That frustrating, weak, curving shot to the right (for a right-handed golfer) known as a slice is the most common miss in golf, but its root cause is surprisingly simple. We’re going to get to the bottom of what causes your slice by breaking down the main culprits in your swing, from your grip and setup all the way to your finish. By the end, you’ll have a clear understanding of the 'why' behind your slice and some practical steps to finally straighten it out.
Before we touch on anything in your swing, we need to understand the basic physics of a slice. Every slice, without exception, is caused by your clubface being open relative to your swing path at the moment of impact. That’s it. While many different swing flaws can cause this to happen, they all result in that same face-to-path relationship.
Imagine hitting a tennis ball. If you want to hit it straight, the racket face and the path of the racket are moving together toward the target. If you came across the ball with the racket face pointing way out to the right, the ball would spin wildly off course. That's exactly what's happening with your golf ball.
The "classic" slice comes from a combination an out-to-in swing path and an open clubface. This means your club is traveling from outside your target line, across it to the inside, while the face points right of that path. This combination puts a 'sidespin' (more accurately, a tilted backspin) on the ball, causing it to start left of your target and curve dramatically to the right.
Every fault we’re about to discuss - from your grip to your setup to your downswing - is a contributor to this flawed impact condition. Let's fix the ingredients to fix the final result.
Your hands are your only connection to the golf club, so how you hold it has an enormous influence on where the clubface points. For most slicers, the problem is a “weak” grip. This doesn't mean you aren't holding on tight enough, it’s a technical term that describes how your hands are rotated on the club.
A weak grip is when your hands are rotated too far to the left (for a right-handed player). This position makes it very difficult to square the clubface at impact, your hands naturally want to return to their "neutral" position, which leaves the face wide open.
A neutral grip promotes a square clubface. Let's build one from scratch:
Heads Up: If you're used to a weak grip, a neutral grip will feel bizarre. It will feel like you're going to hook the ball miles left. Trust it. You need to give this new hold some time on the range before you see consistent results. A bad grip practically guarantees a slice, while a good grip gives you a fighting chance.
Often, a slicer's body is aligned for a slice before the club even moves. Many players who slice learn to aim their body far to the left of the target to account for the curve. While it seems logical, this move actually encourages the very out-to-in swing path that makes the slice worse. Your brain knows the target is to the right, so you swing "over the top" to try and get the club back to the target.
The first few feet of your backswing - the takeaway - can make or break your shot. A common error slicers make is immediately rolling their wrists and "fanning" the clubface open. The face starts open and has almost no chance of squaring up by the time it gets back to the ball.
Here’s a simple checkpoint. From your setup, start your backswing by turning your chest and shoulders, not by moving your hands independently. When the club shaft is parallel to the ground (waist high), pause and look at the toe of the club.
Focus on keeping that clubface looking at the ball for the first two feet of the takeaway. It should feel like your hands, arms, and chest are all moving together as one single unit.
"Over the top" is the signature move of nearly every slicer. It’s the primary cause of that out-to-in swing path we discussed earlier.
It describes what happens at the start of the downswing. Instead of dropping the club onto the correct, shallow path from the inside, the slicer initiates the downswing with their shoulders and arms. This pushes the club *outward* (over the target line) and away from the body. From this "over the top" position, the only way to hit the ball is to cut across it from outside to in. Hello, slice.
This move is often a chain reaction caused by earlier flaws. A poor grip makes you feel like you have to steer the club. Bad alignment encourages swinging across the body. And a lack of body rotation in the backswing leaves only the arms free to flail at the ball from the top.
To fight the "over the top" move, you need to feel the exact opposite motion. Here is a fantastic drill:
If you have an aggressive "over the top" move, you will hit the headcover every time. To miss it, you will be forced to start your downswing by dropping your hands and club *down* and behind you first, allowing your lower body to fire and the club to approach the ball from the inside. This is the cure.
Fixing a slice comes down to fixing its ingredients: an open clubface and an out-to-in swing path. By working on a neutral grip, setting up correctly, and learning to start your downswing from the ground up, you can ingrain a move that attacks the ball from the proper inside path and delivers a square clubface for powerful, straighter shots.
Understanding these causes is step one, but we know translating that knowledge into your own swing is where it gets tough. That’s why we built our app, Caddie AI, to be your personal, on-demand coach. The app can give you an instant, expert diagnosis of your swing faults, providing the kind of personalized feedback that helps you turn this knowledge into real, lasting improvement, and finally get rid of that slice for good.
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