How To Work The Golf Ball Right to Left and Left to Right

Golf Master Tips, Hitting Fade/Slice and Draw/Hook - For this article I will discuss how to hit the left-to-right shot and the right-to-left shot. Hitting A Left-To-Right Shot (Fade or Slice) If you want to hit a fade or slice. Align yourself left of the target line, swing slightly Outside-to-In, with a cluface that is pointing right of the swingpath, then you will fade the ball. Your ball will start left of the target line and turn right toward the target.

If your swingpath is way left and you hit the ball with a clubface orientation that is pointing well right of the swingpath, then you have a bigger fade or even a slice. Your ball will start left or on the target line and slice, slice, slice well right of the target.

And if you aim more left to try to counteract this, all you are doing is increasing the angle between the swingpath and the clubface orientation which causes more curve or a bigger slice.

If your swingpath is slightly left (6 degrees) of the target line and you hit the ball with a clubface orientation that is slightly open, (3 degrees) to the swingpath, then your ball will start slightly left of the target and work back towards the target.

Hitting A Right-to-Left Shot (Draw/Hook)

If you want to hit a draw or hook:

Align yourself right of the target line, swing Inside-to-Outside, with a clubface that is pointing left of the swingpath, then you will draw the ball. Your ball will start right of the target line and turn left toward the target.

If your swingpath is way right and you hit the ball with a clubface orientation that is pointing well left of the swingpath, then you have a bigger draw or even a hook.

Your ball will start right of the target line and hook, hook, well left and often very low due to the closed clubface. The biggest issue I see with golfers who are trying to hit a draw is that they are aiming too far right. This results in a backswing and swingpath that is too far inside.

What happens is that most will aim about 10-15 degrees right, and the backswing will go inside, resulting in a swingpath that could be as much as 30-40 degrees right of the target line.

With this big difference in the swingpath and clubface, you are looking at big hook that is low and uncontrolled.

If you remember the ball flight laws, then you know that the bigger the difference between your swingpath and your clubface orientation, the more curve is imparted to the ball. There are two things that I see happen most often from this position:

• The golfer swings along the inside swing path with a clubface that is square or slightly open to the swing path and the ball goes right and stays right.
• Second, many golfers will subconsciously know that they are aiming to far right and their subconscious mind will try to correct them. So, what happens, they lift the club and swing on an Outside-to-Inside path, over the top, with an open to the path clubface, and hit a weak high slice.

In order to hit a draw your swingpath is slightly right (6 degrees) of the target line and you hit the ball with a clubface orientation that is slightly closed, (3 degrees) to the swingpath, then your ball will start slightly right of the target and work back towards the target.

In conclusion, in order to control your ball flight and work it left-to-right and right-to-left, you must learn to control your clubface orientation and your swingpath.

Additionally, you must be aware of where you are aiming, your alignment. Hitting a nice draw or fade is not too difficult if you understand the ball flight laws. Learning to control your swingpath and clubface orientation will help you work the ball.

That is why I recommend a simple system that will show you the parts of the golf swing each piece at a time. The system should include the setup, grip, alignment, timing, backswing, and downswing. As a result you will able to eliminate that slice forever. (Guy Westbrook)