The Drill:
Clamp your hands against a clipboard and make a mock backswing. At the mid-back position, the clipboard should lay on a 45 degree angle.
What It Does:
It grooves an antislice backswing. Most slicers whip the club too far to the inside then simply raise their arms to the top, opening the face (the board will lay flat if you do this). A proper backswing blends arm swing and body turn in equal amounts.
Blast a tee
Place a tee in the ground until just the cap is above the turf. Make your normal backswing with an iron and then try to blast the tee out of the ground.
What It Does:
It activates your hands to square up the face at impact and also produces a strong downward blow.
Stack your deck
The Drill:
Stop your swing at impact and check your positions. Make sure your body is "stacked" (shoulders above knees, knees above feet).
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It makes sure that you're not stuck on your right side, and that you are in a powerful impact position. This stacked arrangement allows a natural squaring of the face. If you hang back too long on your right side, your face will be open at impact.
A Slice of History
Who started this left-to-right mess anyway?
The exact origin of the term slice to describe the game's most famous malady is cloaked in a Highlands fog. We do know that it failed to make the printed edition of The Golfer's Manual (1857). However, the following entry indicates that even your great-great-grandfather might have lost a featherie or two in the right gorse:
"Let the novice hold the club tightly with both hands and then try to swing. The grip is too firm, making everything too stiff, causing the ball go to the right."
Peruse the "Temporary Faults" chapter of Sir Walter Simpson's The Art of Golf (1887) and you'll discover shots that "skanked" to the right were common. These Victorian-age slices resulted from "pulling the arms in or throwing oneself back." Sound familiar?
By the late 19th century, slice officially entered the golf vernacular. The "Glossary of Technical Terms" in William Park Jr.'s The Game of Golf (1896) includes "Slice: To draw the face of the club across the ball in the act of hitting it, resulting that it will travel with a curve towards the right." The June 1902 issue of The Golfer includes an account of an 1856 foursomes match between Old Tom Morris and his mentor Allan Robertson, each with an amateur partner. The story recounts how Morris was forced to watch helplessly as his partner "sliced" a drive into the heather bordering the Old Course at St. Andrews. Morris then responded with a slice of his own-an intentional one-that found its mark and allowed the pair to win the hole. In 1908, American Golfer published an instructional piece in which Jerome Travers, winner of four U.S. Amateur championships and a U.S. Open, advised golfers to adjust stance, ball position and hand action to prevent the unwanted slice.
Lee Trevino made slicing cool in the 1970s, and his famous line, "You can talk to a slice, but a hook won't listen," gave golf's most vilified foozle some legitimacy. But even today, with all of our technological resources, the slice still claims victims. Just ask Phil Mickelson, who sliced his final tee shot at the 2006 U.S. Open onto a beer tent on his way to a double bogey that cost him the championship. For anyone who has ever struggled with the banana ball, the irony was rich. After all, Mickelson had literally sliced his ball onto a tent selling what many consider the most effective tonic ever devised to combat the slice-a stiff drink to help you forget all about it.
- Tom Ferrel (Special thanks to Top 100 Teacher Michael Hebron)
The Top 100 Sound Off on Slicing
| Our experts on what's wrong and how to fix it | |||
| Jane Frost Sandwich Hills GC, East Sandwhich, Mass. | David Phillips Titleist Performance Institute, Oceanside, Calif. | Carol Preisinger Kiawah Island Club, Kiawah Island, S.C. |
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| Why do golfers slice? | Too much emphasis on the "grip it and rip it" mentality that trickles from the Tour's big hitters to less-skilled amateurs. | In a recent study of 379 golfers we found that 44% of them came over the top. That's why the slice problem is as prevalent as ever. | Grips are too weak and too tight with the handle in the palm there's no chance of releasing the club through impact. |
| How do they make it worse? | They squeeze the life out of the club and swing for the fences. A light grip pressure and even tempo is needed to properly square the face. | To quit coming over the top you must lead your downswing with your lower body, which requires a level of flexibility most golfers don't own. | Slicers know they must swing in-to-out, but if they don't release the clubhead they'll hit a push fade. Now they're really confused. |
| Your best slice tip? | Glue a tee to a magnet and place it in the center of your clubface, then make slow-motion swings to learn where your face points during all points of your swing. | Improve your core stability. This will help you maintain dynamic posture. Without it, your torso and arms will dominate and bring your clubhead across the target line. | Hold your club like you'd hold a briefcase (in your fingers) with a light pressure. Make a baseball swing and feel how your forearms cross over. That's what you're after. |
