Fix Your Driver Slice

If you suffer from a slice (a shot that starts left for a right-handed golfer and ... curves wildly to the right) you probably have an intuitive sense of what is causing it. The slice is caused by sidespin that is put on the golf ball. This sidespin is created when the club face cuts across the ball rather than meeting the ball squarely at impact. And this cutting-across action stems from two things – a steep, out-to-in club path into the ball and a club face orientation that is open to that path through impact (facing right of the direction of the path for a right-handed golfer). The result is a banana-shaped flight that curves excessively and flies higher and shorter than usual.

To fix a slice, traditional wisdom says you need to change your steep, over-the-top path on the downswing. So how do you do that? There are many approaches to that problem, but in this video Titleist staff member Mark Blackburn addresses an issue you probably haven't considered. Did you know that club path and the orientation of your club face are governed largely by your wrists?

If your lead wrist is cupped as you transition from backswing to downswing, it's incredibly difficult to shallow the club shaft and attack the ball from an inside path. Instead, as you move down, the club shaft steepens and the momentum of the club pulls your downswing path out away from your body (over-the-top). From here, the only hope you have of hitting the ball is to lose your posture, stand up and swing across the ball to the left. And voila, an uncontrollable slice.

Rather than fight against physics during transition, try Mark's solution. By using his split-hand drill and ingraining the feeling of flexing (bowing) the lead wrist and extending (cupping) the trail wrist, the club head will stay behind your hands on the way down. The club shaft will lay down rather than pitch up and you'll be able to attack the ball from an inside-to-out path. Your slice will straighten out and as you continue to work at it, you'll even start hitting some draws.