Nothing is more frustrating than making what feels like a perfect swing, only to look up and see your golf ball sailing straight, but dead right of your target. That is the classic push - a shot that feels solid but ends up nowhere near the hole. This article will break down exactly why you’re pushing the golf ball, separating fact from fiction and giving you a clear roadmap to get your shots starting on line, every time.
First, let’s be clear about what’s happening. A push is a golf shot that starts to the right of your target line and continues to fly on that same straight line, never curving back. This is very different from a slice, which is a shot that starts on or left of the target line and then curves dramatically to the right in the air. While both land you in the right-side trouble, their causes are fundamentally different.
Think of it like two sets of railroad tracks. Your target line is the left track. Your actual swing path is the right track. With a push, your clubface is perfectly square to the right track when it hits the ball. Because the face isn’t open relative to your path, the ball doesn't spin sideways to create a slice. It simply takes off on the path you swung on - straight right.
Understanding this difference is important because the fixes are different. Fixing a slice often involves closing the clubface relative to the path. Fixing a push is about correcting the path itself so it moves toward the target, not away from it.
A push rarely comes from a single gremlin in your swing. It's usually a chain reaction where one small error in your setup or takeaway leads to a bigger compensation in the downswing. Here are the most common causes, from your address position to your impact dynamics.
More often than not, a push starts before you even begin your swing. Your setup dictates a huge portion of what will happen over the next 1.5 seconds. Getting it wrong puts you at a major disadvantage.
This is the most common and simplest cause to fix. Many golfers who push the ball are simply not aimed where they think they are. They might feel like they're aiming at the pin, but their feet, hips, and shoulders are pointing to the right of the target. From this position, if you make a perfectly "straight" swing relative to your body line, the ball will inevitably fly right of the target. It’s simple geometry. It's easy to get complacent with alignment, especially at the driving range where you aren’t aiming at a specific narrow target.
The Fix: Use alignment sticks. Place one on the ground just outside your golf ball, pointing directly at your target. Place a second stick parallel to the first, just inside your heels, to align your feet. This visual feedback is invaluable. At first, you’ll probably feel like you're aiming way too far to the left. Trust the sticks. This recalibrates your senses to what "square" actually looks and feels like.
Your golf swing follows an arc. The bottom of that arc, where the club is traveling perfectly down the target line, should happen just in front of the center of your stance for most iron shots. If your ball position is too far back (closer to your trail foot), you will make contact with the ball while the club is still traveling on an inside-to-out path. The club simply hasn’t had enough time to get back to "square" on the arc. Swinging from the inside and hitting the ball early on the arc is a textbook recipe for a push.
The Fix: For mid-irons (7-9 irons), your starting point should be the dead center of your stance. As a reference, the ball should be right under the buttons of your shirt. For longer irons and hybrids, move it a ball's width forward. Stand with your feet together, take your setup, and then take equal steps away with your lead and trail foot to find the true center.
Your grip is the steering wheel for the clubface. A "weak" grip (for a righty, this means your left hand is rotated too far to the left, or "under" the club, so you only see one knuckle) makes it very difficult to square up the clubface and release it through impact. A weak grip naturally wants to return to impact in an open position. To counteract this, some golfers develop a massive in-to-out path to try and start the ball left and let it fall back, but often this compensation just results in a push where the path and face are both open to the target line.
The Fix: Aim for a more neutral grip. When you look down at your left hand, you should see at least two knuckles. The 'V' formed by your thumb and index finger should point roughly towards your trail shoulder (right shoulder for a righty). This places your hands in a more powerful position to naturally rotate and square the clubface through impact, without needing to manipulate it.
If your setup checks out, the next place to look is the swing itself. The way you move your body and club has a tremendous influence on the swing path.
Think of your body rotating in a barrel or cylinder during the swing. An efficient swing rotates within its space. A common error is a "sway," where the hips slide laterally away from the target during the backswing instead of rotating. When you sway your weight too far onto your back foot, you put yourself in a poor position to start the downswing. You're too far "behind" the ball. From here, the natural reaction is for the hips to spin open very quickly to try and get back to the ball, which drops the club far to the inside and causes you to get "stuck."
The Fix: During your backswing, feel like you're loading into your trail glute and the inside of your trail foot. You should feel a turning pressure, not a sideways lunge. A great drill is to place a golf bag or chair just outside your trail hip at address. Your goal is to make a full backswing without bumping into it.
This is the big one. Almost all pushes from a functional swing are caused by this dynamic: the club getting stuck behind the body. A powerful downswing has a distinct sequence. It starts from the ground up: a slight lateral bump of the hips towards the target, followed by the unwinding of the torso, which then pulls the arms and club through.
A "stuck" swing happens when the sequence is wrong. The golfer starts the downswing by spinning the hips or shoulders as fast as possible from the top. The lower body outraces the arms, leaving the club trapped far behind the torso. From this stuck position, your body's only option is to throw the club and arms "out" towards the ball on a severe inside-to-out path to make contact. Voila, a push.
The Fix: Feel like the first move from the top of the backswing is a small bump of your lead hip towards the target. This creates space for your arms to drop down in front of your chest, not behind it. Another great feeling is to imagine you’re holding a medicine ball, as you transition, you would want to feel it drop down in front of you before you toss it forward, not get it "stuck" behind your back.
Reading about fixes is one thing, but doing them is another. Here are some simple, effective drills you can take to the range to retrain your swing path.
To summarize, the frustrating push is a symptom of a swing path that travels too far from inside-to-out relative to your target line. This is most often caused by a snowball effect of poor setup alignment, improper ball position, or an incorrect downswing sequence where the upper body and lower body fall out of sync. By meticulously checking your setup fundamentals and practicing drills that promote a connected rotation, you can get that path straightened out.
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