Why can I not close the club face?

[tm22721]

The thing I like about Slice's swing is the shallow club path you get by pronating the left forearm in the backswing. No chance of out to in. I'm currently working on his shut face drill to get rid of a hook.

[GamerJG]

you probably have an outside-in swing, or an inside-in swing. you need to have an inside-out swing. also, make sure your alignment is correct.

[DBeane]

High, short, right (assuming your right handed). These symptoms usually mean you are sliding through the ball. Your head is moving towards the target as you are going through the ball.

Work on keeping your head still, if they are still going right, then you are excessivly "outside-in" with your swing plane. That isnt just day surgery, fixing that will require some effort on you part.

Good luck,

-Beane

[DaSportsGuy]

You are hitting it high because:

A) You swing straight down on the ball
B) You fall back on contact

[unoiron]

I've worked hard to develop a setup that produces a natural draw and allows me to play a fade when its called for. Every once in a while (like today) I'll start fading everything. It's not a bad shot, it'll still hit my target, but it's definitely unintentional. Unintentional shots, no matter how good, drive me nuts. That's when I've got to go through my checklist to see what's off. Today I was getting pretty lazy with my shoulder turn (it was 48 degrees and I was wearing multiple layers), and this almost always has a tendency to make me hit it left to right as I come into the ball square to inside as opposed to inside to square.

If you make a good shoulder turn it makes it a lot tougher to slice the ball. I think as you get better you'll develop these checklists and will be able to self-correct.

[O.B. Right]

If you make a good shoulder turn it makes it a lot tougher to slice the ball. I think as you get better you'll develop these checklists and will be able to self-correct.

I think that was my major mistake and the best correction I've made. I used to not turn my shoulders. That made it impossible for me to release the club.

The last 2 sessions at the range I have been focusing primarily on making a good shoulder turn. Even to the point where that's all I'm thinking about. Last 2 sessions I've been able to hit hooks and straight shots with all my clubs except the driver and my accidental slice percentage has been low - like 5%. My driver has gotten better, too. Tonight I hit about 30 drives and had left to right movement in almost all of them but probably 70% would've been playable and my distance is greatly improving. I actually managed to hook one drive - first time ever for that. I feel like I'm making solid progress and need to work these new ideas into my permanent swing through mas buckets. My new range routine will start off with intentionally hooking several iron shots and then on to whatever I'm working on.

[anthony]

On your backswing, try to keep the clubface pointing at the ball the entire time. THE ENTIRE TIME. It's going to feel really weird...until you hit it straight down the middle. The club won't actually be be pointing at the ball, but it will feel like it. It will also get your left wrist nice and flat.

So, keep the clubface pointing at the ball on the way back and through the downswing point the toe down the line just past impact. You'll be cranking them straight in no time.

[jdjanda]

I've tried everything to fix my slice, I've fixed all but my driver and 3H. So I decided to seek professional help and have a lesson scheduled, I want my fundamentals checked out and build a setup checklist.

You can only fix some much without a second set of trained eyes. I've only had one lesson previously and that made a significant difference. I'll plan on a follow up lesson a month after to make sure I'm on the right path.

[The Recreational Golfer]

Your problem is not that you can’t close the clubafce. It’s that you open the clubface somewhere in the middle of your swing and don’t close it again. You have to identify at what point the clubface is opening and fix the problem there.

Set up to the ball and take the club away to where your hands are hip high. Hold your hands exactly where they are, turn toward them, and lower the club to the ground. Is the face square? If so, set up again and swing up to where your hands are shoulder high. Hold, turn, and lower as before.

Keep breaking up your swing into small parts like this until you will find the point where you’re going wrong. When you do, swing to that point and square up the clubface. Now make mini-swings in the opposite direction and back to that point. You’re learning what it feels like to keep the clubface square through what is, for you, the critical part of the swing.

[WUTiger]

You have received a dozen different explanations of slicing pathology, all of which have caused certain golfers trouble in the past.

But, if you are more interested in fixing your swing than conducting a science-fair comparison project, why not take a lesson? Go to a PGA certified pro who can observe what you're doing, show you some systematic correctives, and hopefully give you a video summary of the lesson.

[flatom]

Lighten up your grip to about a 3 on scale of 10 and finish your backswing.

I slice the majority of my shots. My short irons are high and short, my mid irons are high, short and fading right, my long irons are high slices and my driver and 3wood produce banana balls that I reserve for the driving range.

[O.B. Right]

I've gotten a lot of good advice from this thread and used some of it . . still working a lot on my swing but I figured out how to close the club face.

For me, I tend to swing outside-in and I tend to hold off the release. The first thing I corrected was my swing path. This actually made my clubface issue worse becuase my tendancy to hold off the release got even worse.

Using the p3proswing as an indicator, I have largely corrected both my swing path and club face issues. BUT . .I have had to drastically change my swing to do this. I have lost about 2 clubs worth of distance because I can't generate clubhead speed with these awkward new moves.

I feel like I'm on the right track, though. I keep considering getting some lessons and/or a video camera. Inevitable for the future - probably need to wait until after x-mas.

[david_wedzik]

You are almost certainly swinging "over-the-top". The most common swing malady, and also the hardest to cure. It's possible that your clubface is square, but your shots still curve to the right (after starting out straight) because you are swinging from the outside in.

This was one of the very first replies (a few others have posted a similar reply) and it is on point. The great majority of slicers do so with a pretty square clubface (some even closed...and the point is that is not the core of the problem). I could go through 5 things to work on and try to explain them here but it suffices to say that the odds are you are hitting the ball on the "front side" of the circle that we all play golf on. Imagine you are at address looking at the ball - try to picture, transcribed on the ground around both sides of the ball that your club will swing (with the center of the circle at the ball position), a slightly curved semi-circle. This is to represent the path that your club is traveling on. Now with that said - you are VERY LIKELY hitting your ball while the club is traveling out to in and on the front half of that semi-circle. If you picture this you can see that the club is already traveling in to out at that point. Even if the clubface was square to the target it is NOT square to that path (i.e. slice). As I said...there are a number of things that may need fixed but the very first is understanding that you need to hit the ball on the BACK SIDE of that circle transcribed on the ground. The steps below are what a golfer should do if I wanted to start a ball to the right the most...and hook it the most. Try this and see where it goes:

1. With a 6 iron move your ball position back slightly (towards the back half of the circle) 2. Set the grip slightly more forward at address 3. Put 60% of your weight on your front side at address 4. Swing your hands more to the inside going back 5. Move the weight so 70% is on the front foot at the top 6. Move the weight so 90% is on the front foot coming down What we are doing here is moving you more forward in every way so, in essence, the ball is further back on the circle so you can hit it more in to out (draws...even if the face was somewhat open since there is a chance it will be "closed" to the path). Curious to see how this goes. Dave

[david_wedzik]

Using the p3proswing as an indicator, I have largely corrected both my swing path and club face issues. BUT . .I have had to drastically change my swing to do this.

BTW - nice job using something like the P3 Pro Swing to get feedback - much better than "an enigma, cloaked in mystery"

Also - the fact that you have had to drastically change something to make things work is good - if you want to go from slices to draws that is pretty drastic. Dave

[GolfNOnline]

Had the same problem after taking some time off of golf. Went to Golf-Tec and in one lesson, he showed me on video that I had a weak left hand grip which caused me to take the club away (open) and the only way I could close it was to "wrist" it. Some great shots, some good shots, some fades, some banana slices. Ive shot a 79, but more recently because of the grip issue, I was hitting the 90's when I was off my game.

Either set-up a video camera directly behind you and tape your swing, or have Golf-Tec do it, you'll be suprised on what happens when you change your grip just a little.

John
(no signature yet)

[Vance87]

Either your hands are at the wrong position at impact, or you are coming across the ball producing a slice spin.

Or both.