Standing on the tee box, you make what feels like a powerful swing, only to look up and see your golf ball curving helplessly to the right, landing in the trees or the next fairway over. This incredibly common and frustrating shot, known as a slice, can plague golfers of all levels. This article will break down the common reasons your drives go right and give you clear, understandable fixes to start hitting straighter, more powerful tee shots.
Before we can fix it, we first need to understand why it happens. A golf ball flying to the right (for a right-handed player) is almost always the result of two interconnected factors: your club path and your clubface angle at impact.
The good news is that we can address both of these issues by working on a few fundamental parts of your swing, starting with the only connection you have to the club: your hands.
Think of your grip as the steering wheel for the clubface. An improper grip makes it incredibly difficult to deliver a square clubface to the ball, no matter how good the rest of your swing is. The most common culprit for slicers is a "weak" grip.
A weak grip doesn't mean you aren't holding on tightly enough. It's a technical term describing how your hands are positioned on the club. In a weak grip, the hands are rotated too far to the left (toward the target). A common sign is looking down at your left hand and seeing only one knuckle, or perhaps none at all. This hand position makes it very natural for the clubface to rotate open on the downswing and stay that way through impact.
To give yourself a fighting chance at squaring the clubface, you need to adjust your hold to a more neutral, or even slightly "strong" position. It will probably feel strange at first, but stick with it. This single change is one of the fastest ways to tame a slice. If you're looking for the best explanation of how to grip a golf club, we have a resource for that.
This stronger grip presets your hands in a position that encourages the clubface to rotate and close through impact, turning that slice into a straight flight or even a gentle draw.
It’s impossible to hit a straight shot to your target if you aren't aimed at it correctly in the first place. Many slicers develop alignment habits that accidentally make their slice worse.
Out of frustration, many players start aiming their body far to the left of the target, hoping this will counteract their slice and bring the ball back to the fairway. Unfortunately, this makes the problem worse. By aiming your shoulders and hips to the left, you are pre-setting an out-to-in swing path, virtually guaranteeing a slice. You're telling your body to swing across the ball.
Use an alignment stick, or even another golf club, to help you visualize proper alignment. Place one stick on the ground pointing directly at your target. Now, place another stick parallel to the first one, where your feet will go. Your body - feet, hips, and shoulders - should be square to the second stick. This ensures your body is aimed parallel to your target, not at it. Only the clubface should be pointing directly at the target. Learn more about how to align correctly in golf to improve your game.
Always set the clubface behind the ball first, aiming at your target. Then, build your stance and posture around the club. This simple routine prevents your body from drifting open and encouraging that dreaded swing path.
With a driver, the ball needs to be positioned far forward in your stance. Playing it too far back makes it extremely difficult to hit the ball straight. A ball positioned toward the middle of your stance doesn’t give the clubhead enough time in its arc to naturally rotate and square up. By the time it reaches the ball, the face is still open, leading to a push or slice. Sometimes, standing too close to the golf ball can cause a slice as well.
This is a foundational setup key. When hitting your driver, place the ball so it's in line with the heel or even the instep of your lead foot (your left foot for right-handed players). This forward position allows the club to reach the bottom of its arc before it makes contact. As the clubhead begins to ascend slightly, it has the maximum amount of time to rotate naturally and meet the ball with a square face.
This is the big one. Almost every chronic slicer has an "over-the-top" swing. This happens when the downswing is initiated by the upper body - specifically the right shoulder and arms lunging forward. This action throws the club outside the proper swing plane, causing it to travel from out-to-in as it slashes across the ball. It's often an instinctive lunge in an effort to generate power, but it actually robs you of both power and accuracy. If you want to know how to stop coming over the top in golf, we have some great tips.
To fix this, we need to retrain our downswing sequence and swing path. The feeling you want is the opposite: you want the club to drop to the inside and approach the ball from an "in-to-out" direction. Here are a couple of excellent drills to feel this.
This drill is fantastic for teaching your body to lead the downswing with your lower half, not your upper half.
It's physically impossible to spin your shoulders "over the top" when your lower body is leading the way like this. It forces you to drop the club to the inside to make solid contact.
This drill gives you instant, undeniable feedback on your swing path.
Curing that drive to the right boils down to straightening out your impact fundamentals. Start by ensuring your grip and setup aren't working against you. From there, your main goal is to transform your swing path from the arm-driven, "over-the-top" slash to a body-powered swing that delivers the club from the inside, allowing it to square up naturally and send the ball down the fairway.
Tackling a persistent issue like a slice can be a challenge, but progress comes from understanding the cause and applying a clear fix. Having that knowledge in your pocket can make all the difference. That's why we built Caddie AI. Our AI golf coach is designed to give you instant, simple answers anytime, anywhere. You can ask it for a personalized drill to fix your slice at the range or get a quick swing thought to help you find the fairway under pressure. We're here to give you that expert second opinion 24/7, turning frustrating habits into confident shots and making the game simpler and more enjoyable.
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