How to Straighten Out Your Drive in Golf

Tired of watching your drives slice into the right-side trees or hook viciously into the other fairway? That frustration ends today. Finding the fairway with your driver isn't about some secret move, it's about understanding why the ball goes sideways and applying a few straightforward fixes. This guide breaks down the most common causes of a crooked drive and gives you actionable steps to get your tee shots flying straighter and longer, so you can finally put that two-way miss to bed.

Start Here: The Simple Reason Your Driver Goes Sideways

Before we touch a club, it’s important to understand the basic physics of a golf shot, because it’s surprisingly simple. Just two things determine where your ball goes: the direction your clubface is pointing at impact and the path your club is swinging on.

• The clubface is like the rudder of a boat, it's the primary factor in determining the ball's starting direction. If it's pointing left of your target at impact, the ball will start left. If it's pointing right, the ball will start right.
• The swing path is the direction the clubhead is moving through the impact zone (e.g., in-to-out, out-to-in). The path is what imparts side-spin on the ball, making it curve.

For the vast majority of amateur golfers, the number one problem is the dreaded slice. This is typically caused by an out-to-in swing path combined with a clubface that is open to that path. Your tee shot starts left of the target (or straight) and then curves dramatically to the right.

A hook is the opposite. It’s usually caused by an in-to-out swing path combined with a clubface that is closed to that path, sending the ball curving hard to the left.

To hit a straight drive, you need to neutralize this relationship. Your goal is a clubface that's square to a relatively neutral swing path. We'll fix this by focusing on three key areas: your grip, your setup, and the rotational nature of your swing.

Step 1: Get a Handle on Your Grip (It's Your Steering Wheel)

Your grip has an enormous influence on where the clubface points at impact. Think of it as the steering wheel for your golf shots. If it’s not in a neutral position, you’re instinctively going to make weird compensations in your swing to try and straighten the shot out, which makes consistency nearly impossible.

When you place your lead hand (left hand for a right-handed golfer) on the club, you want it in a neutral position. Let your arm hang naturally at your side, notice how your palm faces inwards slightly. You want to replicate that position on the club.

The Neutral Grip Checkpoint:

Place your lead hand on the grip, feeling like you’re holding it more in your fingers than your palm - specifically from the base of your little finger to the middle of your index finger. Once the fingers are on, wrap the hand over the top.

• The Knuckle Check: Look down at your grip. From your perspective, you should be able to clearly see the first two knuckles of your lead hand. If you see three or more knuckles, your grip is likely too "strong," which can lead to hooks. If you can only see one knuckle (or none), your grip is "weak," a major contributor to slicing.
• The "V" Check: The "V" formed by your thumb and index finger on your lead hand should point up towards your trail shoulder (your right shoulder for a righty). If it's pointing at your chin, your grip is too weak. If it's pointing outside your shoulder, it's too strong.

Now for the trail hand (right hand for a righty). It mirrors the lead hand. The palm should face inwards slightly, and it should cover the thumb of your lead hand. The "V" formed by your right thumb and index finger should also point toward your trail shoulder. Whether you interlock, overlap, or use a ten-finger baseball grip is pure personal preference - just pick what feels most comfortable and secure.

Fair warning: If you are correcting a long-standing grip flaw, the proper neutral grip will feel bizarre at first. It will feel foreign and maybe even less powerful. Trust the process. This adjustment is laying the foundation for a repeatable, straight shot.

Step 2: Nailing the Perfect Driver Setup

Your setup programs your body for the swing it’s about to make. A poor setup forces you to make athletic compensations, while a good one paves the way for a powerful and repeatable motion. Setting up for a driver is different from setting up for an iron. With an iron, you are hitting down on the ball, with a driver, you want to hit slightly up on the ball to maximize launch and minimize spin.

Key Adjustments for Your Driver Setup:

1. Ball Position: This is a big one. The ball should be positioned forward in your stance, aligned with the inside of your lead foot's heel. A middle ball position, which you'd use for an iron, will encourage a downward strike with the driver, robbing you of distance and often producing a slice.
2. Stance Width: Take a wider stance than you would with an iron. Get your feet about shoulder-width apart, or even slightly wider. This creates a stable base for the rotational power you need to generate in a driver swing.
3. Athletic Posture: With your feet in place, hinge forward from your hips, not your waist. Feel like you are pushing your rear-end back, which will keep your spine relatively straight but tilted over the ball. Your arms should hang down naturally and tension-free from your shoulders.
4. Spine Tilt: Because the ball is forward, your body needs to tilt slightly away from the target. Feel like your lead shoulder is a bit higher than your trail shoulder. This tilt presets your body to swing on a slight upward arc, which is exactly what you want for a powerful drive. It also helps promote a more in-to-out swing path, the natural enemy of the slice.

When you look down after getting set, your shoulders will appear "closed" (pointing to the right of the target for a righty) relative to your feet, but this is a a good thing. It's a natural result of the proper spine tilt. Settle into this athletic, powerful position, and feel balanced and ready to turn.

Step 3: Creating a Rotational Swing Path

We’ve corrected the steering wheel (grip) and aligned the car (setup). Now it's time to fix the engine of the swing. Remember our slice cause? An out-to-in path. This is often called swinging "over the top." It happens when the first move in your downswing is an aggressive push from the trail shoulder and arms, throwing the club outside the correct plane and cutting across the ball at impact.

The golf swing is not an up-and-down chopping motion, it's a rotational action around your body. The club should work around your body in a circle, powered primarily by the turn of your hips and torso, not an aggressive action from just your arms.

From Backswing to Downswing: The Right Sequence

The Takeaway

Start the swing with a "one-piece" takeaway. Feel like your shoulders, arms, and club move away from the ball together as you begin to rotate your torso. Don’t just lift the club with your hands and arms. As you rotate, you want your hips and shoulders to turn away from the target while staying within the "cylinder" of your feet - avoid swaying side to side.

The Downswing Transition

This is where most slicers go wrong. To fight the "over-the-top" move, you need to feel like the downswing starts from the ground up. Instead of your first thought being "hit the ball," your first feeling should be a slight shift of pressure into your lead foot, followed by the unwinding of your hips. This sequence gives your arms and the club time to "drop" onto the correct inside path. They aren't being thrown "out" and "over."

A Great Drill to Fix Your Path:

Place a headcover or a small towel on the ground about a foot outside and a foot behind your golf ball. If you swing over the top, you will almost certainly hit the headcover on your downswing. Your goal is to miss the headcover entirely, which forces you to drop the club to the inside on the way down. This drill provides instant feedback and ingrains the feeling of a proper, in-to-out swing path.

As you get the hang of this sequence, you'll start feeling a powerful unwinding motion through impact. Your hips clear, your torso rotates, and your arms extend through the ball toward the target. This rotational force, combined with a neutral grip and proper setup, is what allows the clubface to square up naturally at impact, sending your drives down the middle of the fairway.

Final Thoughts

Straightening out your drive is a process, but it's not a complicated one. It all traces back to controlling the clubface and swing path by mastering a few core fundamentals. By committing to a neutral grip, owning a driver-specific setup with proper ball position and spine tilt, and sequencing your downswing to promote a rotational, in-to-out path, you take back control of your tee shots and put an end to the frustrating slice for good.

Turning these concepts into real-time feels on the course can be the biggest challenge, and that's precisely how I'm designed to help you. With Caddie AI, you have an expert golf coach in your pocket, ready to take the guesswork out of your game. Whether you need a quick swing thought on a challenging tee box, a strategic plan for a tough par 5, or you want to snap a photo of a tricky lie to get an instant recommendation, I provide that second opinion right when you need it. By offering on-demand guidance, my goal is to help you play smarter and with more confidence, so you can focus on simply hitting great shots.