Driver Help and a weird question.

[jcro]

So I almost broke 100 on my 7th round of golf in my life yesterday. I bought a sky caddie and really helped my game, I finished 103. My problem was my driving....what a mess it was.

I hit 2 fairways through 18 holes! My slice is getting out of control. I hit a golf cart yesterday that was parked at the tee on the hole adjacent. I have tried everything to fix my slice. I am a lefty and everything is going left....not just a little left but I am hitting another fairway left. Am I hitting with the club closed or open to cause this? Any tips can try to fix it? What are the reasons for a slice?

I did switch to my 3 wood to see if I could hit a fairway but I still sliced it but not nearly as bad.

FYI I do not slice my irons, they are pretty straight....if anything I pull them right.

My random question is this....I am a little embarrassed to ask it....

Why do I have a burn hole in the grip of my driver where I hold it....? Am I causing that much friction?....  Is this normal?

[Grumpter]

When you hit a short iron which direction is your divot? Do you use a longer swing for your driver than you do with your irons?

[jcro]

I rarely take a divot to be honest.....is that bad? When I do I guess it goes right. I do take a larger backswing with my driver if that is what your asking. I do swing my driver alot faster(harder) than my irons also.

[Grumpter]

Harder swings lead to slices in my experience. I would say go to the range to work on a smoother/slower tempo and make sure you aren't taking too much of a backswing. It's amazing how far you can hit the ball with a quality swing at a slower speed and not a huge back swing. Once you can hit it more consistently at a slower tempo you can work on slowly increasing that tempo.

Another thing is make sure you are starting your hip turn before the downswing. That one tip helped a guy I play with on the weekend fix most of his slicing problem (but he still occasionally speeds up his swing which increases his chance of slicing).

Lastly another common cause is casting at the start of your downswing. If you move your arms out like you are casting a fishing rod the only way to get back to impact the ball squarely is to swing from the outside to the inside producing side spin which leads to a slice.

[trackster]

Keep most of  your weight on you back foot, since you are a lefty your left shoulder should be a little lower then your right.

Make sure the ball is tee'd up off the inside of your front foot.

On your back swing make sure you rotate your body, and not just use your arms.  If you don't rotate your body you will most likely come across the ball at impact and that will cause your slice.  An open club head (while it will push your ball in that direction) is not the cause of a huge slice, it is coming from the outside across the ball at impact.

In order to make sure i rotate my body i open up the club face at adress (may seem like the opposite you should do for a slice) but it makes sure i fully rotate my hips back

Now when you reach the end of your backswing, start your downswing with your hips rotating forward.

That may seem confusing but once you have the correct set up and shoulder turn its not bad.

This should not only help with a slice but add some distance. (It has really helped me)

[jcro]

Anyone know why I am burning a hole into my grip? Am I holding to tight? Do I have a bad grip on the club maybe....It is quite weird.

[LuciusWooding]

I got some great advice from an older player yesterday, when I was only hitting my driver well for the most part. I hit about 6 fairways of 9, so the tip worked for me.

Grumpter is right about swinging easy, and not taking too big of a backswing. When I swing hard, I tend to bring the club back farther, which is not conducive to a good swing. I don't slice it much any more, but I would bring the club back so far that the shaft points towards the ground at an angle. I am flexible, and it felt like I was loading up more power in my rotation, but in reality my arms took so long to get to the ball that my hip turn was spent. The older player told me to keep my club above parallel on the backswing, and it resulted in a quicker swing tempo and better timing with my hip turn.

One thing I did that stopped my slice was to experiment with my setup, especially moving the ball towards the front. Flattening the swing plane can help a bit too, but the thing that really changed my drives was learning to draw the ball a bit. My method is to keep the clubface aimed at the target, and rotate my body and alignment slightly. This results in a fade if you turn your chest more towards the target, and a draw if you turn away. I don't have a big draw, maybe 10-15 yards, but it hits the fairway and rolls. I hit straight with most clubs, especially irons (I either push or pull, almost never slice or hook.).

Also, teeing the ball higher will not only help prevent you from topping, but might make you more comfortable if you're a picker (rarely take a divot) like me. Sometimes fixing something little like that can help. If the ball's too low, I have an aversion to hitting the ground with my driver. That makes me either top it or hit it right because I lagged my wrists to avoid hitting the ground. Mentally, that helps me hit it a little easier and more solid.

Good luck, I hope my advice doesn't make you worse. The other players on here are probably better and more experienced, but I'm a similar handicap and beat my slice recently, despite being righty. Don't fret about the driver though, plenty of decent players don't even hit it that well, and I was crushing it and still got a terrible score. There are probably dozens of things that could be responsible for slicing, anything from an open clubface to ill fitting grips, so try and find what works for you.

[trackster]

Originally Posted by jcro

Anyone know why I am burning a hole into my grip? Am I holding to tight? Do I have a bad grip on the club maybe....It is quite weird.

Yeah i would say that you are holding it too tight.  You'll find if you loosen up your grip you'll swing better and faster even, because loose muscles are faster then tense muscles.

[tanktwo2]

shortening your back swing could help but without a video of your swing, there is no possible way to tell what you are doing wrong.

Go spend the 50$ and get a lesson, you'll be glad you did

[tomvk77]

if you want to lower your score's

stick with the irons first, take on every par 4 to be on the green in 3 shots

you will end up making bogey keeping all the trouble away.

Stick with your driver on the range. Practise makes perfect.

you should not be so hard on yourselve by only playing 7 times

[jcro]

Thanks for all the tips. I will try them all out as soon as the rain goes away....

Last night I was searching the internet for golf instruction videos and came across something I did not even notice about my grip. I did take one golf lesson last week and the pro showed me some basics which I have been trying to work on. When He and I went over my grip he showed me a few different styles. I went with a interlocking grip and proceeded to swing the club with this style. Anyway on the 3 videos I found on grip last night each one of them stated you place your bottom hand palm over your top hand palm thumb.....if this is correct I have never done this. I basically had my hands on the club almost like a hockey stick or baseball bat and interlocked....I cant wait to see if this might help me out.....before I do this I want to confirm with people on here if that is correct.....to place your bottom hand palm over top hand thumb?

[LankyLefty]

Id start by finding out what kind of slice you have.

If its big old bannana that starts right and moves back left, then your probably swinging outside to in through contact. This can be caused by a number of things from having an open stance to your your back swing to using to much arms in the downswing.

If it is the sort of slice where you are leaving the face open then that could have a whole other set of causes.

[jcro]

I think I am just going to hit the driving range with my camera and upload a video of my ugly swing....will be posting tonight

[jcro]

video posted in a new thread, please take a look and let me know