Finding the right swing path is critical to hitting straight shots. It’s also critical to shaving strokes off your golf handicap. Slices, hooks, pulls, fat shots, or thin shots off the tee get you in trouble—the kind of trouble that packs strokes onto your golf handicap. If you hit bad shots off the tee regularly, your swing path may be the cause. Below are golf tips to help you improve an incorrect path.
A common fault we see in players who take our golf lessons is a too steep swing path. A too steep swing path often leads to an open clubface at impact. How can you tell if you’re path is to steep? If you pull a lot, hit a lot of fat or toe shots, and/or create deep divots, your swing path may be too steep. If you slice a lot, your swing path may also be too steep.
Curing A Steep Swing Path
Curing a too steep swing path is straightforward. All it takes is an adjustment or two to your swing and a little hard work. It’s not hard or complicated. Start by making adjustments to your swing that will help square the clubface at impact. To do that, try:
* Strengthening your grip
* Bowing your left wrist at the top
* Using a baseball swing
To strengthen your grip, turn your hands so the creases between your thumbs and forefingers run parallel at address and point toward your right shoulder. Also, when you get to the top of your swing, bow your left wrist, so that it’s slightly cupped. Using a baseball swing is another adjustment that helps flatten your swing.
To grove a flatter swing, hit balls that are slightly above your feet, like off the side of a mild fairway mogul— a drill we often use in our golf lessons. Another good exercise is to take the club back with your left arm only, extending it out as far as you can. Then, grip the club with your right hand. This is the swing width you want at the start of your swing. It invariably leads to straighter shots.
Curing A Shallow Swing Path
A second swing fault we see in our golf lessons is a too shallow swing path. Players with a too shallow swing path take the club back too far inside the target line and return it too far inside. Or, take it back correctly but slide forward too aggressively during the downswing, dropping the club behind them on a shallow plane.
A swing path that’s too shallow produces thin shots, shots with no divots, heel hits, and/or hooks and blocks. A swing path that’s too shallow leads to a closed clubface at impact, producing a hook. To cure this swing fault:
* Weaken your grip
* Keep your body turning
* Delay your forearm rotation
To weaken your grip, turn your hands so that the crease of your thumbs and forefinger parallel each other and point toward your chin. Also, keep your body turning through impact, allowing your head to swivel with your body and watch the ball. This move helps your body rotate and prevents the clubface from closing too soon. Another adjustment is to let your right forearm turn over your left until after impact.
Drills we use in our golf instruction sessions to cure a too shallow swing path is to practice hitting balls off the tee in which you lift your hands as high as you can reach. This automatically makes your swing plane more vertical. Another adjustment is to go down low after the ball. If you can’t get too low, bend over a little more at address or during your backswing.
Use An Empty Plastic Bottle
Another drill we use in our golf instruction sessions to create shallower swings is to put an empty plastic bottle just outside your target line, just ahead of the ball, and hit drives without touching the bottle. You have to swing inside to do that, creating a steeper swing path.
If you’re hitting hooks, slices, pulls, and other bad shots off the tee, you’re adding strokes to your golf handicap. The cause may be an incorrect swing path. Using the golf tips and drills covered in this article will help you correct your swing and make going low a habit.
