Making Solid Contact But STILL Slicing The Ball?

Picture this – you’ve waited all week to get out and play golf with your buddies. It’s a perfect Saturday afternoon, and you’ve just made a beautiful strike with the ball flying high and true. Then it takes a sudden turn and winds up in the rough, in a hazard or, worst-case scenario, in someone’s backyard!

This phenomenon might seem strange to some golfers when they feel as though they have executed the swing well, the contact felt good, the ball went a good distance. So why did it curve offline? The answer may not be as elusive as you think.

Let’s start with the basics. If you’re striking the ball solidly and hitting it far enough to play your course in a reasonable number of strokes your golf skills are probably better than most of your playing competitors. There is likely no reason to go tear down the entire swing because your curve is not exactly how you drew it up. You may need some simple adjustments with your wrists.

For most of the golfers I see at GolfTEC, they are struggling with balls curving too far to the right, which is caused by the clubface being open to the direction they’re swinging. What opens the clubface to the swing path is dorsiflexion or cupping their lead wrist as they swing through the ball. The resulting picture of the follow through is the club is too close to them and too low to make the ball draw (see below).

As a way to practice, I often prescribe hitting punch shots and feeling like they are turning their left wrist like they’d turn a screwdriver – NOT how they’d flip a pancake or a hamburger!! This drill trains palmar flexion in their lead wrist, the opposite movement they’re currently playing with. The resulting swing on video shows the shaft further from the body and higher, producing that push draw they are after!

If you continue to struggle with what feels like solid ball striking but the ball isn’t landing where you’d like it to, talk to your GolfTEC Coach today.