Most golfers turn up to a lesson wanting to get rid of their slice ball flight and drive it better. In this video, PGA Pro Jack Backhouse explains why 90% of golfers don’t hit driver straight and how to correct it.
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It All Starts In The Set Up
One of the most common faults I see that slicers present with is poor body alignment. More often than not the golfer will have their feet aligned to the right of the target, and their shoulders aligned to the left.
Starting from this position encourages the golfer to tilt in their backswing instead of turning and taking the club back on a steeper, more upright plane where it is really easy to cut across the ball and create an out-to-in swing path.
Most tour players address the ball with their shoulders, hips, knees, feet all on the same alignment, and with slightly closed forearms. It it advisable for slicers to always address the ball with their right elbow tucked and slightly underneath the left forarm.
This straight away puts us in position to swing on a more shallow plane, giving us a great chance of hitting the ball from the inside, and creating that in to out path that draws the golf ball.
Grip
Golfers grip the club too much in the palm of their hands. If you wear a hole in the palm of your glove, then this is you, and if you just struggle to stop the ball from shooting off the right of target, this will absolutely help.
Getting the club in the fingers and then wrapping the hand over the top of the grip is a great way to go about fixing your slice with driver.
Not only is this just a more closed position, but gripping the club in the fingers gives the player much more control over the golf club in the swing to allow for more precision in the strike.
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This is fundamental for golfers, and you must get it right!
Hip Turn
If you are a golfer who is still trying to resist your hip turn, turn against a stiff right leg or create some kind of ‘x-factor’ when you turn back, it is time to get out of 90’s golf instruction and join us here in the modern world!
There is a HUGE correlation between the amount of hip turn in the backswing and then the swing path at impact, with the bigger hip turn players achieving a more neutral swing path and the smaller hip turn players all having the dreaded out to in, slicers swing path.
Right from the start of the golf swing, the trail hip should move backward, and the trail knee should straighten.
This allows the golfer to create a bigger shoulder turn and get the club more inside. This is one of the first things I look for with golfers who slice drivers on the driving range, and it is one of the easiest ways to correct a slice.
All the greatest players ever had big hip turns, and you should too.
Rehearse Your Impact Position!
The final tip to stop slicing your driver is to rehearse the impact positon that you are trying to get into. This a position where the shoulders are square, the trail forearm is below the lead forearm, the hips are forwards and the head is back.
Familiarising your body with this position and understanding what it feels like to get there will help you get into it and stop hitting the shots way out to the right.
Give these tips a try and let us know how you get on! If you want to keep up to date with Jack’s instruction you can subscribe to his YouTube Channel here, or keep watching our instruction page!
If you want to watch some more of Jack’s instruction videos, you can get to his YouTube Technique Tips playlist by clicking here. Please check out our other instruction articles if you like this video on why 90% of golfers dont hit driver straight.
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