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Country: gb Page generated at: Saturday, 16 May 2026 at 21:41:14 British Summer Time
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Glossary
NCG’s Golf Glossary: What is a slice?

published: Jan 1, 2010

|

updated: Apr 17, 2024

NCG’s Golf Glossary: What is a slice?

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Don’t know your dormies from your doglegs? Or your stymies from your shanks? NCG’s Golf Glossary is here to help.

What is a slice

Here at NCG we pride ourselves on being the publication for the everyday player, so we’ve taken it upon ourselves to delve into the wonderful world of the golfing lexicon.

Sometimes the most obvious terms have the most interesting story, so you might find yourself an interesting conversation starter…

What is a slice?

A shot that initially takes a trajectory on the same side of the golf ball from which the player swings but eventually curves sharply back opposite of the player.

Under normal circumstances, a slice is unintentional; however, good players can use a slice to their advantage in certain situations.

A slice is the most common problem with most handicap golfers.

How would you use it in a sentence?

“The ball was sliced out of bounds”

What are the origins?

The origin of the word slice can be dated back to 1890 along with the same word that is used to describe a type of tennis shot.

Where or whoever came up with the word for the type of shot is unknown.

The word slice was thought of to describe a golf shot at a similar time to the word ‘cut’, which is used to describe a slight fade of the ball.

Any other business?

Not to be confused with a fade shot. A slice is a shot that moves further to the right or left, dependent on hand use, compared to a fade.

Click here to return to NCG’s Golf Glossary

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