subject: Curing Your Slice Once And For All [print this page] If there were one single aspect of golf that troubles almost all hackers, most amateurs, some club golfers, and a few pros, it would be the dreaded slice. Forget trying to add 30 yards to your swing... stay out of the woods forever and watch your score drop like a rock!
The only way to understand how to cure your slice is to first understand why the ball slices in the first place. The golf ball sliced because it has an enormous amount of side spin, when compared to backspin, after the ball is hit in the air. That is the only reason why a ball slices.
Unfortunately, there are many reasons why the side spin will drown the back spin when the ball is hit. All of them have to do with the club striking the ball, and contrary to popular belief, none of them have anything to do with external factors such as the wind or the lie of the ball. While those may contribute to the severity of the slice, the ball slices only because of the way it is hit.
This is where the reasoning diverges. There are actually two causes of side spin when hitting the ball. The first, and probably most obvious, is that the ball is hit with a sideways motion in addition to the forward motion of the club.
The sideways motion of the club is usually caused by a swing in which the club comes from outside of the plane of the swing and then come across the plane as the club hits the ball with a sideways motion. This is actually very common and can be avoided by keeping the left arm straight and concentrating on maintaining a proper swing plane. If you do this, you will undoubtedly see a dramatic decrease in the amount that you actually slice.
The second reason that you may be slicing is that your club face is open when the club strikes the ball. This causes the club to hit the ball with a glancing motion, and the ball actually rolls off the side of the club instead of skyrocketing off like a firecracker. While this is less common, it is harder to diagnose and even harder to fix. It could be due to either an inadequate turn during the swing, an early breaking in the wrist, and open club face during setup, or even an early turning of the hips. Try closing your club face at setup to see if that will decrease the amount that you actually slice. Even though that may work by lowering the amount that you slice, you still want to visit a golf pro so they can see what your underlying problem is so you can fix it.
Slicing the ball, especially if it is a dramatic slice, can ruin a golf game. There is no reason why something as simple as a slice should be ruining your game, so reread this article, take some of the advice here, and go make your golf game better!
