What’s the most common swing flaw in golf?
If you said “the slice,” you’d be right. Maybe 90 percent of all golfers struggle with a slice. That’s right—90 percent. What causes them to slice may varies, but all slicers hit high weak shots that fly to the right (or left, if you’re left-handed).
Slicing is frustrating. It also costs you a ton of strokes. So if you’re a slicer, you’re probably looking for a way to rid yourself of this flaw permanently.
Well, there’s good news. A 3-part drill developed by Hank Haney, the noted golf teacher, is helping golfers of all levels fix their slices.
I’ll give you exactly how to do this drill (along with a video of Hank Haney himself showing you the drill in just a second.
First though, let’s go through a few different causes of golf slice, and some simple tips to cure a golf slice.
These tips to cure a golf slice, combined with the drill below, will help fix your golf slice, and have you hitting the ball straighter (and further) in no time.
5 Things that Cause a Golf Slice (and 5 Ways to Fix a Golf Slice)
The best way to fix a slice of your driver or irons is to start at the root source of the problem.
Unfortunately, it’s not always so simple as identifying “one thing” that leads you to slice the ball.
In fact, there are a number of golf swing defects that can lead to a consistent, frustrating slice.
Here are the top 5 that I’ve identified:
1) Being Too “On Top” of Your Grip
I always like to start with the grip when analyzing golf swing problems. The grip is pretty foundational to everything else you do on the golf course.
If your grip is too weak, or misaligned, it can cause a huge range of swing defects, including a devastating golf slice.
Many golfers think their thumbs should be “straight on top” of the golf grip.
While this can work for some, it can also lead you to naturally open your club face.
When you open your club face, that’s one of the most common reasons for a golf slice.
So instead of going “straight up” on top of the golf club grip with your thumbs, try letting your bottom hand “embrace” or “shake” the club a bit.
I don’t mean “shake” the club as in wobble it; I mean as if you’re shaking hands with the club.
Allow your bottom hand’s thumb to naturally come over your top thumb a little bit more than usual.
This will give you much more control, and a stronger, firmer grip on the club.
That in turn will allow you to get all the way through the ball without opening your club face.
2) Calm Your Arms
If you move your arms too much through your swing, you’re much more prone to slicing the ball.
That’s because your arms control your hands, and if your hands are “off,” it can easily lead to a golf slice.
One of my favorite drills to test for this is the “towel drill.”
All you do is take a small hand towel and place it in your underarm area, between your arm and torso snugly.
Then take your backswing.
If the towel falls out, you have too much arm movement.
3) Standing “Too Tall”
A “too tall” stance naturally puts weight on your heels.
This forces your body away from the golf ball, and your hands have to move away from you to compensate.
This naturally causes a slice.
Instead of being too tall, bend your knees just a little bit more in your setup, and ensure that your weight is evenly distributed in your stance.
If you want to test your weight distribution, here’s something you can try:
This may sound funny, but have your partner, wife, husband, whatever literally push you while you’re in your setup.
They don’t need to push you hard, just enough to induce movement if you’re off-balance.
If they’re able to move you, your weight is unbalanced.
4) Improve Your Flexibility
Sometimes, especially as people age, they tend to lose flexibility in their legs and trunk.
It happened to me a few years back: I started getting the slice yips, and couldn’t figure out why.
Eventually, a good buddy of mine said I wasn’t getting the full turn I was used to in my swing.
So I made the following fix and I started hitting them long and straight off the tee again:
Simply close your back foot by about 15-30 degrees in your setup.
This naturally gets you where you should be going without having to be “the pretzel man” at setup.
You can also do some golf stretches, yoga, and core-strengthening exercises.
All of these will help fix your golf slice.
The drill embodies a simple strategy: Practice the opposite move (the fix) that causes the swing flaw. The drill exaggerates this move as much as possible so you can really feel the correct swing path and plane.
5) Change Ball Position
Your ball position should vary depending on whether you’re using your driver or irons.
Off the tee, you want your ball position to be forward. Probably a good 3-12 inches in front of your “midline,” depending on how long your arms are, your height, etc.
This is something that varies from individual to individual, and that you’ll have to test out on the driving range.
For irons, you should be somewhere right along your midline, to sometimes a little bit back of midline.
Again, this will depend on your particular golf swing.
Hit the range and test this out to get your swing right, and fix your golf slice.
Okay, so now it’s time to get into this Hank Haney slice drill. I think you’re really going to like it.
Of course, Hank Haney is Tiger Woods’s old swing coach. Hank was with him for his incredible stretch of dominance earlier this century.
Two Drill Prerequisites
Before practicing the drill, do two things: check your equipment and change your grip. Both of these things can help you correct your slice.
Most golfers use a driver with too little loft. Often, it’s a reaction to their high, weak ball flight. The most popular loft with a driver is 9-degrees.
Hank Haney suggests switching to a driver with more loft—say 10.5 degrees. Some teachers even suggest using drivers with 12- and 13-degrees of loft.
(Keep in mind drivers with high lofts can cost you a little distance.)
Also, check your grip. Many slicers use a weak grip. Weak grips have both thumbs pointing straight down the shaft.
Haney suggests “strengthening” your grip by turning your hands away from the target.
If you drew lines up from the base of your thumbs, they should point to the right side of your shirt (left side if you’re left-handed).
(I mentioned this above in my own terms, but this is a good visualization for how Hank does it).
The 3-Part Hank Haney Slice Drill
Haney’s drill works for one simple reason: it gets you to feel a radically different swing shape—one the puts you on the correct plane and path. Below are the drill’s 3 steps:
Step 1: Draw a backward loop
Take your normal stance with the ball just inside your front heel. Then sole the club in front of the ball. Now make a loop with your hands, starting in front of the ball and then going around and back to the ball. Focus only on making a loop.
Step 2: Lift and turn
Once you’ve grooved the circle motion (above), keep the loop going and add your shoulder turn.
Start with the clubhead behind the ball. Then lift it up straight over your head until your hands are in front of your face.
Now do these three things:
(1) turn your front shoulder away from the target, keeping it on the shallower plane you’ve established;
(2) swing the clubhead over the ball while still drawing the loop; and
(3) feel the clubhead traveling on a shallower swing path. Make only half a circle—from the position over your head to the ball and stop. Don’t release the club.
Step 3: Turn and release
This step makes the transition from the practice drill to the real golf swing.
Do these three things in this step:
(1) lift the club into a two-thirds backswing position;
(2) complete your backswing, with your left arm in front of your chest;
(3) while continuing to make a circle with the clubhead, hit the ball.
I often use the drill in my golf lessons.
If you want to see a video of it, here you go:
Haney’s drill works for players with any golf handicap. Do the drill slowly at first and in parts. Speed things up when hitting balls. You should see a right to left ball flight after practicing for a short while.
Slicing is among golf’s most common swing flaws. It can cost you distance off the tee and start you off in trouble. Ridding yourself of the slice will not only lower your golf handicap, it will also make the game more enjoyable.
Want Step-By-Step Tips to Fix Your Golf Slice?
My good friend and “instructor to the instructors,” Bobby Eldridge, has a very simple, easy-to-understand video about fixing your golf slice permanently.
Bobby is the guy who was flown into a Swedish town one summer by a wealthy course owner with one very important mission:
One of his up-and-coming instructors had come down with a bad case of the “slice yips.”
All Bobby had to do was show him the tips in this video, and he was right-as-rain within a couple of days.
Bobby is one of the most plain-spoken, “makes hard concepts seem easy” golf pros out there.
I think you’ll like him a lot 🙂
Click Here Now to Check Out Bobby’s “Swedish Slice Cure” Video