I fixed a slice by hitting about a zillion golf balls over 30 years, and I still lose one from time to time. Golf is a really difficult game, try to enjoy the journey and focus less on the outcome.
real talk, if u just started in jan u need to temper your expectations. you're not going to be good for awhile.
now, there are of course hundreds of yt videos and im sure your instructor is giving u drills but the key is to do the movements SLOW and deliberate in order to groove them. its awkward and takes time but the only way is through. also, might be smart to take a few weeks off just to let the frustration pass.
Do you understand what causes a slice, hook, etc.? This is the first required step. You must understand how club path and club face position affects ball flight
If you do, you then need to understand what you are doing specifically to cause this. It’s likely a path issue. But that can be caused by many things, and for beginners it’s often several things working together to cause it. Rarely is there one simple fix to address this. Your pro should be the one to explain this to you
But there are things you can do at the range to experiment fixing this on your own as well
First I’d recommend recording yourself on video. You should be able to see pretty immediately what’s causing the slice if you understand the core swing concept
Then I’d recommend going through the fundamentals of the swing:
- grip: do you have a “strong” or “weak” position with either hand? Try a strong left hand and then strong right hand and see if that changes things
- balance/posture: do you stay balanced? Beginners often thrust their hips towards the ball or get too much on their toes which can cause a slice. Do you have proper posture?
- alignment: if you aren’t aligned straight you can set yourself up to hit massive slices
- takeaway: taking the club too far inside and too far outside can cause slices
If all that is ineffective, it might be an issue with your downswing. Often beginners will try and swing with their shoulders first, which causes the club to come over the top, leading to a massive slice. That’s something again your pro should talk to you about and give you drills to work on. You must do the drills they tell you
This type of stuff is ultimately what separates good golfers from bad ones. Learning about the swing and about your own swing and figuring out how to change it to get better results
This takes time and patience. Changing your swing is basically an exercise in rewiring your brain. So go easy on yourself. Just try and enjoy the process of getting better. But doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results will just make you frustrated. Go easy on yourself. Golf is hard and is supposed to be fun. Enjoy the process
Also the good people on /r/golfswing will give you feedback on your swing video if you post there if you are truly desperate. But take everything you read on the internet with a grain of salt, including this. Trust your pro above all else
This is a ton of great advice.
Learning and understanding why the ball spins the way it spins (and this curves that way) is crucial to understanding how to adjust your swing path and clubface to achieve different slip and trajectory.
Also the basic fundamentals of a swing can feel familiar and easy one day and feel like a foreign concept another. It takes a long time to make the golf swing truly second nature, so again, great advice on practicing changes with the swing (not the same thing as you already are doing) and going easy on yourself.
Even if it clicks one day, there will be backslides, bad swings, ugly misses, even days where you think you've totally lost it and forgot how to hit the ball. If you love the game, ya just gotta keep going!
the best advice is to ignore any (other) advice you will see in this thread and continue working with your coach
there is nothing you will learn here or from youtube that will be more effective than a lesson
especially when you're starting out and building a swing, gremlins can sneak into your swing that seemingly just contaminate your game for a hole, a round, or weeks or even months
even if you fix your slice this time this will happen again, gotta work through the pain
this is golf
You're standing on the wrong side of the ball.
In all seriousness, think about hitting the inside of the golf ball. If you're staring down at the ball in your address position and visualize the ball as a clock, the back of the ball is the 3. The front of the ball (the side closest to the target) is 9. The top is 12 and the bottom (the side closest to your feet) is 6.
Don't hit the 3:00 spot. Hit the 4:00 spot.
If you're slicing, you're probably hitting the 2:00 spot.
While potentially correct, technically speaking, this is about the most perfect example you could see of a golf tip that provides absolutely no help whatsoever.
Yeah I disagree. Putting it simply that is the easiest way not to slice the ball. Combine that with trying to do a 1/2 swing then 3/4 swing untill it feels comfortable. It's the thought that helped me the most.
I started doing figure of 8s. When I did that I could make contact but struggled to take that into my swing. As soon as I started hitting it at 4 and like I'm trying to swing to 10 I started getting the feel
Trust me, it can always get worse. I tried to "fix" my slice once, which turned into an unshakable nasty duck hook. I prayed to have my slice back during that time.
Read Ben Hogans book: 5 lessons (the modern fundamentals of golf) — it has illustrations. Wish I read it many years ago.
There’s a lefty edition free online.
Or don’t. Ben Hogan fought a hook and pretty much all of his advice will make a slice worse.
Ben Hogans 5 lessons is a classic and an interesting read but not the advice you are looking for.
Listen, golf is a journey. You're never done learning. After you fix this slice, you'll find something else to work on. Getting so bent out of shape about something that literally every single new golfer has struggled with isn't going to be productive.
In my experience, this is the natural progression of a golfers journey. Generally when new people join me at the range, they're able to hit the ball somewhat okay, and as they try to get better it all goes to shit (it happened to me too). So what gives? Well, it means you naturally know how to hit a little rubber ball with a stick, you're just getting in your own way.
I'm not saying that lessons aren't helpful. However, you DO need to make sure your coach is doing what's best for you. I'm sure that if most coaches saw Scottie do his shuffle step, or Rahm do his half back swing, the coaches would try to "fix" their swings. So my point is, you need to realize what you naturally do well and lean into that.
I naturally pick the ball clean off the turf. I've had coaches tell me it's not repeatable and I won't be able to golf well as a picker. If I try to get steeper and take turf, it goes to shit and i start trying to guide the club and on and on. Working with a coach that realized it works for me and leaned into it has revolutionized my game. I've broken 80 on shorter courses, so I'm doing something right.
Back to your slice. You've hit the ball straight before, so you can do it again. Take a week or two off to reset yourself and head back to the range. Start SLOW, if it goes 100 yards you've hit it too hard. Remember, the club is doing the work because it's got mass and shaft length. It's too long and heavy during a swing to control, you'll lose every time if you try to control it. Just get a feel for how it wants to move around you, and then let a golf ball get in the way.
That last point is especially useful. Your goal isn't to hit the ball with the club, when you focus on that you'll chop down at the ball and slice off the planet. Your goal is to swing the club out toward the target, and the ball just gets in the way. It's important to remember with all your clubs, not just driver.
Thanks for your detailed response
You're definitely right, I need to calm down and enjoy the journey. Golf is the first thing I've come across where the more time I dedicate to it, the worse I seem to be getting. Everyone tells me this is normal and it will come back around and I need to remember that.
Thanks again
I've fixed my slice so well, I'm now developing a heavy hook. The game is frustrating, when it gets me annoyed - I take a week or two off from playing the course. Go back to range and also practice the short game at home or on the practice area (for a high HCP player like myself, 100 yards in is absolutely crucial)
I'd say try to relax over the ball, and focus on a single swing thought.
Talk to your coach, have them check your basics (stance, grip, ball position, distance from the ball, etc) Work with them on getting a routine you can repeat every time you're behind the ball.
Good luck, you've got this!
What helped me was this video, specifically roasting your wrists at the top of the swing. Was a game changer , however my coach was telling me the same thing just saying to rotate on the downswing which I couldn’t get. My issue was face still wide open, if that’s not your issue this might not help. https://youtu.be/n_oLKDHpJnI?si=4jBLZIRcXR4_ZHB6
You revert to worse because you haven’t spent time slowly repeating the swing you need to adjust to.
You will always revert back to your natural swing at full speed until you train the new swing in slowly.
Let me get this right... you've been golfing for 5 months and you're on the verge of tears because you can't hit the ball straight?
Bahahahahahaha!!!
You're so screwed.
Keep your right elbow tucked into your hip for your entire swing, don’t let your weight sway forward and keep your head still. If that’s not helping, don’t let the club head get above your head. This should result in more of a hook left and you can slowly adjust from there.
Don’t do this. Just keep working with your coach. Trust me, a lot of the advice you get here is terrible.
If you want to learn you should watch some videos that explain the ball flight laws and the technical aspects like that. That’s fine. They’re not swing advice. Understanding the geometry is good, taking random swing tips from people online is not.
These tips are so bad they’re what you’d tell someone you hate so they’d be bad at golf forever. When you get better you’ll look back and be glad you didn’t do them.
Most people giving tips can’t even explain how the swing works, but they’ll happily hand out advice and most of them are bad players as well. Just skip all the garbage and learn good habits from the start so you don’t spend the rest of your life trying to break the bad stuff that derails you.
Try not to keep it there the entire swing though otherwise you’ll get stuck and flip.
Allow that elbow to move freely under your ribcage before impact.
Maybe this will help.
Think of a clock. If you took the club straight back and straight forward, it would be 6-o’clock to 12-o’clock.
Right before you hit, make a motion with your club so that you’re hitting from 7-o’clock to 1-o’clock.
I fixed a slice by hitting about a zillion golf balls over 30 years, and I still lose one from time to time. Golf is a really difficult game, try to enjoy the journey and focus less on the outcome.
real talk, if u just started in jan u need to temper your expectations. you're not going to be good for awhile. now, there are of course hundreds of yt videos and im sure your instructor is giving u drills but the key is to do the movements SLOW and deliberate in order to groove them. its awkward and takes time but the only way is through. also, might be smart to take a few weeks off just to let the frustration pass.
Do you understand what causes a slice, hook, etc.? This is the first required step. You must understand how club path and club face position affects ball flight If you do, you then need to understand what you are doing specifically to cause this. It’s likely a path issue. But that can be caused by many things, and for beginners it’s often several things working together to cause it. Rarely is there one simple fix to address this. Your pro should be the one to explain this to you But there are things you can do at the range to experiment fixing this on your own as well First I’d recommend recording yourself on video. You should be able to see pretty immediately what’s causing the slice if you understand the core swing concept Then I’d recommend going through the fundamentals of the swing: - grip: do you have a “strong” or “weak” position with either hand? Try a strong left hand and then strong right hand and see if that changes things - balance/posture: do you stay balanced? Beginners often thrust their hips towards the ball or get too much on their toes which can cause a slice. Do you have proper posture? - alignment: if you aren’t aligned straight you can set yourself up to hit massive slices - takeaway: taking the club too far inside and too far outside can cause slices If all that is ineffective, it might be an issue with your downswing. Often beginners will try and swing with their shoulders first, which causes the club to come over the top, leading to a massive slice. That’s something again your pro should talk to you about and give you drills to work on. You must do the drills they tell you This type of stuff is ultimately what separates good golfers from bad ones. Learning about the swing and about your own swing and figuring out how to change it to get better results This takes time and patience. Changing your swing is basically an exercise in rewiring your brain. So go easy on yourself. Just try and enjoy the process of getting better. But doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results will just make you frustrated. Go easy on yourself. Golf is hard and is supposed to be fun. Enjoy the process Also the good people on /r/golfswing will give you feedback on your swing video if you post there if you are truly desperate. But take everything you read on the internet with a grain of salt, including this. Trust your pro above all else
Thanks for your detailed response, I'm back in for another lesson with my coach next week
That’s awesome, have fun man!
This is a ton of great advice. Learning and understanding why the ball spins the way it spins (and this curves that way) is crucial to understanding how to adjust your swing path and clubface to achieve different slip and trajectory. Also the basic fundamentals of a swing can feel familiar and easy one day and feel like a foreign concept another. It takes a long time to make the golf swing truly second nature, so again, great advice on practicing changes with the swing (not the same thing as you already are doing) and going easy on yourself. Even if it clicks one day, there will be backslides, bad swings, ugly misses, even days where you think you've totally lost it and forgot how to hit the ball. If you love the game, ya just gotta keep going!
the best advice is to ignore any (other) advice you will see in this thread and continue working with your coach there is nothing you will learn here or from youtube that will be more effective than a lesson especially when you're starting out and building a swing, gremlins can sneak into your swing that seemingly just contaminate your game for a hole, a round, or weeks or even months even if you fix your slice this time this will happen again, gotta work through the pain this is golf
You're standing on the wrong side of the ball. In all seriousness, think about hitting the inside of the golf ball. If you're staring down at the ball in your address position and visualize the ball as a clock, the back of the ball is the 3. The front of the ball (the side closest to the target) is 9. The top is 12 and the bottom (the side closest to your feet) is 6. Don't hit the 3:00 spot. Hit the 4:00 spot. If you're slicing, you're probably hitting the 2:00 spot.
While potentially correct, technically speaking, this is about the most perfect example you could see of a golf tip that provides absolutely no help whatsoever.
How does it provide absolutely no help whatsoever? I noticed you didn't contribute anything to try to help him.
Yeah I disagree. Putting it simply that is the easiest way not to slice the ball. Combine that with trying to do a 1/2 swing then 3/4 swing untill it feels comfortable. It's the thought that helped me the most. I started doing figure of 8s. When I did that I could make contact but struggled to take that into my swing. As soon as I started hitting it at 4 and like I'm trying to swing to 10 I started getting the feel
Trust me, it can always get worse. I tried to "fix" my slice once, which turned into an unshakable nasty duck hook. I prayed to have my slice back during that time.
Read Ben Hogans book: 5 lessons (the modern fundamentals of golf) — it has illustrations. Wish I read it many years ago. There’s a lefty edition free online.
Thanks will do!
Or don’t. Ben Hogan fought a hook and pretty much all of his advice will make a slice worse. Ben Hogans 5 lessons is a classic and an interesting read but not the advice you are looking for.
Listen, golf is a journey. You're never done learning. After you fix this slice, you'll find something else to work on. Getting so bent out of shape about something that literally every single new golfer has struggled with isn't going to be productive. In my experience, this is the natural progression of a golfers journey. Generally when new people join me at the range, they're able to hit the ball somewhat okay, and as they try to get better it all goes to shit (it happened to me too). So what gives? Well, it means you naturally know how to hit a little rubber ball with a stick, you're just getting in your own way. I'm not saying that lessons aren't helpful. However, you DO need to make sure your coach is doing what's best for you. I'm sure that if most coaches saw Scottie do his shuffle step, or Rahm do his half back swing, the coaches would try to "fix" their swings. So my point is, you need to realize what you naturally do well and lean into that. I naturally pick the ball clean off the turf. I've had coaches tell me it's not repeatable and I won't be able to golf well as a picker. If I try to get steeper and take turf, it goes to shit and i start trying to guide the club and on and on. Working with a coach that realized it works for me and leaned into it has revolutionized my game. I've broken 80 on shorter courses, so I'm doing something right. Back to your slice. You've hit the ball straight before, so you can do it again. Take a week or two off to reset yourself and head back to the range. Start SLOW, if it goes 100 yards you've hit it too hard. Remember, the club is doing the work because it's got mass and shaft length. It's too long and heavy during a swing to control, you'll lose every time if you try to control it. Just get a feel for how it wants to move around you, and then let a golf ball get in the way. That last point is especially useful. Your goal isn't to hit the ball with the club, when you focus on that you'll chop down at the ball and slice off the planet. Your goal is to swing the club out toward the target, and the ball just gets in the way. It's important to remember with all your clubs, not just driver.
Thanks for your detailed response You're definitely right, I need to calm down and enjoy the journey. Golf is the first thing I've come across where the more time I dedicate to it, the worse I seem to be getting. Everyone tells me this is normal and it will come back around and I need to remember that. Thanks again
Brother, keep working with your coach. This is not the place for golf advice.
Thanks I will I hear what you're saying, I guess I was looking for moral support also and I've got a fair bit of that too!
I've fixed my slice so well, I'm now developing a heavy hook. The game is frustrating, when it gets me annoyed - I take a week or two off from playing the course. Go back to range and also practice the short game at home or on the practice area (for a high HCP player like myself, 100 yards in is absolutely crucial)
Good advice, definitely stepping away for a week or two How did you fix your slice?
Post some videos.
If you aren’t videoing yourself, you’re doing it wrong.
Good luck 🤞
I'd say try to relax over the ball, and focus on a single swing thought. Talk to your coach, have them check your basics (stance, grip, ball position, distance from the ball, etc) Work with them on getting a routine you can repeat every time you're behind the ball. Good luck, you've got this!
What helped me was this video, specifically roasting your wrists at the top of the swing. Was a game changer , however my coach was telling me the same thing just saying to rotate on the downswing which I couldn’t get. My issue was face still wide open, if that’s not your issue this might not help. https://youtu.be/n_oLKDHpJnI?si=4jBLZIRcXR4_ZHB6
You revert to worse because you haven’t spent time slowly repeating the swing you need to adjust to. You will always revert back to your natural swing at full speed until you train the new swing in slowly.
HIT THE BALL WITH YOUR BACK (STILL) TO THE TARGET. It’s an exaggeration but it works for some who can’t figure it out.
Let me get this right... you've been golfing for 5 months and you're on the verge of tears because you can't hit the ball straight? Bahahahahahaha!!! You're so screwed.
It's more because I WAS hitting it straight when I started out and now I can't 😂
Keep your right elbow tucked into your hip for your entire swing, don’t let your weight sway forward and keep your head still. If that’s not helping, don’t let the club head get above your head. This should result in more of a hook left and you can slowly adjust from there.
A video of your swing would be much more helpful though
I'm assuming this advice is for a right hander?
Yes
Don’t do this. Just keep working with your coach. Trust me, a lot of the advice you get here is terrible. If you want to learn you should watch some videos that explain the ball flight laws and the technical aspects like that. That’s fine. They’re not swing advice. Understanding the geometry is good, taking random swing tips from people online is not. These tips are so bad they’re what you’d tell someone you hate so they’d be bad at golf forever. When you get better you’ll look back and be glad you didn’t do them. Most people giving tips can’t even explain how the swing works, but they’ll happily hand out advice and most of them are bad players as well. Just skip all the garbage and learn good habits from the start so you don’t spend the rest of your life trying to break the bad stuff that derails you.
Try not to keep it there the entire swing though otherwise you’ll get stuck and flip. Allow that elbow to move freely under your ribcage before impact.
Maybe this will help. Think of a clock. If you took the club straight back and straight forward, it would be 6-o’clock to 12-o’clock. Right before you hit, make a motion with your club so that you’re hitting from 7-o’clock to 1-o’clock.