Rick Smith,Golf Digest Teaching Professional,
with Ron Kaspriske schreibt in Golf Digest, Oct, 2006
Slice no more!
Does this look familiar? Here’s what a common slice looks like.
Photos: Dom Furore
Follow this guide to beat your banana ball.
Golf has a revolving door. Every year thousands of people play the game for the first time, while thousands of others sell their clubs at garage sales. The slice is a big reason for the exodus. It’s insanely frustrating to play this game with a weak ball flight that curves hard right (for righties) of the intended target. If I had a slice and couldn’t fix it, I’d probably quit the game, too.
There’s more than one way to slice, but all slicers have one thing in common: a steep downswing with an open clubface, pointing right of the swing path at impact. To fix this, shallow out your downswing and approach the ball from inside the target line. Good forearm rotation and proper body motion also are important to square the face at impact.
Here are five drills that address the necessary adjustments slicers must make to lose that banana ball. The drills are in order from „basic“ to „intermediate“ to „advanced“ to help you pick the right ones for your game. As a bonus, I’ve included some on-course tips so you don’t get bogged down in mechanics while you play. Don’t give up just yet.
These 5 drills will straighten your shots
Pic 1
Drop your right foot
Step back about 12 inches with your right foot at address, and practice hitting driver with your normal swing.
Why this helps?
Some people mistakenly think this is a takeaway drill that teaches you to swing the club back inside the target line. But you can still loop the club in, up and over the target line and slice from this position–it’s called „coming over the top.“ What this drill does is create room inside the target line for the downswing. It allows the arms to fall to the inside and the shaft to stay on plane coming down.
Pic 2
Split your grip
Instead of gripping the club normally, take your driver and grip it as if it were a baseball bat, with a slight separation between the hands. Hit some tee shots with this grip. Try to make the ball start right of your intended target and draw back toward it.
Why this helps?
Most slicers fan the clubface open in the takeaway and then never get it back to square. This drill helps the forearms to rotate better on the downswing, which closes the clubface and teaches you the feel of a proper release through impact.
Pic 3
Swing low to high
This is one of my favorites. Keeping the split-hand grip from the previous drill, set the clubhead on the ground about four feet behind the ball, well inside the target line. From this position, swing to the finish, swinging the clubhead over the ball. Feel as if you’re making a low-to-high sweeping motion with forearm rotation. After practicing this for a while, tee the ball extra high and hit drives with half swings, trying to produce a draw.
Why this help?
Slicers need to shallow out the downswing path. This low-to-high motion from slightly inside the target line ingrains the correct path through the ball. It’s just the opposite of what a slicer does.
Pic 4
Practice with one arm
At address, hold your driver with your right hand and put your left hand on the front of your right shoulder. Swing with the arm only, focusing on pushing your right shoulder out of the way on the backswing and swinging your right arm past your body to the finish.
Why this helps?
It gives the feel of the proper shoulder turn and right-arm position on the backswing and educates the right arm to move correctly on the downswing.
Pic 5
Loop around the stake
Stick a stake or shaft in the ground about five yards behind you on an extension of your foot line. With your eyes on the stake, practice making backswing that start at or slightly outside the stake, and then drop the club inside the stake on the downswimg. There’s no need to hit balls with this drill. Just try to get feeling of the club coming down inside the target line as you rotate your forarms. The swing might feel like a big loop at first, but it’s more effective than the over-the-top move of a slicer.
Why this helps?
The correct path to the ball is from inside the target line. Almost all slicers come from the outside.