Guide

How to fix a slice: causes, checks and drills

The slice is the most common ball flight in amateur golf, and the most stubbornly misfixed. The advice keeps failing because a slice has two parents, and most tips address only one of them.

What a slice actually is

Two separate things determine where the ball goes. The clubface angle largely controls the direction the ball starts. The relationship between face and path controls how much it curves. Coaches shorten this to: the face sends it, the path bends it.

A slice needs both halves. The path moves out to in, and the face sits open relative to that path. The ball starts left of the path and curves hard right. Change either half and the shot changes: close the face and the same path produces a pull, straighten the path with the same open face and you get a push.

Find your half of the pattern

Before changing anything, find out which half you own. Two checks from the range, no technology needed:

• Where does the ball start? If it starts left of target and curves right, you have a pull-slice: the path is out to in and the face is open to the path. If it starts at or right of target and curves right, you have a push-slice: the face is open to the target line itself. The fix is different for each.
• Where do your divots point? Divots point along the path. Divots aimed left of target for a right-handed player confirm the out-to-in half. Divots aimed at the target with a ball curving right point at the face.

Film one swing from directly behind if you can. Find the frame where your lead arm is parallel to the ground in the downswing and compare the shaft to the same height going back. A shaft sitting outside the backswing plane is the over-the-top path half, covered in detail in the over-the-top guide.

The common causes

• A weak grip. Hands rotated too far toward the target on the handle. The face arrives open because nothing in the grip helps it close. The check: at address you should see two to three knuckles of your lead hand.
• An open face at address. Some slicers aim the face right of target before the swing even starts, then swing along the face line and wonder why the ball curves.
• An over-the-top downswing. The upper body starts the downswing and throws the club outside the target line. This is the most common path cause, and it usually starts earlier, in the takeaway.
• Ball position too far forward. The further forward the ball, the later the face meets it in its rotation, and the more open it tends to be at contact.
• Alignment aimed left. Slicers learn to aim left to give the curve room. The leftward aim then encourages the out-to-in path that caused the slice. It is a loop worth breaking on purpose.

Why most slice tips fail

Most slice advice picks one half and ignores the other. Shallow the path but leave the face open and you have converted a pull-slice into a push-slice, not fixed anything. Strengthen the grip but keep swinging over the top and the pulls get lower and hotter until the face timing fails and the slice returns.

The other classic failure is the tip that fixes a position. A slice is a sequence problem as much as a position problem: the order the body fires determines the path more than any static shape at the top. Drills that change the order beat tips that describe a shape.

Drills that fix the face

Strengthen the grip, two knuckles at a time

Rotate both hands slightly away from the target on the handle until you see two to three knuckles of the lead hand at address. Hit half shots. The goal is not a hook; it is a face that can square itself without perfect timing.

Closed-face half swings

Set the face a few degrees closed at address and make half swings. Exaggeration is the point: you are teaching your hands what a closing face feels like through impact, and most slicers have never felt it.

Release the clubhead past your hands

Without a ball, swing slowly and feel the clubhead pass your hands just after the low point. Slicers tend to hold the face open with stiff wrists; this restores the feeling of the clubhead releasing.

Drills that fix the path

Split-hand shallowing

Grip with your hands a few inches apart and make slow swings. The split grip makes an over-the-top move feel awkward and a shallowing move feel natural, which turns the correction into feedback rather than instruction.

Towel under the trail arm

Tuck a towel under your trail armpit and keep it there through the swing. If the arms separate from the body early, the towel drops. It keeps the arms connected and the path from going out.

The gate drill

Place two alignment sticks or headcovers on the ground forming a narrow gate just outside the ball, on the target side. Swing through without touching the outside stick. Your body learns the inside path faster than your thinking does.

Step-change drill

Start with your feet together. Swing to the top, and as you begin down, step your lead foot into its normal position. The step forces the lower body to start the downswing, which is the sequencing fix for over the top.

Check that it actually changed

Feel lies. A move that feels like an enormous change is often barely visible on camera. Film the same swing from the same spot before and after, and look at two things: the shaft position at lead-arm-parallel in the downswing, and where the ball starts. If the shaft moved inside and the start line moved right, the swing moved. If not, the feeling was lying to you, which is normal, and exactly why video is worth the two minutes it costs.