A cure for a slice

A slice is a golf ball going forward for about 100 metres and then bends sharply to the right into the bush. Most new golfers suffer from this malady. The driver is the longest club in the bag. It is not an easy club to use. When a golfer sets up for a tee shot many things can happen:

1. He may be standing too close to the ball.

2. On the takeaway, his club head may have inadvertently crossed the target line.
3. His down swing could have come from the OUTSIDE in.
4. At impact his club face may still be in OPEN position.
5. He does not release his wrists by allowing his right wrist to roll over his left at the moment of impact.

A golf swing happens so quickly that it is almost impossible for any golfer to know exactly what is wrong with it when it produces a slice. A friend standing close by as an observer can help a golfer a lot in identifying the fault. A high speed video camera is useful here. Basically a slice is the result of hitting a golf ball with an OPEN club face. When your hands are placed on a club, one below the other, the right shoulder must certainly be lower than the left. From the start this set up is already lobe sided. It is therefore almost impossible to hit a ball squarely on the sweet spot and producing a straight trajectory. Unless you use a putting grip for your tee shot, the result will most likely be a SLICE. A new golfer hardly ever hook the ball to the left. That is a fault reserved exclusively for low handicappers... At the driving range I was slicing my tee shots to the right for a long time. One day I had a brain wave: If I learned to hit a draw shot to the left I would no longer slice the ball! I tried for a whole year to do just this without success. No matter what I tried, the ball did not bend to the left. However all my balls went perfectly straight down the middle! That was when I stopped trying to draw the ball to the left. I have succeeded in another area. I can repeatedly hit straight balls through those rugby goal posts at 180M. I no longer sliced the balls off the tee! I have achieved something else which is very desirable. I can hit perfectly straight balls every time down the middle. I stopped trying to hit a draw shot with my driver and left the driving range to play some real golf on a golf course.

I joined some Taiwanese golfers and we played 18 holes daily at the Narrows. After 142 rounds my irons caught up and I began to spend more time at the lake side practising my chipping and pitching. I added a 60 degrees lobe wedge to my bag. My handicap went down from 23 to 18 within a year. Today I play off a handicap index of 15. If I practise some more on my putting I am confident to cut at least 5 strokes off my card. Perhaps it is still possible for me to become a single handicapper? It is good to have dreams.