MAKE SURE YOUR SECOND SHOT IS NOT A DROP
Shot Scope identify a specific golfer most at risk here: a 12 to 21-handicapper who drives the ball between 240 and
270 yards. This golfer lacks some control and has the power to find the neighbouring field. They will drop on average four shots per round due to lost balls/out of bounds from tees shots, and see plenty of doubles on the card. Straighter driving is about aligning face and path to take curvature out of the shot. This plan will help.
Retrain your attack
Among club players, by far the biggest path error is across the ball from outside to inside the target line. Of course, it leads to slices and pulls. So work on this by developing an in-to-out path. Use sticks, tee pegs, balls or range baskets to build an in-to-out gateway, one obstacle behind the ball and slightly outside the ball-target line, and the second forward of the ball and slightly inside the line.
Inside delivery
Very simply, all we are going to do here is get used to delivering the club through the gate – the clubhead missing the back and forward obstacles. As you swing down, the presence of the rear obstacle, just outside the ball target line, will encourage you to attack the ball more from the inside… and on a shallower angle.
Exit right
Similarly, the forward obstacle works to stop you pulling the club left through impact (righthanders). Retraining your path will not happen in five swings, but spend some time with this drill – swinging over a tee peg – and you will start to develop the mechanics that will help you straighten out that old, cutting action.
Change your grip to square it up
If you slice across the ball, you’d better open the face to stop it going well left. It’s this divergence of face and path that starts to create the side spin. At its best, it’s a soft fade; … more often, it’s a wicked slice.
So as we square up the path, we also need to square up the face. For the right-handed golfer, turning your hands clockwise on the grip – gloved hand more on top of the handle, lower hand more underneath – will help you do that. Use your thumb/ forefinger crease as a guide; make sure it is pointing up towards your trail shoulder
– as indicated by the tee peg – when the clubface is square.
Throughswing: Seek closure
With your grip in place, practise rotating your forearms and clubface through impact. Work on getting the clubface to look down at the ground as the clubshaft swings through horizontal. As the move becomes more comfortable, experiment with blending this closing face with the in-to-out path… and see that expensive slice disappear.