Opening clubface at address to fix slice?

[coorsleftfield]

Greetings,

I'm basically new to golf as of last Fall. I've been taking lots of lessons, and practicing/playing as much as I can squeeze in during the week. (Someone should have warned me this would get addictive). Anyway, like usual, I'm fighting the driver slice. Of course this means I'm either doing the outside-in path, or having the clubface open at impact.

So the point of my post is the following: I was experimenting with closing the clubface at address, to try and come through impact with a more closed face. What I noticed is the slice seemed to actually get worse the more I would close the face. So on a whim, I stared to open the face a touch at address, and much to my surprise the slice seemed to go away. I was curious if this is a known thing, or if I just have something really strange going on with my swing, because usually the slice advice on the net is to close the club face a bit, as well as fixing the swing plane. Anyone know whats going on here? My only guess was that it's mental, and with a slightly open face at address, my brain really works to close it during the swing.

[Pinseeker81]

It's actually a drill. If you start with the clubface open you subconsciously try a little harder to close it on the downswing. It really all boils down to rotating through the shot. The only way I can keep from slicing is to start rotating the clubface way early.

If you set up with it closed, you're a little more hesitant to close it more on the downswing, so you tend to leave it open more, making the slice worse.

[thedub]

i try to make sure i flip my wrists over to ensure that my club face is square at address....it worked today, i had some beautiful stragiht shots, but still need to work on it!!

[mrobbie]

When I try to flip my wrists over, it just feels wrong. I am sure I broke both wrists as a child or something

I may try the open face at address, but I think reverting to my old overly strong grip may help me a bit...

[cockergod]

What I try to do is during practice just start off nice and slow with easy swings and slowly work your way up to more powerful ones. Once I slice I usually back it down or go back to my original starting power and do it all over again. I think a lot of it is muscle memory and you just need to know when you should close and square up the face. It works pretty well for me.

[Wisco-Kid]

Very interesting post. I will say that as a newbie to golf you definitely are well on track. You understand that there are 2 main ways to slice. Open club face, and inside out swing. Of course you could have the over-the-top move and steep swing plane which is opening pandora's box, but I liked the way you have "boiled it down" to two main points.

The interesting thing is the open club face. So are you lining your body up square to the target line and just opening your club face?

My slice has re-surfaced this year with my new driver. I thought I had an outside to in swing but after wasting $25 on the inside approach I realized my swing path is inside out. Then I went to my grip and tried a stronger grip. This gave me mixed results and I found that moving my grip even slightly produced some strange unreliable results, not to mention a stronger grip is not comfortable at all for me. I have come to the conclusion that I am not releasing the club properly through the ball. I think it is because the driver is much lighter and I have a hard time getting it to turn over in time.

[Wisco-Kid]

What I try to do is during practice just start off nice and slow with easy swings and slowly work your way up to more powerful ones. Once I slice I usually back it down or go back to my original starting power and do it all over again. I think a lot of it is muscle memory and you just need to know when you should close and square up the face. It works pretty well for me.

Good advice!

[DJYoshi]

try a stronger grip? That worked for me.
and I don't mean a stronger grip as it grip tighter....but rotate your hands to be in more or a 12 o'clock position.

[Undr Par]

try a stronger grip? That worked for me.

exactly, that is what works for me, if your seeing 2-3 knuckles then your ok, compared to just seeing 1 or even none.

[Elsfan]

The biggest problem I see is with most people who slice their clubs is they fail to stay down and behind the ball. They constantly lunge their body instead of opening their hips. Stay back on it but fire your hips in the process. It will force you to stop coming out to in and you will get better ball flight. Also slowing down the backswing always helps.

[Cizzle]

try a stronger grip? That worked for me.

If the club is too open on the backswing, this would help. But I see this more as a quick fix for most. Like Elsfan stated, there is a definite swing fault happening, most likely OTT and coming out to in. Correcting these both would be much better for your swing, and you would not have to change your neutral grip.

[blackxpress]

You say you've taken lessons. You might want to check with your instructor before you make too many changes to your setup. A slice can be caused from any number of things. One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is swinging too hard which is a problem for most of us, especially beginners. When you do that you end up getting your hands too far ahead which messes up your swing plane and causes a slice. In other words, your arms cross your body before you complete your hip turn. Anyway, your instructor can probably take one look at your swing and tell you what's causing the slice and how to fix it. The last thing you want to do at your stage of the game is to get bad habits ingrained in muscle memory. It's much harder to undo bad habits than it is to not learn them in the first place. Just my $.02