One of the best things you can do to help your golf is understand the laws of ball flight. I would predict that over 90% of amateur golfers don’t understand what their club was doing at impact to produce a given shot. It is a simple process. What did the ball do? What did the club do to the ball to make that happen?
Many people come to me claiming that they slice when in actual fact they don’t. Some golfers block slice. What is the difference you ask? A slice starts left of the target and spins violently to the right. A block slice starts right of the target and continues to spin further right. There is one thing however that makes this confusing. Speed. If you have quite slow clubhead speed than your slice will actually start to the right of the target because their isn’t enough speed for the path to be influential. The face is over 4 times more influential than the path.
A block slice is caused by an open face and a club path delivered too much from behind the body or from in to out as some people understand. The block slice is one of the worst shots in golf. Often it results in a dropped shot or a lost ball because the ball is flying up to 45 degrees right of the target.
The block slice is difficult to diagnose for the average golfer but two things will help you indentify the issue. The ball flight is the first thing. Does the ball fly immediately to the right of your identified target? If it does this is a sign that you might be hitting block slices.
The other thing to look at is also the divot on the ground. The divot gives us an indication of the club path. Where does the divot point? Does it point to the right of the target? If it does than you surely are hitting a block slice. If it points left than you are hitting a regular slice. The important thing is to match the ball flight to a divot.
Both the slice and block slice are terrible shots for a golfer. To fix them for good grab this golf slicing guide and subscribe to my newsletter.
Stop slicing the driver and I’ll shoot 10 shots lower. Man, I’ve heard that one before. In some cases it is probably true. A dreadful slice can make it hard to hit the fairway, meaning you’ll be playing out of the rough and trees more often than not. If you do hit the fairway than most likely you are too far away to hit the green anyway. This is due to the massive loss in distance that is usually associated with a slice. Before you go about fixing your slice you need to ask yourself one question.
How much time can I dedicate to practice?
If the answer is not much than read on as you can improve your slice with the driver without changing your swing. The secret is literally in your hands- change the driver.
This does not mean going out and buying the latest and greatest Callaway, Taylormade or Titleist driver. You need to be smarter than that. The specifications of the driver are far more important than the features and design. Specifications are things like the loft, shaft type, shaft length, shaft flex, shaft weight, head design.
Let’s talk about the loft of the driver. The loft of the driver is probably one of the most misunderstood things in golf and clubfitting. The loft has a massive effect on how you swing the golf club and is one of the biggest causes of a slice. Here is another question to illustrate my point, what club do you hit straighter? Driver or 3 wood? My bet is the 3 wood. Why? Because the loft on the 3 wood is around 15 degrees and is far greater than the typical driver of 10 degrees. The extra loft does many things. From a ball flight perspective more backspin is created and backspin negates the sidespin on a ball flight. This means that the ball will fly straighter. The extra loft also changes your mechanics. Usually a slicer has a terrible habit of leaning back on the ball through impact to try and help the ball in the air. This is instinctively due to the club not having enough loft on it. With more loft the player can swing through the ball better and on to the lead side at impact. This will create a stronger ball flight and a better swing motion for all clubs.
The driver loft I recommend for all golfers who slice is one with more than 12 degrees of loft. Most manufactures make 12 degree models and some even go as high as 15 degrees. Hireko Golf is one company who make custom drivers in good lofts at good prices. You can check them out here
Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter for regular golf slice tips.
