The most common miss with a driver is a big slice that travels two fairways over (myself included). A lot of people think they can change their driver and it’s going to make the slice go away, and in this post, I’m going to be talking about if that’s actually true.
In my experience, an adjustable driver will NOT fix your slice. I had a slice with my driver and nothing changed when I switched to an adjustable with a draw bias. Sure, it can help a little but you’ll end up with a very similar result. The only thing that’s going to fix your slice is to change your swing. That can be done through lessons, training aids, or a lot of practice.
I hate to be the bad guy here with all the bad news but it’s the truth. I know plenty of people who think the newest golf gear is going to make them a better player but it never happens. If you have the right swing, you could use a driver from the 1980s and still bomb it long and straight down the fairway. Continue reading or watch the video below for the full details on how to quickly fix your slice WITHOUT buying a new golf club.
3 Quick Ways To Fix A Slice
I do wish that fixing your slice is as simple as changing your club but that’s sadly not the case. You’re going to have to change your swing and the two biggest factors are your swing path and your clubface through impact.
The first thing you can do to fix your slice is by changing your grip. The first thing you’ll want to try is turning your top hand over so you can see three of your knuckles. This is something really simple you can do before you swing that won’t take too much thought. After that, you’ll want to grip the club with your bottom hand, more from the bottom, and not have your hand too much towards the left (for a right-handed golfer). This is going to help you square the face through impact.
The second thing you can do is check your clubface mid-swing. What you’ll want to do is take your club back so it’s parallel to the ground and then check where the face is pointing. A lot of the time, the face will be rotated too much and that can cause a slice. When your club is parallel to the ground, the clubface should be at the same angle as your spine (slightly closed). Check the angle on the backswing and also the downswing. You can see Ricky Fowler doing this drill before every shot so obviously it helps.
The final thing you can do to fix a slice is to point the butt of your club at the target after you make the shot. This is going to help you get good club rotation through the ball. When you slice the ball, your clubface is most likely pointing towards the target for too long and that means you probably aren’t closing the face. Another thing that happens is the butt of your club will be pointing left at the top of your swing (for a right-handed golfer). If you can point the butt of your club towards the target at the top of your swing you’ll have a better chance of squaring your club.
One thing that really helps is overexaggerating these three tips. If you can really focus on doing them you’ll most likely start pulling or hooking the golf ball. That’s completely fine because your slice is gone. All you have to do now is fine-tune things but the main thing is to get the feeling of squaring your clubface and having a good rotation.
Additional Tips To Try
Once you get those key fundamentals dialed in you can try a few additional things to improve your drives. They’ll be able to improve your accuracy, give you more distance, and hopefully help you lower scores.
The first thing you can do is shorten your shaft. The majority of pro golfers have shorter shafts compared to what comes stock. The driver companies put on longer shafts because it allows you to hit the ball further. That being said, having a longer shaft will make it tougher to hit the center of the face consistently and that’ll result in more hooks/slices. Shorten your shaft a bit and you’ll have much more consistent drives and you’ll hit more fairways. I’d way rather give up 20 yards to hit the fairway 20% more of the time. That’s how you can quickly lower scores.
The next thing you can do is use tape to see your impact location. If you go to the range you can put some green masking tape on your clubface. When you hit the ball you’ll be able to see where you made contact. It’s pretty eye-opening when you actually see and I’m pretty sure you’ll be surprised. I always assumed I was hitting the clubface more towards the toe but it was actually the complete opposite. Doing this was a game-changer for me.
The final thing you can try is to focus on hitting upwards on the ball. When you hit your irons you’re trying to hit down on the ball to make it pop up. When you use your hybrid you’re trying to sweep the ball off the ground. When you’re hitting your driver (and woods) you should be hitting the ball on the upswing. You can put 60% of your weight on your back foot and tilt your back shoulder slightly lower. It feels a bit awkward but that’s how you get the most distance and the lowest spin.
Let me know your thoughts and any questions you have. Like this article? Feel free to give it a share!
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