How to Correct a Push Fade in Golf

There’s nothing more frustrating than striking what feels like a solid golf shot, only to look up and see it start right of your target and curve even further away. This shot, the push fade (or a push slice, for more extreme cases), sends your ball into trouble and adds strokes to your score. The good news is that it’s an incredibly common miss, and it’s fixable. This article will break down exactly why you’re hitting a push fade and provide clear, actionable steps and drills to correct your ball flight for good.

First, What Exactly is a Push Fade?

Understanding a ball's flight is all about understanding the relationship between your club path and your clubface angle at impact. For a right-handed golfer, a push fade is the result of a specific combination of these two factors:

• The starting line: The ball starts to the right of your target. This is caused by your swing path, meaning the club is traveling "in-to-out" as it strikes the ball.
• The curve: The ball curves further to the right (a fade). This is caused by your clubface being open relative to that swing path.

Imagine your swing path as a set of train tracks and your clubface as the direction the train's front wheels are pointed. With a push fade, the tracks themselves are aimed to the right of the station (your target), and the train's wheels are also turned slightly to the right. The train starts off on the wrong track and then steers itself even further into the woods.

Many golfers mistakenly believe their push fade is caused by swinging "over the top" (an out-to-in path), because they see the ball fading right. They then try to swing even more in-to-out to fix it, which only worsens the problem. To truly correct a push fade, you need to address both the path and the face. We’ll attack the easy stuff first: your setup.

Step 1: Check Your Setup – The Easiest Fixes

Before you get tangled up in complex swing mechanics, you have to get your fundamentals right. Your setup dictates your swing, and often, the root of a push fade can be found before you even start your backswing. Go through this pre-shot checklist.

Check Your Alignment

This is the most common culprit. Many golfers who hit a push fade start by aiming their body - feet, hips, and shoulders - significantly left of the target. They do this instinctively, preparing for the ball to curve back an extreme amount. The problem is, this "aiming left" encourages an in-to-out swing path. When your body is aligned left but you try to swing toward the target, the only way to get the club to the ball is from the inside. You've essentially pre-programmed the exact path that causes the push.

How to Fix It:

• Use Alignment Sticks: This isn't just for a Tour pro, it's for any golfer serious about improving. Lay one stick on the ground pointing directly at your target (this is your target line).
• Set Up Your Body Line: Lay a second stick parallel to the first, just inside the ball, where your toes will be. Your feet, hips, and shoulders should all be parallel to this second stick. Your body should be aiming parallel-left of the target, not directly at it. This neutral alignment makes it much easier to swing the club down the target line instead of forcing an in-to-out path.

Check Your Grip

Your hands are your only connection to the club, and they have enormous influence over the clubface. A push fade is often linked to a "weak" grip. In golf terms, weak and strong don't refer to pressure, but to the rotational position of your hands on the club.

A weak grip for a right-handed player is when the left hand is rotated too far to the left (counter-clockwise), so you might only see one knuckle when you look down. The "V" formed by your thumb and index finger points toward your left shoulder or even to the left of it. This grip position promotes an open clubface throughout the swing and makes it very difficult to square up at impact.

How to Fix It:

• “Strengthen” Your Grip to Neutral: Hold the club out in front of you. With your left hand, rotate it more to the right (clockwise) until you can see at least two knuckles on your left hand. The "V" between your thumb and forefinger should point somewhere between your right ear and right shoulder.
• Match with the Right Hand: Your right hand should fit comfortably on the side, with its own "V" also pointing toward your right shoulder. It should feel like your palms are facing each other. This neutral grip gives your hands a much better chance of naturally releasing and squaring the clubface through impact. It might feel strange at first, but stick with it.

Check Your Ball Position

Having the ball too far back in your stance (closer to your right foot) can also cause a push fade. When the ball is back, you make contact with it earlier in the swing arc. At that point, the club is still naturally traveling from in-to-out, and the face hasn't had time to rotate and square up yet. The result is an open face hitting from the inside - the perfect recipe for our pesky miss.

How to Fix It:

• Middle Irons (8-iron, 9-iron, PW): Your ball position should be right in the center of your stance. An easy way to check this is to take your address, then bring your feet together. The ball should be right in the middle. From there, take equal steps apart with each foot to get to your normal stance width.
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The ball should be just slightly forward of center, about a ball or two toward your left foot.

With the longest clubs, the ball should be positioned off the inside of your lead heel (the left heel for a righty). This gives the club the maximum amount of time to shallow out and square up through impact.

Step 2: Correcting the Swing Path and Clubface

If you've corrected your setup and the push fade persists, it's time to work on the motion itself. You need to accomplish two things: make your swing path more neutral (or even slightly out-to-in) and learn to properly release the clubface so it's square at impact.

Drill 1: The Gate Drill (For the Path)

This drill is design to give you immediate feedback if your swing path is too far from the inside. It physically prevents an excessive in-to-out swing.

1. Place your ball down, ready to hit.
2. Take a second golf ball (or an empty sleeve of balls, or a headcover) and place it about a clubhead’s width outside and slightly anead of your golf ball. If you're looking down the target line, it will be in the top-left quadrant relative to your ball.
3. Take a third ball (or another small object) and place it a clubhead’s width inside and slightly behind your ball. If you're looking down the target line, it will be in the bottom-right quadrant relative to your ball.
4. You have now created a "gate." Your only goal is to swing the club through the gate and hit your ball without hitting either of the other two objects. If you have an in-to-out path (the cause of the push), you will hit the inside object on your backswing or downswing, or the outside object on your follow-through.

Start with slow, half-speed swings. Feel the club coming down a more neutral line to get through the gate cleanly. This will train you to avoid swinging too much from the inside, which is the root cause of the ball starting to the right.

Drill 2: The Release Drill (For the Face)

An open clubface often happens because golfers fail to release the club. They try to "hold" the face square with a passive hand action, which ironically does the opposite and leaves it wide open. Releasing the club isn't a manipulation, it’s a natural unwinding of the forearms through a he impact zone.

1. Set up to a golf ball and take half swings (waist high to waist high).
2. As you swing through impact, feel your right forearm rotating over your left forearm (for a righty). A good swing thought is to feel like the back of your left hand is pointing down at the ground just after impact.
3. Hit small chip and pitch shots focusing purely on this sensation of release. Don't worry about where the ball goes at first.
4. After hitting the shot, hold your finish position at waist height. Look at your clubhead. Is the toe of the club pointing up to the sky or even slightly to the left? If it is, you've released the club properly. If the face is still pointing to the sky, your hands were too passive, and the face remained open.

This drill helps you re-educate your hands on what it feels like to square - and even slightly close - the clubface through the ball. By pairing this feeling with the more neutral path from the Gate Drill, your push fade will begin to transform into a much straighter flight or even a gentle draw.

Final Thoughts

Stopping a push fade boils down to matching your swing path and clubface. By first ensuring your alignment, grip, and ball position are correct, you give yourself the best chance to succeed. Then, through targeted drills that neutralize an in-to-out path and train a proper clubface release, you can finally eliminate that weak right miss from your game and start finding more fairways.

Sometimes, even after working on drills, diagnosing a swing fault on your own while on the course can feel like guesswork. On-demand, expert guidance in those moments is incredibly valuable. For example, if you find yourself facing a tricky lie created by that old push-fade miss, our app, Caddie AI, can give you a hand. You can even take a photo of your ball's lie, and it will analyze the situation and suggest a smart way to play the shot. I’ve built it to act as your 24/7 golf coach, ready to answer questions and provide strategic advice to give you the confidence to commit to every swing.