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Struggling with slicing my fairway woods and driver.

Newman21

Newman21

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What are some of your favorite tips to help straighten shots with fairway woods and drivers (driver especially!)?

I believe my alignment is correct. I am struggling mainly with an over the top move. No problems with the irons. I am a fairly decent player (low to mid 80’s) and my driving is really holding me back.

Thanks!
 
several of my untested and ill advised methods

swing to a spot 1 foot in front of the ball in the line you want rather than at the ball itself.
get on the range and try to snap hook 10 or so drives in a row.
3/4 swings with trail elbow locked to body
if that fails buy a new driver
 
Strengthen your left hand. (assuming you are playing right handed)
 
The biggest thing that has helped me is to remember to keep my right elbow (assuming RH) tucked in against my side. Try holding a towel with your right elbow and take some 1/2 swings working on holding that towel. I did this last year, and then think about keeping that elbow tucked, and it greatly reduced my slice.
 
the first thing i think of is an outside in swing.
try taking the club back inside for a little bit.
 
I videoed myself doing a ton of swings and just watched them so see what I was doing... I started swinging slower as result. My goal for this year is just keep it in play off the tee.
 
The only way I've seen slicers find a solid cure is learn to swing from the inside out. Start with a seven iron and ingrain that draw swing. Then work your way up to the top of the bag. It's not easy and you will have a lot of setbacks.
Ofcourse everyone is different and I can't see you swing. But all successes I've seen is a whole sale swing path change.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 
I recently saw Martin Hall discuss this a bit and give a drill for warm up swings. I can say that for myself, it has immensely, and my miss has now become a hook.

Basically, 3 practice swings: the first is an exaggerated over the top, the second is an exaggerated inside out, the third finding that middle point. Then mimic the third on the hit.

I won’t say that is the only reason I have been able to get over the slice, as i did work on a few other swing mechanics mentioned above, but this was one of the easier concepts for me to understand and practice.
 
Strong grip and flatten your swing. You'll be complaining of hooks if you do those two and get a closed face at delivery.
 
Hard slice is my miss as well, although the last couple of times out, I've made a tweak here and there that is bringing it back to the middle. I've noticed when my I get lazy and relaxed my arms drop and my grip gets weak in my right hand. So I move my elbows upwards about 1 to 1-1/2 inches and I rotate my right hand towards my left hand but not much. Too much and I start snap hooking it. I dunno, most of the time I feel it's better t o close your eyes and pray 😆 Good luck!
 
Your irons go straight but your woods don't. Right? You might be trying to hit them too hard and getting your body ahead of your arms on the downswing in a misguided effort to put more power into the shot. Now your hands are way behind and there is no time for them to square up the clubface, making you hit a push slice. Pretend your driver is a 6-iron.
 
Snickerdog said:
Strengthen your left hand. (assuming you are playing right handed)
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This is all I have to do. Sometimes I forget, but if I remember, all I need is to move my left hand (I am right hander) slightly stronger and walla, I am gold.

My buddy struggles with a weak left hand and moving the left hand works for him, but he simply will not keep his left hand strong enough and it burns him every time. I get so tired of telling him so now I just let him hit it in the woods. You can lead a horse to water....
 
Gotta stop swinging over the top if you want to stop the huge misses. If you can live with it then setup on the right side of every tee box and aim to the left. Thag angle gives your left to right action the most room to run.
 
I used to slice a lot. Best cure was making an easy swing while trying to throw the club out towards the right. You can’t do this with an OTT swing. Trail elbow also will need to stay tucked. Also swing with the body not the arms.
 
Really tough with video but it could be the grip is either too weak or too strong. You mentioned you have an over the top move and if it is big, that may well be the biggest issue to fix first.
 
And if none of this helps I’d buy a new driver. ;) Seriously, weight of the shaft could help.
 
From the top with a driver, I like to feel like I'm going to arrive at impact with my shoulders still closed to the target line. That means I have more of a pause and a drop to initiate the downswing. By the time I reach impact, my shoulders are usually square to slightly open which is perfect; but to get there I do try to feel like I'm keeping my shoulders closed as long as possible.

It also feels like I'm going to have zero power at impact doing this, but years of experience have taught me to trust that the power will be there.
 
Newman21 said:
What are some of your favorite tips to help straighten shots with fairway woods and drivers (driver especially!)?

I believe my alignment is correct. I am struggling mainly with an over the top move. No problems with the irons. I am a fairly decent player (low to mid 80’s) and my driving is really holding me back.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
It depends on what you're doing; Does it balloon up on you? Or does it start straight and then slice? Or does it pull left and then slice? More than likely if you're a decent golfer (signature says 9hdcp), it has to do with a setup issue.
 
pattyboy21 said:
From the top with a driver, I like to feel like I'm going to arrive at impact with my shoulders still closed to the target line. That means I have more of a pause and a drop to initiate the downswing. By the time I reach impact, my shoulders are usually square to slightly open which is perfect; but to get there I do try to feel like I'm keeping my shoulders closed as long as possible.

It also feels like I'm going to have zero power at impact doing this, but years of experience have taught me to trust that the power will be there.
Click to expand...
Most of the time I feel like I have decent power, but recently I had a round that was so strange as I never felt like I had any swing power off the tees. It was an odd feeling. Once I got into the round more I was hitting some poor drives as far as right to left aim goes, but distance was as good as I always hit it just did not feel like it.
 
I had a bad over the top swing, now I'm on plane. What I found is that the right hand is the killer. Try barely holding the club with your right hand through the entire swing. I actually practiced by getting up to the top and just before coming down I'd take my right hand off entirely. Just trying to get the feeling of where the down path should be.
 
Luchnia said:
Most of the time I feel like I have decent power, but recently I had a round that was so strange as I never felt like I had any swing power off the tees. It was an odd feeling. Once I got into the round more I was hitting some poor drives as far as right to left aim goes, but distance was as good as I always hit it just did not feel like it.
Click to expand...
It's just a bit of a mental exercise to realize that power comes from speed and that the speed does NOT come from initiating the downswing with the shoulders and big, upper body muscles. Something about that killer move sure feels good when you first start playing though!
 
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