How to Fix a Slice in 5 Easy Steps
Step 1: Close Your Open Club Face
A slice is caused when the clubface is left open. The severity of the slice is caused by how open the clubface is relative to your swing path.
Start with fixing your grip to help close that club face as you swing the club.
Strengthen the grip to more of a strong style grip where your fingers wrap around the club more on the right side of the grip with the palm more on top of the club facing down. You should be able to see 3 different knuckles.
As you get the strong grip dialed in and feeling comfortable, you may start to see golf shots hooking instead of slicing. This is a success moment. We can work out the hook later but first we need to get you to stop slicing the ball.
Step 2: Get to the Correct Takeaway Position
As you take the golf club back in the backswing, you may be rotating the club face open by mistake.
Setup a camera behind you filming down-the-line at your target. This allows you to see the position of your club face when you take the club back the first several feet of the backswing until the shaft is parallel to the ground.
The clubface should be vertical. Imagine an arrow pointing directly sideways. This is neutral or “square.”
If you notice the face pointing up to the sky in this takeaway position, then this means your club face has rotated open during the takeaway.
To get the clubface square or closed, bow the wrist to help turn the clubface over so it closes and points more towards the ground.
On the downswing the face will be more closed helping you curve the ball with hook/draw spin instead of a slice.
Step 3: Get the Clubface Closed During Impact + Follow Through
As we swing through the hitting zone the forearms should turn over which will help that clubface rotate over to a closed or neutral position naturally rather than stay open.
Step 4: Fix the Swing Path
Most slicers have learned to offset a slice (golf ball curves right) by swinging the club to the left (inside swing path) which starts the ball left initially and then it slice curves back right.
As we use the steps above to change the spin from slice to hook spin, the ball will start flying left now. So we no longer want the club path heading left (to the inside) because this creates a pulled golf shot that then hooks even further left.
We need to get that swing path from inside to outside, swinging out towards the right side of your target. This will start the ball off to the right and then that shut face will curve the ball back left with draw/hook spin.
Step 5: Fix Your Ball Striking on the Clubface
Slicers tend to make contact with the golf ball on more of the heel side of their club’s face. Hooked golf shots tend to strike more on the toe side.
You can buy stickers made for the club face that stick on your club so you can see the impact print from the golf ball. This will give you feedback of where the ball is making contact on the face.
The goal is to get the clubface striking the ball dead center of the face. Improving your ball striking can also help reduce the severity of the slice.
Part of getting the clubface squared up and hitting dead center at impact requires the steps above to make sure the face is not coming into the ball open. As it comes in open, this tends to mean the heel is leading the way and thus, we strike the ball more on the heel.
In addition to the stickers you can buy for ball striking testing, you can also use an athlete foot spray which will leave a thin white coat on the face allowing you to see ball imprints after each swing.
Overall take these 5 golf tips to start fixing your slice and you’ll start seeing success in no time. Start by fixing your grip, then focus on the different key points in the golf swing by video recording yourself.
Ensure you are getting the club face closed or keeping it square at these different points. The last thing you want to do is have an open clubface when it strikes the ball. This will always lead to a slice spin on the ball.
Lastly, correct your swing path to get the ball started to the right initially so it can draw back as you impart hook spin on the ball, rather than slice spin.
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