There is nothing more frustrating to a beginning golfer than understanding when an unwanted slice or hook appears. The problem is compounded when you do not know what you must do to correct it. More often for a beginner it is a slice that presents its ugly tail, though a hook is equally possible if you over correct for the other.

Golf courses—eutrophication hypoxia (Flickr.com)

I went out to play today as a single at one of the many public courses in the Denver area. This course is owned by the city, the rates are great by comparison to some of the privately owned public courses. City courses also attract a different clientele than the more expensive courses. The threesome that I joined were not beginners, but they were not exactly scratch golfers either.

One of the threesome had an interesting swing, in his take away he would start with his hands lift the club to get his wrists cocked and then turn his shoulders to catch up with his arms and hands.  The results were uhm, “different” the ball would start off in one direction then tail off in a serious golf slice. Most of the time the ball would start off moving seriously to the left before it lost impetus and then the rightward spin would take over and the ball would move back to the right. In 15 or so drives his ball never found the fairway, in fact he was ecstatic when he found the left rough as the ball was usually in another fairway entirely.

The even more amazing thing though, was his continual question, “Why does my ball do that?” I really did want to answer his question but I have found that I can really mess up someone’s game by offering advise during a round. The analysis of what is wrong and how to correct a golf slice or a golf hook should not be a subject of discussion during an actual game. Your new trainee will try to correct the problem by trying your suggestion for the rest of the round with limited or no success, conclude that you gave him bad advise
and never go to the range and work on the actual golf swing mechanics necessary to learn the new technique.

There are so many parts to the golf swing that it is really difficult to explain to a beginning golfer how many points of coordination he has to be paying attention to at one time. You don’t have to play golf very long to learn the name and flight pattern of a golf hook or slice. Unfortunately, learning what caused the golf hook vs slice is another story.

The important question you need to be able to answer for yourself for every shot is “what did I do to create that ball flight pattern?”

Your Setup Can Cure That Slice

Hooks and slices and their more controlled partners the draw and the fade are always caused by one of two things or both working in combination. They are usually caused by something that you are doing with the swing-plane.  If they occur when you don’t want them to happen then you must learn to find out what you did to create the result that you got. The nice thing about golf is that your ball flight will tell you exactly what you were doing to produce the pattern.

Lets look at the best golf swing that you have in your “bag.” The ideal swing is straight back and straight through with a club face that is perpendicular to the target line. This will produce a straight shot with no right or left spin on the ball. This is the swing that you are looking for in ninety percent of the cases.

If you go to the right of your target line then you are “pushing” the ball and that is because you hit it “early.” By “early” I mean that in an “ideal” swing-plane the club-face is exactly square to the ball for only a few inches of its travel (as the club descends it will be open, then travel square, then begin to close as it ascends on the follow through) so if your ball is going to the right the club-face is still open or pointing to the right.

If your ball is going straight but to the left of your intended target line that means the club-face was closing as it struck the ball, you are pulling the ball. Or, putting it another way, you hit the ball late, the club-face was starting to close after the brief period of being straight in the “ideal” hitting zone.

As you can see from the video above, there are a number of things that contribute to the proper set-up for a perfect golf swing. Usually ball flight that goes straight but is off target, is a set up or stance problem. On the other hand if you are fighting a tendency to hook the ball or trying to correct a golf slice your problems are more likely in the way in which you grip the club.

Have you ever played with a golfer who has a serious slice problem and watched him setup for his tee shot by deliberately aiming to the left.  Hoping that his slice will start left and then come back to rest in the fairway?  He knows that he has a challenge with his slicing problems and his self correction is to compound the problem with a poor setup.

A good golf slice definition would be that at impact the standing golf ball was struck with glancing blow cutting across the ball which imparted rightward spin on the ball.  The initial flight of the ball will tell you the direction of the movement in the club-head at impact.  The finish of the ball flight will tell you whether your club-face was open (Slice) or closed (Hook). In the case of the slice your club-face is open which is caused by an outside to inside swing path and probably an open club-face  (caused by improper grip) from the time of the setup.

There is no substitute for a good setup.  Your body should be perpendicular to the target line.  That means your feet, your knees, hips and shoulders all pointing the same direction.  (perpendicular to the target)   In your back swing there should be no independent movement of anything.  The triangle formed by your shoulders and your hands as they grip the club should remain as a triangle throughout the swing as you swing back from the ball. The butt end of the club starts out pointing at your chest during address, as it moves around in the back-swing it continues to point at your chest because you are turning your shoulders at the same time.  The final portion of the back-swing the butt end will indeed point at the ground for a moment as you complete your swing and start your down-swing, but if you have kept your left arm straight and folded you right arm against your body going up then coming down it will revert to point back at your chest.  Watch this clip from Ben Hogan, who fought hooks for most of his professional career.

While I don’t agree with the commentator about the “Waggle” (you can drive yourself crazy trying to copy an idiosyncrasy)  The rest of Hogan’s swing is flawless.

Your Grip Can Cause A Slice Or A Hook

I won’t go into the various types of grip that you can take, choose the one that is comfortable and works for you. The key here is to make sure that your hands are working together.  To insure this, it is critical that the palms are always facing together.  You can check this easily by looking down at your hands on the club and noticing the “Vee” formed by your thumb and forefinger.  Imagine a line pointing from those “Vee’s” pointing at your chin or shoulder.   The pro’s will tell you that the further toward your shoulder that the line points the stronger your grip will be. The rule of thumb is that the vee’s pointing at the chin indicate a weak grip; while the vee’s  p0inting at the shoulder are called a strong grip.   Another way to tell is to look down and count how many knuckles you see on your left hand when you setup to the ball; the more you see the stronger the grip.

Let’s put this into context.  How does your grip affect a slice?  Look at this video:

Setting up for a golf swing with a weak grip can prevent you from fully closing the face at the point of impact. By knowing the causes, you can make the changes. I would have told my new acquaintance to keep his wrists out of the swing by simply swinging back with his chest and shoulders along the target line and letting the “wrist-cock” happen naturally at the top of his back swing.  His challenge was too many moving parts in his swing, when he cocked his wrists on the back-swing, he could not get back square to the ball on his down-swing.   Study these videos and you will go a long way toward understanding what is happening in your golf swing.

Finally remember that the most important part of the golf swing is the person who shows up at the course that day.

How To Fix A Hook Golf Swing Correct Golf Slice Correct Your

Hit them straight and seldom,

Michael Brown

For most of us weekend warriors, golfing is more about relaxing and having a nice time on the golf course. Having the ability to shape your golf shot to draw or fade (not slice or hook) at will can add immensely to that enjoyment. After we have succeeded in learning to hit the ball straight at the target, the next important thing is to learn how get around the occasional tree or obstacle in the way.

The fade and draw are important to know even when there are no obstacles in our path. More often we will encounter situations where the ball is above or below our feet. The simple act of trying to hit the ball straight at the target is then complicated by the hill-side lie. So learning to compensate for the conditions you naturally find on most golf courses will go a ways in training you to hit these shots

For instance the draw is a shot that you want to curve to the left (if you are a right handed golfer). When you find yourself on a hill side with the ball below your feet you will be forced to set up to the ball in a way that will slightly emulate the same stance you would use for a draw if you were hitting off of a level lie. This is just so you can produce a straight shot.

Why?

Because you will automatically draw the ball to the left if you adopt your normal stance without compensating for the hill side. Here is what I mean, the ball below your feet will have you bending over more and your swing will be more around yourself than normal. If you address the ball with your shoulders pointing directly at the target your shot will wind up left of the target, because your club-face is closing more quickly with this type of “around” swing. Instead, set up to the ball with your club-face aimed slightly right of the target(don’t change that club-face alignment), move your right foot (non-target foot) back about 2″ depending on the severity of the hill, aim your shoulders in the direction established by your feet and then make your swing. Here is what should happen: your body alignment will have you making a more inside to outside swing, your club-face will be closed with respect to your body, the ball should start out heading to the right and then curve back to the left.

You would think that the opposite should be true for the different lie of the ball above your feet. However, the dynamics are the same, in both cases you are swinging around your body more than you would be for a level lie. In the case of the ball below your feet you bend more at the waist/knees and stand closer to the ball, with the up-hill lie you are standing more upright waist and knees (TO KEEP YOUR BALANCE) and also swing more around your body. The correction is also the same. Drop your right foot back a few inches and swing inside to out with a shoulder/body alignment pointing to the right of the target. Having grown up playing mountain courses with un-level fairways I have proven this to myself on numerous occasions. On too many of those occasions I found myself way left of my intended target until I learned to correct for the hill-side.

The next time you go to the driving range try to find an un-level lie situation and try this out for yourself. You may need to watch the video more than once to understand the technique, but these shots are a great thing to be able to pull out of your bag for certain situations. Comments are most welcome, let me know what you think.

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