THE DREADED SLICE
is a pet peeve of just about every golfer. But did
you know that there are only a few ways to make
the banana ball occur? By watching for a few things
in your golf swing, you can easily understand what
is happening and hopefully correct the errant action
once and for all.
A slice is a great example of cause and effect.
By identifying and fixing the causes, you can
produce the effect you desire the most. But do
not spend your time working on the effects, because
they will give you only short-term cures.
Slicing occurs when the clubface is open as the
ball leaves the blade and is impacted dramatically
when the path of the club is faulty (i.e. outside
to inside or inside to outside).
A slice can be attributed to faulty body motions
causing faulty clubshaft motions, or faulty clubshaft
motions causing faulty body motions.
One telling aspect of a slice is to look at the
divot and where it is pointing. This will show
you the path the clubhead took during the course
of the swing. If the divot is pointing down the
line and the shots are going right, then you have
a clubface problem. If the divot is pointing in
any other direction, then you are off plane and
have a swing path problem.
The most common path error is outside to inside.
If you possess this type of problem, you must
first look at fixing the motions of the body and
club to the top, and then focus on improving the
transitional area of your swing to get the club
into a better position on the way down.
Most lower handicap players tend to leave the
club too far behind them on the way down or too
far from the inside. This causes an inside-to-outside
swing path and a "block" out to right field. If
you have this problem, then you must look at your
transitional motion and the actions of your lower
body through the ball.
A stronger grip, in which the "V" formed by the
thumb and index finger on each hand points to
the rear shoulder area, will aid a faulty pivot
motion through the ball (within reason) and make
the ball move more right to left.
Also, if you are guilty of picking up the club
on the way to the top and your right hip and shoulder
turn are not level to the axis of the spine, then
your plane shift must be more dramatic and exaggerated
to get the club back to the inside, a la Jim Furyk.
The bottom line is you must first figure out
if you have a swing path or clubface problem,
and then follow the correct steps necessary to
eliminate that tendency forever.
Usually a faulty backswing (including body and/or
clubshaft motions) will set up poor transitions
and faulty impact alignments.
Remember, the steeper the downswing transition,
the more you have to "pull up and flip" through
impact to eliminate the tendency to stick the
club into the ground during impact.
Now that you know what to look for in the cause-and-effect
world of slicing, take time to properly diagnose
what is causing that piercing left-to-right atrocity.
The effect of your corrections should cause some
smiles when you look back down at your next scorecard.
