Watching your golf ball start right of the target and stubbornly fly dead straight into the woods or a bunker is one of the most frustrating sights in golf. You made solid contact, the ball didn’t curve wildly, but it never had a chance. This pesky shot, the push, is a common problem that plagues golfers of all levels. This guide will cut through the noise, breaking down why you’re pushing shots and giving you a clear, step-by-step roadmap with practical drills to get your ball starting on target and flying right where you intended it to go.
Before we can fix the push, it’s important to understand what’s actually happening at impact. In the simplest terms, a pushed shot occurs when your club path is traveling "in-to-out" relative to your target line, and your clubface is square (pointing straight) to that path. Imagine railroad tracks heading toward your target. Your club is swinging on a track that goes from inside the target Cto outside of it, and the clubface sends the ball directly down that path - right of your intended destination.
This is different from a slice, where the clubface is open to the swing path, creating that ugly rightward curve. A push feels solid, but it’s a pure path problem. The good news? Because it’s a path issue, it’s highly fixable once you know where to look. Let's start with the things you can correct before you even start the swing.
More often than not, a pushed shot starts with a problem in your setup. You could have the most beautifully sequenced swing in the world, but if you're not set up for success, your body will have to make compensations that lead to pushes. Here’s your pre-shot checklist.
Alignment is the most common and overlooked cause of a push. Many right-handed golfers unconsciously aim their feet, hips, and shoulders to the right of the target. To hit the ball toward the flag, they are then forced to make a last-second compensation, often saving the shot with their hands, which leads to weak, inconsistent contact. Other times, they just swing along their body line, and the ball goes exactly where they were aimed - to the right.
Here’s how to check and fix it:
Consistently practicing with this setup will retrain your eyes on what "square" actually looks like. You'd be amazed how many golfers feel like they are aiming dead left when they are actually perfectly aligned.
Ball position has a direct influence on the bottom of your swing arc and, consequently, your swing path. A ball that’s too far back in your stance is a major culprit for pushing shots.
When the ball is too far back, your club reaches it early in the swing arc, while the path is still traveling from inside-to-out. You essentially hit the ball before your club has had a chance to return to square relative to the target line. To fix this, you need to understand where the ball should be.
If you're a chronic pusher, experiment with moving the ball a half-inch forward in your stance. This small change gives the clubhead more time to square up at impact, encouraging a path that's less "in-to-out."
If your setup is spot on and you’re still pushing the ball, the issue lies in your swing motion itself. A push is almost always caused by the club getting "stuck" behind your body on the downswing, forcing a looping path out to the right. Let's look at how to correct the root cause of this move.
The best golf swings aren’t violent or forced, they are an efficient unwinding of the body. The power comes from the turn of the bigger muscles, not from the arms. A common cause of getting "stuck" is when the hips spin out too fast at the start of the downswing. This leaves your arms and the club lagging way behind, with no room to swing but from the inside.
To fix this, you need to feel the correct sequence:
A great drill is to make slow-motion swings without a ball, really feeling that initial bump of the hips toward the target before you start to turn through.
A poor downswing often starts with a poor backswing. If you take the club too far inside (too flat) on your way back, your natural reaction will be to loop it even further inside on the way down, causing the push. Similarly, if your backswing is too upright, you might drop it down on a shallow, 'stuck' plane to compensate.
The goal is a neutral backswing plane. Think of the club moving "up and around" your body fueled by the rotation of your shoulders and your torso. As you take away the club, focus on two things:
This is one of the most effective drills for fixing a pushed shot because it provides instant feedback on your club path through the impact zone.
If your path is too much from in-to-out (which causes pushes), you will hit the outside ball on your downswing. This drill forces you to shallow the club correctly and swing down the target line through impact. Start with slow, half-swings to get the feel, and then gradually build up speed.
Fixing a pushed shot is about getting back to basics: ensuring your setup is correct and your swing path is neutral. By checking your alignment and ball position first, then working on a proper downswing sequence where your body unwinds correctly, you can stop the club from getting stuck behind you and start sending the ball precisely down your target line.
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