Tips To Stop Slicing The Driver

In this video, PGA Professional Nick Drane offers some top tips to stop slicing the driver

Transcript

00:00Hi, my name is Nick Drane. I'm a PGA professional and Master Fitting Specialist here at the

00:09Titleist Performance Centre at Woburn and today we're going to talk about helping you to stop

00:13slicing your driver. The most common reason I see why golfers slice the golf ball is because

00:18their setup is not quite correct. If we can get you in the right setup in terms of your alignments,

00:23your feet, hips, knees, shoulders and grip, we can then produce the right golf swing to get the

00:29golf ball flying at its optimum flight and distance. So typically the slice is caused by an over-the-top

00:34swing path with an open club face. We'll talk about a few fundamentals that are going to help you to

00:39prevent you from doing this. So the first one is going to be our ball position. So the ball position

00:44we want opposite our left heel. The shaft in my left arm form one line. My right shoulder then drops

00:51slightly lower than my left, creating a nice angle there. That's going to allow me to deliver the

00:57golf club with a positive angle of attack and swing the golf club out to the right. One of the most

01:03common mistakes I see is that as you can see my head is positioned behind the golf ball. A lot of

01:08the time where people slice the golf ball and they cause that over-the-top club head path is where they

01:12are two on top of the golf ball. My shoulders are now pointing away to the left and that causes the

01:18club to come across the golf ball with an open face. It's going to start left and move right. By staying behind it,

01:25with my correct grip, I'm going to control the club face and produce a nice, high, straight golf shot.

01:37As well as following these fundamentals, I'd always encourage you to get properly fit for your driver by a

01:42qualified PGA professional using a launch monitor if available. A couple of additional things you can do to

01:47help you preventing your slice. At Titleist, we use a sure-fit hosel. Through that, we can make different lie

01:53adjustments to the driver that will help you with your start line. Also, we can then adjust the loft.

01:57By adding a little bit of loft, we can also close the club face. That's also going to help minimize

02:02your slice. I'm now going to demonstrate to you the incorrect setup position. I've got a weak grip.

02:09That's going to cause the club face to be open. I'm on top of the golf ball. My shoulders are pointing

02:14to the left. All these three attributes are going to cause that golf club to go out and across the golf

02:21ball, causing it to start left and curve to the right. What we like to see is that proper setup

02:27position. Ball opposite my left heel. My head is now positioned behind the golf ball looking this

02:32direction. My correct grip, as I've got the V's of my thumb and forefinger pointing up to my right

02:38shoulder. Now, I can make a nice turn behind the golf ball and deliver it with a nice positive angle

02:45of attack, hitting it on the up, launching the ball nice and straight and high for optimum distance

02:51and direction.