, you’ll notice that the tees lean toward the target and the V’s in my hands point toward my front shoulder. This overly weak grip is a typical slicer’s mistake that must be avoided. Instead, make sure you utilize a relatively strong grip as seen on the below right.

Lifting your hands steeply above the plane promotes an open clubface and a cupped left wrist. Instead, keep your left wrist flat and the clubface square.

#2 Flat Left Wrist
Everyone has been told at one time or another to strive for a flat left wrist at impact, but it’s almost equally important to achieve a flat left wrist at the top of the backswing, especially if you’re a chronic slicer. In the picture at the right (opposite page) I’m clearly demonstrating the correct (flat left wrist, square clubface) and incorrect (cupped left wrist, open clubface) positions at the top of the swing. Note that my left wrist is clearly in line with my left forearm and the clubshaft in the correct position, while in the incorrect position my left wrist and the back of my left hand are clearly not in line with either. This is a critical difference that has a lot to do with shot shape.

A good way to achieve the proper, flat left wrist position at the top of the swing is to imagine the logo on your glove, as well as the clubface, facing toward the sky as you reach the top. This is a bit of an exaggeration, but it will help get you going in the right direction. Another good trick is to feel as if the clubface stays slightly hooded in the backswing, or in other words, pointing toward the ground.

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#3 Turn The Toe Past The Heel Through Impact
This is a concept I pilfered from my former employer, Jack Nicklaus. Mr. Nicklaus used this technique whenever he needed to draw the ball from right-to-left, because he felt that having the toe of the club beat the heel to the golf ball encouraged the clubface to close through impact. The secret to mastering this face-closing procedure is to try to start the rotation of the clubhead prior to impact and complete the rotation just after impact. Most people simply don’t rotate the face enough in the downswing, or else, do it much too late. To get the proper feel, make some practice swings and freeze just after impact. Make sure your glove hand is below your non-glove hand every time. If your non-glove hand isn’t on top, you definitely need more hand rotation.

To make certain you rotate the clubface correctly through the ball, hold your position just past impact and double check that your right hand is above the left.

Tim Brown is a Teacher of the Year recipient and the Head Pro at Timberlane C.C. in Gretna, La

Stop Your Slice

The majority of recreational golfers, and even some better players, suffer from chronic slicing. Anyone who has experienced this problem knows how frustrating it can be and how difficult it can be to overcome. One of the main reasons so many golfers are unable to straighten out their banana ball is because they attempt to find a cure without properly understanding the disease. To fix your slice once and for all, I suggest first understanding what fundamentals are key to solid ballstriking, and then taking measures to incorporate those moves into your swing. By so doing, your slice will disappear automatically.

The Role Of The Body
The body has but one role in the golf swing: to maintain balance and provide the foundation for solid rotational motion. Simply stated, you must maintain your balance while the club orbits around your body throughout the swing. Any loose motion will cause you to lose your balance and will disrupt the club’s orbit, which often leads to slicing. In order to do this, you must set up correctly at address, focusing on maintaining the proper forward bending of the spine, the proper amount of lateral spinal bending, and a solid amount of knee flex based on the amount of motion you want during the swing.

To set the proper forward bending of the spine, you need the clubshaft to point at your beltline (from a down-the-line view), and you need your arms to hang slightly out from your body so they clear your upper chest (see photo, below). These positions should be set with your balance point located around the middle to the back of the soles of your shoes. Setting the proper lateral bending of the spine is simple as well. Lean away from the target with your upper torso while your hips remain centered. This will move your center of gravity behind the mid-line of your body and allow you to easily shift your weight to your rear foot during the backswing (compare the large photo to the photo far right). Finally, to set the proper flex of the knees, you must first determine just how much rotary motion you need during your backswing. If you feel more comfortable turning more in the backswing, then you don’t require as much knee flex. If you need less turn to the top, you need to flex your knees more. As you look down at your knees, they should be flexed somewhere between the knot in your shoelaces and the mid-point of your laces.

Once you’re set up in a good position, the next thing you need to do is make sure that you have a solid rotational base for your club to orbit around. The first key to remember is that the right knee (for right-handed players) must remain relatively stable from address to the top in order to tighten up the hip turn in the backswing. If the right knee changes flex or position on the way to the top of the backswing, then you’ll have a bigger hip turn as you take the club back. In addition, the rate at which your hips turn off the start of the backswing will also influence the overall amount you’ll rotate. Players who rotate more have a greater tendency to alter the position of the clubshaft at the top, and also have a greater tendency to lose their balance during the swing. If this sounds like your swing, you need to be aware that over-rotating could be the cause of your slicing woes.

The Role Of The Clubshaft
In a solid swing, the path of the clubshaft is controlled all the way to the top. Players who have any type of radical motion during this part of the swing are forced to compensate in the transition to prevent poor shots. The key to controlling the clubshaft is to keep the clubshaft in an area that, at belt high, is around the tips of your toes (see photo, below right). The hands, clubshaft and clubhead should lie directly above the stance line defined by your feet. If you move too far in front or behind this position, you’ll find that it’s impossible to achieve a solid position at the top of the swing.

The Role Of Plane Angle Shifts
When the body flops around en route to the top, the clubshaft tends to lift up, requiring a plane angle shift in the transition that drops it down onto the plane (like you see in the swing of Jim Furyk). On the other hand, when the clubshaft moves off plane too quickly, it usually goes too deeply to the inside, causing an over-the-top move in the transition (like you see in the swing of Craig Parry). Obviously, both methods can work, but both require compensations that can be difficult to execute on a consistent basis. They also require timing realistically achieved only by golfers in the world-class strata. The best way to visualize a manageable clubshaft motion to the top is to draw a mental line from the hosel of the clubhead through your beltline, and a second line from the hosel of the clubhead through the top of the right shoulder at address. Keeping the clubshaft in this triangle area (photo, left) will allow you to control the plane throughout the swing. There are many players on Tour who take different paths to the top and back down to the ball, but all of them stay in this triangle.

The Role Of Plane Angle Shifts
In the golf swing, there are several plane angles that can be seen from a down-the-line look. These are the angles used during slow-motion video analysis to identify transition types. Those I consider most important are:

The Clubshaft Plane
This is the most common angle as seen by a line drawn up the clubshaft through the beltline at address. This line shows how the clubshaft moves from nine o’clock to three o’ clock, or from waist high to waist high in the backswing and downswing.

The Right Elbow Plane
This line is drawn from the hosel of the club through the left elbow. This line shows how the clubshaft should work from belt high to chest high in the backswing and forwardswing. It’s slightly more upright than the clubshaft plane.

Squared Shoulder Plane
This line is drawn from the hosel of the club through the midpoint of the right deltoid (for a right-handed golfer). This line shows how the clubshaft works for most players from chest high to the top during the backswing. Achieving this plane position is key.

The Turning Shoulder Plane
Drawn from the hosel of the club through the very top of the right deltoid as the club reaches the top. This is the most upright plane angle. From here, the club should drop to the elbow then the original shaft plane and through impact (Double Shift).

The Zero Shift
These four angles show where the clubshaft can go and defines the actions that the shaft can take. Some players use no shifts, some one, two or even three. Basically, any of these plane angle shift models can be used to produce a swing that’s solid and repeatable, but some require more maintenance than others. Understanding your motion and working within it as best you can is the key to controlling your clubshaft and its transition into delivery. Once you understand what type of transition, or shift, best suits your swing and abilities, you’ll have a significantly better chance of hitting straight shots. Regardless of which plane model you choose, it’s important to remember that sticking to it, and mastering its fundamental positions, are key to eradicating the slice and hitting accurate shots.

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Equip Tip
Playability Progress

To make sense of iron performance, famed golf industry veteran and GolfWorks founder Ralph Maltby has developed the concept of MPF (Maltby Playability Factor), which is a modern method of rating golf club forgiveness. Based on years of experimentation and study, the process for determining MPF for irons is based on specific mass and dimensional qualities of the ironhead itself. The three basic properties are: 1) the basic vertical center of gravity location (how high or low on the face the CG is located); 2) the horizontal center of gravity dimension from the centerline of the hosel, also called the C dimension (how near the toe or heel the CG is located); and 3) the moment of inertia (the degree to which the clubhead is resistant to twisting). The simplest form of MPF is determined by subtracting the vertical CG location from the horizontal CG location. The higher the resultant number, the higher the playability rating of the iron, and the easier the iron should be to hit. To make MPF measurements more accessible and useful, the numbers generated by the MPF method have been translated by Maltby into the following categories: Ultra Game Improvement, Super Game Improvement, Game Improvement, Conventional, Classic, and Player Classic._Ê

It’s important to note, however, that according to Maltby, there are other factors that influence the playability of an iron, like sole bounce, loft, lie angle, sole width, head weight, offset and face line configuration. Elements like the grip, shaft, swing weight and overall weight also are significant, as is the quality of the club’s fit to the individual golfer. The important thing to understand about MPF is that it’s a method designed to be used in a theoretical way under workshop conditions and is meant to help classify different clubheads into playability categories geared toward the full range of player ability levels. It isn’t meant to be the final word on the playability of a fully assembled iron, but rather a way to measure the playability of a clubhead itself._Ê
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According to the Maltby system, Ultra and Super Game Improvement_Ê irons are the easiest to play and are beneficial for players of all ability levels. For more information on the Maltby Playability Factor and a full list of rated irons, visit www.franklygolf.com/mpf.

The Top 10
The MPF has been used to categorize hundreds of irons. If you’re prone to missing the sweet spot, the models below—both old and new—lend the most forgiveness.

1. _Ê Callaway Big Bertha (’99—Ultra)
2._Ê_Ê Callaway BB Fusion (’05—Ultra)
3._Ê_Ê Wilson Deep Red II (’04—Ultra)
4._Ê_Ê Cleveland TA5 (’00—Ultra)
5. _Ê Cleveland TA7 (’02—Super)
6._Ê_Ê Ben Hogan BH-5 (’04—Super)
7._Ê_Ê PING G2 HL (’04—Super)_Ê
8. _Ê King Cobra SS-I (’04—Super)
9. _Ê PING Eye2 (’83—Super)
10. TaylorMade rac HT (’04—Super)

The Single Shift
This technique is a single shift from the shaft plane at address to a more vertical plane during the transition. It’s an out-and-over move commonly seen in a player who moves the ball from left to right. Unfortunately, the single shift easily can turn into an uncontrolled, over-the-top motion, especially when tempo is off. This is a good technique for an intentional fade.

The Double Shift
This is the most common plane angle shift model taught by modern teachers, particularly David Leadbetter. This shift starts from the clubshaft plane at address, then moves into a more upright position into the backstroke and then falls back to the clubshaft plane through the ball. This is a very good motion, provided you can keep the clubshaft from lifting too much into the last part of the backswing. Use the double shift only if you have a good level of flexibility.

The Triple Shift
This is the classic in-up-and-over move that you see in a player like Bruce Lietzke. Basically, the club moves to the inside of the shaft plane on the backswing, then above it on the downswing. If you use this plane angle shift, then you must control your release or you’ll hit left-to-left shots.

The Reverse Loop
This shift is used by players who lift the club to the top slightly, yet have shoulder turns that are level or perpendicular to the axis of the spine. These players have no need to re-route the arms and shoulders, but only need to re-route the shaft back to the clubshaft plane on the downswing. Tiger Woods, Nick Faldo and Nick Price employ the Reverse Loop technique, evidenced by a flattening of the shaft on the downswing.

The Reverse Shift
This is the action Trevino, Couples and Furyk use as they lift the club steeply to the top with a high right shoulder and then re-route the club back to the clubshaft plane established at address. The Reverse Shift requires powerful lateral and rotary hip motions to aid the reversing action, which can lead to back problems.

The Pivot Motion
When the club is in a manageable delivery position at belt high, you’ll find that the club is either trailing the hands slightly or slightly out in front of the hands, but not by much in either position. From here all you have to do is allow your weight to continue to move into the forward foot as your torso rotates. These two motions together allow the body to move and control the arms, hands and clubshaft through the impact zone. If you feel a blocking or rolling action of the wrists, or you’re consciously trying to release the club, then you’re either off plane to an exaggerated degree during the downswing or your pivot is faulty. Done correctly, the pivot controls almost everything in the golf swing normally associated with impact and balance. The best way to learn how to pivot correctly is to hit belt-high (no higher) pitch shots, feeling your weight move through as you rotate into the finish. If you do this correctly, the ball should go straight and you should feel little or no hand action through the ball. Now your body is controlling the club rather than your hands, which is the only way to keep your slice at bay.

Headcover Drill
To quickly improve your pivot, place a headcover under each arm at address and swing waist high in the backswing and forwardswing without allowing the headcovers to drop to the ground. This will force you to hit with your body.

Reading Your Ball Flight
The final method of learning to control your shots and stop slicing is to understand your ballflight. In order to accomplish this, you need to analyze two things: the starting direction of your shots and the curvature of the ball at its apex of flight. Once you know how to interpret these keys, you’ll have the final bit of information needed to fix your slice for good. If your divots are heading left, then an out-to-in swing path is the problem, which is one of the primary causes of slicing. Your job is to identify what part of your swing is causing the outside-in swing path, and then correct it.

Starting Direction
The starting direction of your shots as they take flight indicates what the clubshaft is doing through the ball (what plane it’s on), which affects the path of the clubhead and the subsequent divot pattern. If you have an in-to-out swing path, your shots will tend to start out to the right. If you have an out-to-in swing motion, the ball will tend to start left of your intended target line. If your divot moves down the line and the ball starts slightly to the right of your intended target line, then you’re moving the club slightly from the inside, which is the proper way to produce a draw.

The Curvature Of The Ball At Its Apex Of Flight
This indicates what the clubface was doing through impact. If the clubface is closing, the ball will hook; if it’s opening, the ball will slice; and if it’s both opening and closing, the ball will have a more gentle movement to the right or left. This hinge or rotational motion of the clubface programs the ball’s curvature, so it’s critical to identify how the ball is moving in flight to know how the clubface is behaving through impact. If your shots are moving right severely at the top of their flight, then you know the clubface is probably not rotating closed fast enough to impart the desired right-to-left spin. Remember to pay close attention to your shot shape as the ball reaches its apex—it’s a key indicator that can help identify a major swing flaw.

After you have a solid grasp of the key five steps (the role of the body, the role of the clubshaft, your preferred plane angle shift, a solid pivot motion, what your ballflight means), you’ll be well on your way to understanding what elements comprise a solid golf swing. Once you’re armed with this knowledge, determining what particular fault in your own motion is causing your shots to move left to right will be easier than you think, as will be making the necessary changes._Ê

1. The rare straight shot is produced by zero shift swings that maintain a square clubface.
2. The standard slice can occur for a number of reasons, primarily an open clubface at impact.
3. The standard hook is most commonly caused by a clubface that is closed at impact._Ê
4. The straight push is caused by a square clubface approaching the ball from the inside._Ê
5. The push slice occurs when an open clubface approaches the ball from the inside.
6. The push draw is caused by a closed clubface and overly in-to-out swing path.
7. A straight pull is caused by an out-to-in path and square face.
8. The pull hook occurs when a closed clubface approaches the ball from the outside.
9. A pull slice is caused by an out-to-in path and open face.
10. A solid draw is created by a properly rotating clubface.
11. A solid fade is the result of slower rotation of the clubface.

PGA professional and veteran instructor Tom F. Stickney II is the director of instruction at The Club at Cordillera in Vail, Colo. For more information, visit www.tomstickneygolf.com. Photographs taken at Tierra Rejada Golf Club in Moorpark, Calif. (www.tierrarejada.com).

Split The Grip

We’ve all experienced this one time or another. Midway through the round, after hitting what seems to be a decent number of fairways, the ball starts to slice. And not only does the ball begin creeping to the right, the slice becomes more and more pronounced with each swing. This then causes the body to tense up and limit the needed rotation of the hands through the impact zone. Now that’s an awful thought, isn’t it?

Well, if you’ve suffered through a slice attack, here’s an immediate and simple remedy. To help diagram this simple drill, my daughter Carly Ray Goldstein has stepped in. Carly, who’s no stranger to winning her fair share of junior events (she’s won more than 40 junior tournaments at the age of 11!), isn’t immune to a slice, either. But with this simple drill, she’s found a way to get back on track and in the fairway in a hurry.

First, get a hold of your driver. Set up as if you’re going to make a normal practice swing, only lower your right hand on the grip, about two to three inches below your upper hand. This will cause you to have a split grip. Now, in a smooth and slow motion, simulate a three-quarter golf swing_Ê and pay attention to these three critical positions.

Position 1. On the backswing, once the arms reach chest high, the right arm should bend with the elbow pointing inward, and the left arm is to remain straight. The shaft should be pointing vertically. These three lines should form a triangle, between your left forearm, the shaft and your right forearm. See the photo for help.

Position 2. Through the impact zone, the hands should be rolling to a closed position. Because of the split grip, the closing of the clubface will feel more pronounced, which is the desired effect to counteract that slice! At impact, the lower hand (Carly’s right hand) is directly below her left, indicating her hands are in the process of closing the clubface through the hitting zone.

Position 3. About halfway through the followthrough, the hands should act as a mirror image of the hands in Position 1, where the forearms and shaft once again form a triangle. If they don’t, that means you’re not releasing and rolling the hands properly! Practice this drill as often as needed to counteract a slice, and don’t forget it come time to battle the effects of an unexpected banana ball.

Barry Goldstein is a professional golf teacher at Inverrary CC in Fort Lauderdale, Fla._

Alignment Beats The Slice

Body alignment is one of two key setup elements most frequently changed by amateur golfers (the other is ball position). Because players often associate the alignment of their upper body with the starting direction of the ball off the clubface, they tend to incorrectly alter their alignment for a variety of reasons, the most common of which is to compensate for a chronic pull slice. While the logic of aiming the torso further left to prevent hitting the ball to the right may appear sound at first, this faulty compensation actually causes more harm than good in the long term.

Another common alignment change players make when fighting a pull slice is aiming their feet to the right of the target, creating a body position that features a closed lower body stance and open shoulders. So instead of aligning the shoulders and feet square to each other, as they should be, the player has assumed a classic pull-slice setup position without even knowing it. In effect, they’ve fueled the fire that they’re trying to fight.

The important thing to understand regarding a pull-slice stance is that it starts a chain of events that’s almost impossible to stop or save in the downswing. When the feet are aligned farther right of the target than the shoulders, it almost always results in a takeaway that goes too far to the inside along the toe line and then back out over to the shoulder line on the way down. This inside takeaway and over-the-top transition results in a club that strikes the outside of the ball, starting it left with a high degree of left-to-right spin. Remember, you always want to give yourself a chance to hit the inside of the ball if you want to make consistently solid contact.

The Fix: Put a shaft down on the ground and point it slightly left of the target. Assume your setup position and point your shoulders slightly right of the target. Make sure your left foot is farther from the ball than your right foot and your left shoulder is closer to the ball than your right (feet slightly open, shoulders slightly closed). This position will allow you to deliver the club from the inside rather than over-the-top, across your body, and you should immediately feel freer and more powerful.

Kevin Scheller’s students include professional golfers, nationally ranked juniors and Division I collegiate players._Ê

Slice No More!

Beating the slice once and for all is a goal that can be accomplished by almost any golfer, provided the right approach is taken. Here’s how to slice no more.

In my four-step system, there are no quick fixes—just sound instruction that focuses on key slice-causing elements and methods for eliminating them from the golf swing. In step one, you’ll learn to analyze your divots and figure out if your slice is the result of a bad path or a faulty clubface angle, or both. Step two will tell you how to determine what type of downswing you have and what powers it. In step three, the question of proper grip and how to match it to your downswing type is addressed, and in step four, you’ll learn to match your position at the top with the right transitional move toward the ball and impact.

One of the few constants in the game of golf is that recreational players tend to struggle with the slice, particularly off the tee. Of course, more accomplished players lose the ball to the right from time to time, but not to the point where they can’t enjoy the game due to the sheer frustration of continually slicing the ball off the course. In addition to causing an overall lack of accuracy, hitting shots with a significant amount of left-to-right spin also robs distance, an effect that no golfer enjoys.

If you’re a player who currently struggles with this common problem, it’s time to put an end to it for good. To accomplish this seemingly difficult task, begin by asking yourself these questions: What type of slice do I hit? Is my swing path faulty, or is it my clubface angle at address, or both? Is my swing rotary- or lever-driven? Does my grip, address position, position at the top and transition match my swing type? All of these questions are addressed in my four-step process to beating the slice, and if you follow them in order, you’ll be well on your way to ridding yourself of the banana ball forever. Plus, you’ll understand what elements cause your particular slice and how to repair your swing when things start to go bad.

Glove Secrets

The first fundamental I teach every new student is how to properly hold the club because good golf swings start with good grips. Your hands are your only connection to the club, thus making them the primary mover of the shaft and controller of the clubface. If you hold the club incorrectly, you’re immediately at a disadvantage and more likely to make compensations in your swing.

While I reinforce proper grips to my students, I can’t always be there to check up on them, so I teach them how to monitor their progress. One simple way is to analyze how their glove wears out. Take this battered glove, for example. It took only 10 rounds for this to happen! As you can see, sometimes the root of a swing fault lies in the palm of your hand.

Worn-Out Palm
The most common glove-wear pattern, a worn-out palm is caused by holding the club in the palm instead of correctly holding it beneath the heel pad of the hand and fingers. Gripping the club this way leads to a lack of distance and a tendency to slice. What’s really amazing about grips like this is that they can wear down a glove after only a few holes! So if this has ever happened to you, and you thought that new glove of yours was defective, think again.

The Fix: Hold a ruler vertically in your glove hand. Cradle it in your fingers and feel the heel pad of your glove hand resting on top. This home remedy is a great way to exaggerate the feeling of a proper grip.

Thumb Tear
Look at the massive tear in the thumb! It resulted from a two-fold problem: poor thumb placement and incorrect grip pressure (too much or too little) applied between the thumb and the handle. This grip usually results in a lack of control.

The Fix: Adopt a “short thumb,” where the thumb is cinched up and pinched against the top of the forefinger. Hold a business card between your thumb and forefinger with a grip pressure of “3” (out of 10) to learn the appropriate feel.

Index-Finger Wear
A tear or wear pattern here indicates a poor connection between a player’s hands and is usually caused by an overlapping grip, where the dominant hand’s pinkie digs into the glove hand’s knuckle. You may even notice a callus forming on your dominant hand’s ring finger. What results isn’t just a torn glove but discomfort as well.

The Fix: Extend your pinkie farther into the gap that separates the knuckles on your glove hand. Another option is to adopt an interlocking grip, where your dominant hand’s pinkie and glove hand’s index finger “wrap” around each other.

PGA Professional Jeff Ritter is director of instruction at the ASU Karsten Golf Academy.

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Two Wrongs Make A Right

No matter how fundamentally superior the swings of the world’s best players are to those belonging to the rest of us, there has never been, nor will there likely will there ever be, a golf swing without at least one flaw. The swings of greats such as Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els may look perfect, but each features a number of flaws—the same weaknesses that plague the swings of recreational players. If that’s the case, then why do these golfers own championship trophies while you can’t even make the A flight at your club championship? Is it because great golfers can overcome flaws by grooving them out? Not quite. The real answer lies in the ability of tour pros to repeat their flaws and effectively apply others to compensate for the error.

For example, Ben Hogan battled a snap hook early in his career. It affected his game so badly that he developed a very weak left-hand grip, a cupped wrist and an open face at the top in order to offset the hook. Not only did Hogan learn to negate his hook, he also managed to win nine majors and notch 63 victories—not a bad effort considering the flaws inherent in his swing.

Like Hogan, you, too, can learn to use swing flaws to your advantage. The key is to identify your flaws and make sure you have an even number with which to work. I believe you can play great golf with an even number of mistakes by balancing them out. With an odd number, however, you’re in for a long day.

Slicers
A slicer’s golf swing is inherently too steep relative to the ideal swing shape. When you’re too upright, generally the effects are:

1) Deep divots.
2) Toe-first contact with the golf ball.
3) An open clubface at the point of contact.

Deep Divots
A steep swing is traveling down too abruptly through the impact zone, which makes it difficult to pick the ball clean and avoid digging deep into the turf. The necessary fix is to inject some width into your swing to help shallow out the steep, descending blow. A great way to add width is to widen your takeaway, much like Jack Nicklaus did in his heyday. The steep-swinging Nicklaus triggered a bigger turn by first turning his head away from the target. Although turned, Nicklaus kept his head stationary, forcing him to stretch his arms low, wide and away from the target on his backswing. This trigger was exceptionally useful with fairway woods.

Scott Hoch Toe Contact
Despite the awesome information we can get from a videotaped or televised golf swing, it’s darn near impossible to get an exact idea of how close or far we should stand from the ball. Players with naturally steep swings tend to benefit from standing closer than usual to the ball to accommodate their upright swing shape. For a player with a normal swing, standing closer to the ball can put the heel dangerously close to the ball, often causing shanks. But for a steep swinger who misses frequently on the toe area of the club, standing closer will help balance the toe hit caused by the steep swing. Scott Hoch, who has among the most upright swings on the PGA Tour (his irons are about four degrees upright), stands closer to the ball to accommodate his steep swing. If he were to back away, it’d be near impossible for him to hit solid shots. In this case, he didn’t change his swing, he just changed his distance from the ball.

DRILL: Get Closer at the Start
Steep swingers need to stand closer to the ball. Here’s how to hug it at address. Hold a club in your right hand, then sole it squarely behind the ball and step in with your right foot so that the handle of the club rests against your right thigh. Step in with your left foot, then widen your right foot to about shoulder width for a full shot. Because you started with the club leaning against your body, your setup position will be nearer to the ball than normal, thus helping you to prevent toe hits. This drill is useful for every club in the bag. Remember, always pick a target and align your body not at, but parallel to that spot. You’ll see improvements immediately!

DRILL: Roll the Ball for More Width
Set a golf ball about a foot behind and just inside the target line from where you would normally place a ball at address. With your left arm only, gently use the back of your iron and roll the ball away from the target line. Use a cap or a basket to catch them. The ball should roll slowly, not quickly, into the basket. So long, deep divots!

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EQUIPTIP

Sometimes there are certain equipment tune-ups that can help you lessen a slice without making a single change to your swing.

Equiptip 1. Offset
Offset clubs are designed to allow golfers a split second more time to square the clubface through impact. Granted, it’s only a split second, but it’s enough to make a world of difference for golfers who slice. Offset clubs are available through the bag, including in fairway-wood and driver models.

2. Get More Flex
Slower swingers who slice tend to do so because they haven’t the speed to get the shaft to release through impact. The result often is an open face. To help get some closure through impact, try a more flexible shaft that releases sooner. Also, a lighter shaft may help you better rotate the club for squared contact. Don’t be hesitant to try lighter, more flexible shafts in your irons, too, as today’s iterations of both steel and graphite come equipped with lightweight options. More flex also will help add a few extra yards.

Open Clubface
If the clubface is opening too much and stays open at impact, the means for balancing things out is to adopt a stronger grip where both hands are rotated well to the right on the grip at address. In most cases, this grip is considered to be too strong, but for a slicer, it’s the perfect remedy. If you’re concerned that a strong grip will turn your slice into a hook, consider the swing style of Fred Couples. Couples has a stronger-than-usual left-hand grip, but uses a cupped left wrist at the top and a fast turn to the target to keep the clubface in check. Keep in mind that cupping the left wrist usually promotes a slice, while flattening or bowing the left wrist generally will produce a hook. Another common balancing act for slicers is to simply preset the clubface closed at address. This helps the golfer who chronically slices to maintain a square clubface through impact.

DRILL: Front Loader
Another one of my favorite drills that tends to work beautifully is what I call the Front Loader. This drill is designed to help you feel a postimpact hand rotation for more of a hooking shot. Set your ball on a medium-height tee. Hold your club a few feet past the ball as if you were about 1__ã4 of the way into your followthrough with the toe of the club turned well past the heel. Swing back (don’t contact the ball in the backswing) to about a 3__ã4-length backswing then through, striking the ball with the front-loaded rotated feel. You should see the ball easily holding its line and perhaps even hooking a little left.

Strong Hands!
If it’s easy to read the glove logo in a mirror, then you know you have a strong grip. Mimic the fold in your index finger and thumb with your lower hand and you’re set. In this postimpact photo of Couples (right), you can see his body has outraced his hands through impact. If he didn’t have a strong thrust through the ball, his strong grip would cause hooked shots. This is why it’s critical to fully turn your body with a strong grip.

Hookers
A player who hooks the ball has a golf swing that’s flatter and more rounded than that of a player who slices, leading to the exact opposite impact and flight characteristics.

1) No divot or divot well behind the ball.
2) Heel-first contact.
3) Clubface closing too much through impact.

No Divot Or Divot Behind
A flat swing tends to travel along the ground for longer than it should, and when this happens, the face is likely to close and sweep across the ball with a hooking motion. Here, width is the enemy.

Try to balance things out by staying centered, with your backswing resisting movement away from the target. Ben Hogan, a very flat swinger, was able to steepen his hit by reminding himself to keep his weight on his left side as well as narrowing his release angle through the ball. Hogan also visualized his arms wrapped tightly with rope, indicating the importance of keeping his arms tight to the torso, another means of narrowing the arc.

DRILL: Left Foot Right Toes
Stand solidly on your left foot with your right foot back and your right toe down for balance. Hit some shots from this stance. You’ll feel extremely centered over the ball, with little or no head movement. Any lateral movement will result in a loss of balance. Staying more centered will effectively narrow the width of your swing, leading to crisper contact. It’s that simple.

Ben Hogan Stay Centered!
Although Ben Hogan didn’t keep his hands in front of his chest at impact, he could do it when he had to. Here you can see that Hogan maintained knee flex and kept his weight in the center of his stance, resulting in a crisply hit bunker shot. His weight never fully shifted to his back foot. Staying centered is key for better bunker play, as is a more upright swing.

Heel Hits
Often, heel hits are the result of standing too close to the ball. The fix is to actually try a technique that Fuzzy Zoeller uses. Zoeller sets up the ball well off the heel (don’t be afraid), then works his arm close to the body through contact to deliver a solid blow. This address position forces Zoeller to do two things: 1) it prevents too much lean into the ball at impact, which can lead to a shank or heeled shot; 2) it keeps his arms close to his body, which is another means of adding speed, much like an ice skater spinning faster as the arms work closer to the torso. This drill absolutely forces you to stay a comfortable distance from the golf ball. With practice, you’ll grow accustomed with a stance farther away from the ball resulting in fewer heel hits.

DRILL: Be Like Vijay
Most of you have seen by now some of the interesting drills Vijay Singh does to work on his game. One of the most common is hitting shots with a glove tucked under his arm. If you’re hitting shots off the heel, then your arms are swinging too much away from your body through impact. Hit a few shots with a glove or headcover tucked under your right arm. You’ll feel more harmony between your arm swing and body turn leading to on-center hits. Caution: Your arms will require some room to float and move as your swing size increases, so keep these swings small at first for best results.

Stand Away From It!
Take a look at Zoeller in this photo (right). He has taken avoiding heel hits even further by setting up extremely far from the ball. For the normal player, this stance could lead to off-balance toe hits, but for the flat swinger, this stance can help eliminate heel hits without making a major adjustment to the swing. Try this routine with your irons and kiss heel hits goodbye!

Clubface Closing Too Much
If you hook the ball too much, in some cases, it’s due to excessive hand and wrist rotation through the downswing. One of the best ways to beat this flaw is to adopt a slicer’s (weak) grip. Instead of the two folds in the hands between both thumbs and index fingers pointing at the right shoulder (left for lefties), try pointing both folds more toward your sternum. This will help you not only prevent a closed face at impact, but also to get more of your body involved in your swing. Another cure for a closing face is to speed up your turn to the target. Increasing your body’s rate of rotation will delay the closing of the face, leading to less hooks and straighter shots. A good example of someone with great target-side body action is Sergio Garcia. Notice how his hands are in front, and his shirt buttons are facing the target in this postimpact shot.

DRILL: Thumbs Up
Hold your left hand up in front of your chest and give the standard thumbs-up sign. This will put your left hand in a neutral position. Place your left hand on the grip in the same position so that your left thumb is positioned nearly straight down the shaft. Viol__ ! Hooking the ball is a tall order with this kind of grip.

Turn And Burn!
When you don’t turn your body, the clubface closes too fast, causing a vicious hook (top, far left). To avoid this position, be like Sergio and make sure you clear your hips through impact (top, left). This will make closing the face more difficult and help you hit the ball straight. Also, if your shoulders are level at impact, you’ll come over the top, so keep your front shoulder up!

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EQUIPTIP

Many golfers argue that a hook is easier to fix than a slice. A couple of ways to get your hook straightened out is to make a few simple modifications to your equipment.

1. Fatten Your Grips
Hooked shots often are the result of excessive hand rotation. Midsized and oversized grips help lessen hand action, making it more difficult to over-rotate and hook the ball.

2. Shortened Sticks
If you hook the ball, try a shorter-length shaft. Shorter shafts tend to make your stance more upright, helping to steepen your swing and prevent a flat, hooking move. You may lose a couple yards of distance, but a few yards shorter in the fairway is always better than a few more in the rough.

There you have it. Practice these moves and you’ll see much faster improvement than you ever will trying to grind out swing flaws from your natural swing. Remember, all swings have flaws, and the key to improvement is getting those flaws to work as effectively as possible for you. Do this and you’re sure to see some amazing results.

PGA teaching professional and instruction editor Jeff Ritter is the director of instruction at the ASU/Karsten Learning Center in Tempe, Ariz.

Right Vs. Right On!

Here we go again. Yes, another fix your slice feature, which says a lot about the banana ball–it’s not going away. For some golfers, that left-to-right ballflight never seems to disappear, and for those new to the game, it represents the first true taste of golf-related frustration. While I’m sure you’ve heard your fair share of anti-slice tips, this story approaches fixing a slice in unique fashion. Position by position, I’ll compare the components of a solid swing to those typically associated with a slice, plus a corresponding fix. Giving equal weight to what you should be doing to what you’ve already grooved into your swing may pay better dividends.

Setup
In the setup position, the number-one slice-inducing fault is a weak grip. A weaker grip (hands rotated too far to the left), is more apt to produce an open clubface at impact than a strong grip (hands rotated more to the right).

Take your grip and hold the club straight out in front of you with your arms relaxed and with your normal grip pressure. Next, have a friend pull the clubface straight away from you. If the clubface opens to the left, your grip is too weak and will probably be open at impact.

The fix is to simply let go of your grip and let your left arm hang by your side naturally. Take a look and see in which direction your left thumb points. Is it 12:00, 12:30, 1:00, 1:30, 2:00 or 2:30? Now, grip the club in your left hand, making sure your thumb has the same look and time. Hinge the wrist up and down to ensure the clubface stays square. Place your right hand on the grip and again have your friend pull the club straight out to make sure the clubface doesn’t rotate open. Keep adjusting until the face is square._Ê_Ê_Ê

Right On!
A weak grip (above left) is more prone to leaving the face open at impact than a strong one (above right). To find the correct grip, allow your left arm to hang naturally. The direction in which your left thumb points should be mimicked when you grab the handle.

Takeaway/Backswing
A slice backswing features two fundamental flaws: 1) an inside path and 2) a flat shaft plane.

A takeaway that moves the club too far to the inside leads to an open face in the backswing and usually an outside-to-in downswing path. Make a half backswing with any club and stop to check two takeaway keys.

Check #1. If your hands are inside the buttons of your shirt, then you’ve brought the club too far inside and will probably try to make a correction during the downswing path. When you make this type of adjustment, expect momentum to take the club outside your desired path, producing an outside-to-in downswing.

Check #2. If the shaft of the club points above your target line, then the club is traveling to the inside and the clubface is probably open. Now you have to adjust the clubface in the downswing or it will remain open. Good luck.

A good drill to alleviate these problems is to choke down to the bottom of the grip and make half wedge swings focusing on path.

Step #1. First, get the club traveling back on a better path by taking it back with the left hand, with your hips and shoulders executing their normal pivot. At the halfway back position, your left arm and shaft should be parallel to the target line.

Step # 2. Next, hinge your wrist so that the shaft of the club points toward the golf ball and the clubface is parallel to the target line. In a full swing, the wrists hinge as your hips and shoulders rotate to the left, meaning that during the takeaway, your hands should always be in line with the center of your chest. Return to address and make another half swing, making sure that your shoulders and hips have rotated, the hands are in front of your chest and the butt end of the shaft points at the ball or target line. If you can accomplish this, no adjustments are needed for the downswing.

Right On!
In a no-slice backswing, the hands are in front of the chest, the left arm lies parallel to the target and the shaft points at the golf ball.

Top Of Backswing Top Of The Backswing
A big backswing is great for weak pop-ups. A wide backswing is great for power and accuracy.

If your right elbow is behind your right hip at the top of your backswing, you’re in trouble. From this position, there’s no room for the club to properly drop to start the downswing, forcing you to swing too much around your body. As you know, too much around equals an out-in path.

This top-position slice error typically results from players wanting to make the biggest swing they can muster (funny how the bigger the swing, the bigger the slice). In attempting this big swing, golfers often fold the left elbow too much. With this move, the hands and right elbow can’t remain in front of the body while the gap between the elbows widens, decreasing control. Yes, this type of backswing is bigger, however, the accompanying swing arc is not.

The fix is to make practice swings with a heavy club or with a wedge and 9-iron held together. In these practice swings, maintain your arc by keeping your hands out and your elbows close to one another. At the top of your backswing, your shoulders should be turned fully with your arms in a position to drop the club on plane to promote an inside-out path. A good way to check your arc and shoulder rotation is to set up with your back to a mirror. Swing to the top of your backswing and hold this position. Turn your head over your right shoulder and see how it looks in the mirror. Check to see that your shoulders have made a good turn, and that your hands are out and are maintaining your arc.

Right On!
A wide backswing arc creates power and allows the arms to drop properly at the start of the downswing. To produce this type of arc, keep your hands out and your elbows close together.

Downswing
In a slice downswing, the shoulders outpace the hands. By that I mean the shoulders turn faster than the speed at which the hands move the golf club. The spinning of the shoulders from the top creates too much rotational force, which throws the hands and club outside the correct path. Once the club gets too far outside on the downswing, the golfer must adjust and bring it back. This, friends, is a cut swing. If you try to pull your hands in to get the club back on path (see photo at right), your left elbow will fly out and the face will open up. Either way, you’re going to produce a slice.

The fix is to change the sequence in the downswing. Learn how to bring the hands and arms down first as your lower body moves back into a balanced position. Once you have the momentum of sending the club down first, then you can rotate your lower body. The best way to feel this is to make practice swings with a split grip and focus on the path of the club. Start your downswing with your lower body and drop your arms and hands to 9:00 and stop.

Check #1. As you shift your weight back to the center and drop your arms, your shoulders remain passive. The hands should lie inside or in line with the left shoulder.

Check #2. The right wrist is bent so that the shaft is aimed at the golf ball.

Once you establish the correct positions, focus on swinging the club down the path and out toward your target. After you have a feel for this move, tee up a ball and hit some 3__ã4 shots in this manner. This drill educates your hands how to swing the club on the correct path throughout the swing—just make sure your elbows don’t get too wide apart and that you rotate from your hips instead of your shoulders.

Right On!
No slicing from here since the shoulders haven’t spun out, the hands are inside the left shoulder and the shaft points at the golf ball.

Impact
At impact, is your club on the right path and is your clubface square to the target? If not, your ball has to go right.

The most important requirement of the swing is to return the clubface to square at the point of contact. If you produce a slight outside-to-in path and the clubface is square to the target line, the ball will start left of your target and fade back. This shot is playable. If you produce a slight outside-to-in path and the clubface is open to the target line, the ball will slice. It’s that simple.

The best way to ensure a picture-perfect impact position is to educate the arms and hands how to create a square clubface at impact. I recommend a directional impact bag. Take a 7-iron and choke down on the grip so that the top of the grip is visible and the club sits several inches above the ground at address. Set up to the directional impact bag so that it’s lined up at your target and across from the left side of your chest. Make some 1__ã2 to 2__ã3 swings at half speed and hit the bag. When you hit the bag, perform the following checks.

Check #1. The shaft and left arm form a single, unbroken line. If your left elbow is bent, it’s likely your clubface is open.

Check #2. Contact with the bag was made with the center of the clubface, not the toe or heel areas. Heel-led contact is slice contact.

Check #3. The bag moved down the line and didn’t spin clockwise. If it spins to the right, you’ve executed an out-in swing.

Practice this drill and you’ll get both visual and feel feedback of how to square up the club at impact.

Right On!
At impact, the last thing you want is
a bent left elbow, which forces an open face. Instead, strive to extend your arms and create a solid line that runs from the face up the shaft and through the left arm.

Followthrough
If your downswing path moved from outside the target line to the inside, it will show in your followthrough, which will continue to move to the inside of the target line. Among other disasters, such a finish restricts a full release of the clubhead, robbing your swing of precious power.

A solid followthrough is characterized by the clubhead moving outside the target line, which ensures the downswing path was in-to-out and that your hips turned correctly toward the target. Also, your divot should be straight; if it points to the left, your downswing path was too much outside-in.

Momentum is so important and so difficult to change. If the clubhead travels on an inside-out downswing path, it’s easy to keep it outside the target line in the followthrough. However, if the clubhead travels on an outside-in downswing path, there’s almost no way to change this direction. Your clubhead will keep to the inside on the followthrough, your divot will point left of the target and you’ll produce an insufficient release.

The fix is to focus on your downswing path and teach your left shoulder to work up through impact versus around. This will allow the arms and hands to swing the club out toward the target line in the followthrough. To practice this, position a shaft covered by a swimming pool noodle on an angle just inside your original shaft plane and target line. With the shaft in place, make short and slow golf swings with an attempt to avoid hitting the noodle. If you start the club down the correct path and educate your left shoulder to work up through impact, you should avoid the noodle. Once the club passes your left foot, the left shoulder will open as the arms swing the club out and the hips turn to the target. You should finish on your left side, with your body facing the target. Make sure you perform this drill slowly at first until you get a feel for the new move.

When fixing a slice, be careful to address corrections in the proper order to build a solid golf swing. I highly recommend you work with a PGA professional to ensure you’re performing the drills correctly and that you’re working on the cause of the problem and not the effect. That’s the key for lasting improvement.

Right On!
The correct in-out downswing should carry over into the followthrough, with the arms traveling toward the target while your hips rotate. Key to this scenario is the right shoulder working up through impact.

PGA professional and Senior Instruction Editor Glenn Deck is regarded as one of the top-100 teachers in America. Deck is the director of instruction at the Pelican Hill Golf Academy at Pelican Hill Golf Club & Resort in Newport Coast, Calif. (www.pelicanhill.com).
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