Watching your golf ball drift - or worse, boomerang - to the right of your target is one of the most maddening experiences in the game. But that recurring miss is not random, it's a symptom, and understanding its cause is the first step toward a cure. This guide will walk you through the most common reasons your golf balls are heading right and give you clear, actionable steps and drills to get your shots flying back online.
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First, Is It a Push or a Slice?
Before changing anything, you need to be a good detective. The way the ball goes right tells a story. For a right-handed golfer, there are two primary "right" misses, and they have different root causes.
The Push: This is a shot that starts right of the target and flies relatively straight on that line, never curving back. Think of it as a straight shot, just in the wrong direction.
The Slice: This is the big one. A slice starts on or even left of the target before taking a dramatic, banana-shaped curve to the right, often ending up in the next fairway over.
Generally, an open clubface at impact determines the starting direction or the curve. The slice is the result of a clubface that is open to the swing path, while a push happens when both the path and the clubface are pointing right of the target. While they look different, their fixes often share common ground, starting with the only thing you physically connect to the club: your grip.
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Your Steering Wheel: How Your Grip Opens the Clubface
Your hands are your steering wheel, they have the single biggest influence on where the clubface is pointing at impact. An open clubface is almost always public enemy number one for any shot that goes right. The most frequent cause is a grip that has become too "weak."
The "Weak" Grip Problem
A weak grip doesn’t mean you’re holding it too loosely. In golf terms, it means your hands are rotated too far to the left (for a right-handed player) on the club. This position makes it very difficult for your hands and wrists to naturally square the clubface through impact. Instead, the face tends to stay open, sending the ball right.
You might have a weak grip if:
Looking down at your left hand, you can only see one knuckle (or less).
The "V" formed by your left thumb and index finger points toward your left shoulder or even your chin.
Your right hand is positioned too much "on top" of the grip, with its "V" pointing left as well.
The Fix: Building a Neutral Grip
The goal is a "neutral" grip, which promotes a square clubface at impact. It’s going to feel strange at first - that's a normal part of making a change. Stick with it.
Set the Clubface: Before you even grip it, rest the clubhead on the ground behind the ball, making sure the leading edge is perfectly square to your target. Don't grip a crooked club.
Position the Left Hand: Place your left hand on the grip so that when you look down, you can clearly see two to two-and-a-half knuckles. The "V" formed by your thumb and forefinger should point back toward your right shoulder. Hold the club more in your fingers than your palm for better control.
Position the Right Hand: Bring your right hand to the club so its palm faces your target. The palm of your right hand should cover your left thumb. The "V" on your right hand should also point toward your right shoulder.
Link Them Up: Whether you prefer to interlock your pinky, overlap it, or use a ten-finger grip is a matter of personal comfort. The priority is that your palms are facing each other in that neutral position.
Commit to this new grip for every shot at the range. It will feel odd, but your clubface - and your ball flight - will thank you for it.
Your Swing's GPS: Correcting the Club Path
If your grip is solid but the ball is still going right, the next suspect is your swing path - the direction the clubhead travels as it approaches and strikes the ball. This is where we directly tackle the slice and the push.
This is the classic movement that creates a slice. Your club approaches the ball from outside the target line and cuts across it to the inside after impact. Combine this path with an open clubface, and you have the recipe for that big, weak slice. The most common cause for this path is an "over-the-top" move, where your shoulders and arms start the downswing aggressively, throwing the club outside the proper plane.
Drill to Fix It: The Headcover Gate
This drill gives you instant feedback about your swing path and physically prevents you from coming over the top.
Place your ball on the tee or ground as normal.
Take a spare headcover (or an empty plastic water bottle) and place it on the ground about a foot behind and a few inches outside of your golf ball.
The goal is to hit the ball without hitting the headcover. In order to miss it, you are forced to swing the club from the inside, dropping it "into the slot" rather than casting it over the top.
Culprit #2: The 'In-to-Out' Path (The Push)
A path that is too far in-to-out, combined with a face that's square to that path, results in a push. This often happens when your lower body turns too fast, getting way ahead of your arms and shoulders. Your arms get "stuck" behind your body, and the only place the club can go is far out to the right. While you're rotating, your arms aren't catching up and releasing the club.
Drill to Feel It: Let It Go
The key here is allowing the arms and hands to release through the impact zone, squaring the clubface in sync with your body rotation.
Take a few easy, half-speed practice swings where your only thought is feeling your right arm cross over your left arm after the moment of impact.
For a right-handed player, you want the sensation that the clubhead is "beating" your hands to the ball and letting your right hand fully release. It's not a flip, but a natural un-hinging and rotation. When your path is in-to-out and you do this, the result is a powerful draw, not a weak push.
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The club path problems we just discussed rarely happen in a vacuum. They are almost always caused by how you use your body - the engine of your swing. The core of a good golf swing is a rotational action. When that rotation goes wrong, an arms-and-hands swing takes over, leading to slices and pushes.
Poor Posture Kills Rotation
Your ability to rotate powerfully and correctly starts at address. If you stand too tall or too close to the ball, you block your body’s ability to turn.
The Fix: TheAthletic Setup. Hinge forward from your hips, not your waist. Feel like you are pushing your bum backward, creating a straight line from your head down your spine. Your arms should hang naturally, almost straight down from your shoulders. This posture creates the space needed for your body to rotate around your spine.
Getting the Downswing Sequence Right
The "over-the-top" slice move happens because of a sequence error. The golfer's first move from the top of the backswing is with their shoulders or arms instead of their lower body. The proper sequence creates an inside path organically.
Drill to Fix It: The Step Drill
This is a fantastic drill to ingrain the feeling of a lower-body-led downswing.
Set up with your feet together, with the ball in the middle.
As you take your backswing, take a small, deliberate step with your left foot towards the target, planting it about shoulder-width apart.
Your foot should land just as you complete your backswing. Now start your downswing.
This stepping motion effectively forces your lower body to initiate the downswing, making it almost impossible to start with your shoulders. You’ll feel your weight shift and your hips begin to unwind first, which drops the club onto the correct inside path. Once you have this feeling, you can take it back to your normal stance.
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Fixing a frustrating right miss comes down to diagnosing the issue first, then addressing the root causes. For most golfers, this means building a neutral grip to present a square clubface, grooving an inside-to-square swing path, and using proper body rotation to power the entire motion. Working on these areas consistently will start turning that dreaded slice into a powerful, on-target shot.
Diagnosing your own swing on the range can feel like guesswork at times. For an objective second opinion on what might be causing your shots to go right, Caddie AI is there to help. Our AI-powered analysis can identify faults you might not feel, and if you’re ever stuck on the course with a weird lie that you think might cause a slice, you can even snap a photo of the situation and we’ll tell you the smartest way to play it. We give you clear, actionable advice right when you need it, helping you take the uncertainty out of your game so you can swing with confidence.
Spencer has been playing golf since he was a kid and has spent a lifetime chasing improvement. With over a decade of experience building successful tech products, he combined his love for golf and startups to create Caddie AI - the world's best AI golf app. Giving everyone an expert level coach in your pocket, available 24/7. Caddie's mission is simple: make world-class golf advice accessible to everyone, anytime.
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