The slice is the most common flawed shot made by golfers, especially beginners. Fixing this issue early on is essential to preventing frustration from setting in and killing the joy of the game. There is probably no other swing problem that causes new golfers to quit than the slice.

Preventing The Slice

First off, learn to relax. Relax your mind and your body, especially your hands and arms. You need to switch your swing from a tense, high-energy swing (as most golfers who slice tend to do) into a lazy, relaxed swing.

For now, just stop worrying about going for broke to get distance on the ball. Distance will come with time and practice. Your goal here is to stop causing the ball to veer severely to the right if you’re a right-handed golfer, or to the left, if you’re a lefty.

Get A New Grip

Now that you’ve started to swing the club in a lazy relaxed way, you need to strengthen your grip as much as possible. But you need to do this without adding too much tension. Start by setting up your stance, address the ball and (if you are right-handed), look at how many of the knuckles on your left hand are visible. If you can only see one and just a tiny bit of the second knuckle, then your grip is weak.

Fixing this weak grip involves making a slight change. Grip the club so that you can see at least two or three knuckles. Place the other hand on the club so that the palms are in the same plane (if your hands were together, the palms would be facing each other). This new grip should now close the clubface more.

When impact occurs, your chances of slicing the ball are greatly reduced. You may have to play with this grip by adjusting it so that only two knuckles, or two and a slight bit of the third, or three knuckles are visible.

Swing From Inside Not Out

Now it’s time to make sure you’re not swinging the club from the outside-in. If you’re right-handed, try adjusting your stance so it’s slightly closed. The feet should be pointing just a few degrees to the right of your target line.

By adjusting your stance, your backswing should become longer. This will help to get the club inside of the target line.

The combination of adjusting your stance and strengthening your grip should help you reduce or eliminate the dreaded slice.

This is one of many tips for the beginner golfer that can be found on the new golf blog for beginner golfers, Sensible Golf Tips.

Popularity: 4% [?]

What do you think? 1 Comment »