Beginner Golfer (5): Preventing Driver Slices

When your irons are hitting well, but your driver isn’t hitting at all...

Actually, that doesn’t happen. It’s more like, when your irons are hitting reasonably well, but your driver is a total mess.

That was exactly my case.

First, I changed my grip. To achieve a consistent driver shot, I switched to a neutral grip.

I am documenting this so I don’t forget when I start playing again after taking a break during the winter.

While switching to a neutral grip, some people suggest keeping the left thumb pressed against the hand, but I find it more comfortable to keep it slightly detached, and it doesn’t seem to cause any issues.

So, I keep it detached as shown in the first image.

The swing itself is almost identical to an iron swing, but during the takeaway, if you move the club low and to the right, the shoulder rotation happens naturally (advice from Chairman Park).

After that, you must ensure the driver head doesn’t ‘slice’ across the ball at impact.

Usually, as seen in the photo above, slices occur because the clubface is open at impact.

In other words, it happens because the body rotates first and the arms follow too late. You need to wait for the body to be in position until the moment of impact after the rotation starts.

Then, the follow-through is crucial.

Instead of just pushing through, the back of the left hand should face downward to create accurate impact.

‘The pro told me that people get slices because they are afraid the ball will go left if they do this, but he insisted it will NEVER go left, so just swing with confidence.’

Using your wrists at the moment of impact increases distance. This is something that requires more practice.

And here is an emergency tip for when things still aren’t working:

Choke down on the club and hit it like an iron. Set the tee lower and use a wrist snap for impact.

After changing my swing, although the score was recorded a bit generously by about 4 strokes, I hit a dream score of 82...

In reality, it was an 86. No mulligans, no topped balls, no OB.

#GoodbyeDriverSlice

#ChangingDriverGrip

#CorrectingDriverTrajectory