Pull Slice

More Details on a Pull Slice

Club path is to the left of the target and the club face is to the right of the club path. Impact = an outside-to-in club path with an open face. This can also be caused by a left or outside-to-in club path with a club face that is the same amount of the left of the target as the path and an impact location on the heel of the club.

Path – divot points too much to the left of the target

i. Check your alignment at address – See drills for proper alignment
ii. Check the ball’s position in your stance – see video for proper ball position
iii. See drills for fixing an outside-to-in club path and drills for fixing a slice (club path portion)

a. Your back swing may be off plane and too high. See drills for the correct back swing plane/position. Golfers that have this issue will often have deep divots.
b. You may have a lower body sway during your back swing. See drills for correcting a sway.
c. You may not have enough shoulder turn on your back swing. See drills for making a proper/better shoulder turn
i. Do you have reduced flexibility? Are you a male over the age of approximately 15? If so, you most likely need a stretching program to address your probable lack of flexibility in your rotation muscles i.e. your hip rotators, spinal rotators, hamstrings, internal and external shoulder rotators…

Modify your stance in the following ways
a. Narrow your stance
b. Turn your trail foot out slightly = away from the target
c. Point your sternum up to 1’ behind the ball at address
d. Drop your trail shoulder back and down at address
e. If a. through d help you, seek flexibility training from a qualified professional and/or see drills for improving your flexibility

Club Face
Where are you hitting the ball on the club face? (impact location)

1. Use Dr. Scholl’s Odor-X spray to find out your impact location.

a. If hitting in the center of the club face or on the toe of the club face, then proceed to number 2 in this section
b. If your impact location is not in the center, see drills for impact location and correction.

i. If the impact location is consistently on the heel of the club face, your club path is too much to the left of the target, the club face may be the same as the club path and the gear effect from a heel impact will counteract a square or slightly closed club face. See drills for impact location and correction. Also see explanation of the gear effect.

ii. If the impact location is on the toe of the club face, your club path is too far to the left of the target, the club face is too much to the right and the gear effect from a toe impact is counteracting the rightward pointing club face. See drills for impact location and correction. Also see drills for the gear effect.

ii. Check your grip – both or either hand turned too much toward the target = weak grip. See drills for the proper grip.

iii. Check the where the club face is aligned at address as it may be aligned to the right of the target.

iv. Your hands may have been too far ahead of the club head at impact = causing the club face to point too far to the right of the club path

i. If this is the case, you will experience very low shots, thin shots (hitting the ball with the bottom part of the club = low shots) and possible topped shots that do not get airborne. See drills for the correct impact position
ii. You may be chicken winging your lead arm through impact. See drills for fixing chicken winging

v. You may not be turning the club over properly through impact. See drills for turning the club over and the proper release of the golf club

vi. You are opening the club face on your backswing. Make sure the club face is parallel to your spine angle when the club shaft reaches the first parallel to the ground position in your back swing. See drills for square club face

Equipment:
1. With the divot to the left of the target, your equipment is unlikely the source but,
a. Do you hit other clubs or other golfers’ clubs straighter?
Yes:
1. Your shafts may be too stiff
2. The lie angle may be too flat – this will often cause very thin divots where the width of the divot is much narrower than the width of the club head
3. Your clubs may be too short
4. Remote possibility – your clubs may be too heavy
5. Check the settings on the club. Do you have the club, for adjustable clubs (driver, fairway wood and hybrids) set to “fade” the ball or on an “open” face setting?
ii. No: It’s not the equipment