The slice is the most common miss in golf — a shot that curves dramatically from left to right for right-handed golfers (or right to left for lefties). It robs you of distance, accuracy, and confidence, and it can turn a promising round into a frustrating one in a hurry. But here’s the encouraging truth: a slice is a fixable problem with identifiable causes, and most golfers see significant improvement once they understand what’s happening in their swing and apply targeted drills.
In this guide, you’ll learn exactly what causes a slice at a mechanical level, how to diagnose which type of slice you’re hitting, and specific drills you can practice at the range and at home to straighten out your ball flight. Whether you’ve been slicing for months or years, the path to straighter shots starts with understanding and ends with practice.
What Causes a Slice
Every slice results from the same fundamental ball-flight law: at impact, the clubface is open relative to the swing path. This imparts clockwise sidespin on the ball (for a right-handed golfer), which curves it to the right. The bigger the gap between face angle and path direction, the more severe the slice.
There are two primary variables at play. The first is the clubface angle at impact — if your clubface is pointing to the right of your target at the moment it contacts the ball, you are starting with an open face. The second is the swing path — the direction the clubhead is traveling through impact. Most slicers swing on an out-to-in path, meaning the club cuts across the ball from the outside, pulling the path left while the open face sends the ball right. This combination produces the classic banana-shaped slice.
Understanding which variable is your primary issue — face, path, or both — is essential for choosing the right fixes. If you’re also losing distance even on straight shots, our guide to increasing driver distance addresses the power side of the equation.
Diagnosing Your Slice
Not all slices are created equal. Identifying your specific pattern will help you target the right fixes.
The Pull-Slice
The ball starts left of target and then curves sharply right. This is the most common slice pattern and indicates an out-to-in swing path with an open clubface relative to that path. The ball starts left because the path goes left, and it curves right because the face is open to that path. Both path and face need attention.
The Push-Slice
The ball starts right and curves further right. This indicates a swing path that is relatively neutral or slightly inside-out, but a clubface that is open to both the path and the target. The primary fix here is the clubface — your path may actually be in decent shape.
The Straight-Slice
The ball starts at the target and then curves right. This means your clubface is roughly pointing at the target at impact, but your path is going left. The face is open relative to the path, creating sidespin, even though the face itself is square to the target. The primary fix here is the swing path.
Fix Your Grip First
Before diving into swing mechanics, check your grip — it is the most common and easiest-to-fix cause of a slice. A weak grip (where your hands are rotated too far to the left on the club for a right-handed golfer) makes it extremely difficult to square the clubface at impact.
Hold the club in front of you with your left hand (for right-handers). You should be able to see at least two, ideally two and a half, knuckles of your left hand when you look down. If you can only see one knuckle or less, your grip is too weak and is likely contributing to your open face. Rotate your left hand slightly clockwise on the grip until you can see those two to three knuckles. Then, place your right hand on the club so that the V formed by your thumb and index finger points toward your right shoulder, not your chin.
A stronger grip doesn’t mean squeezing harder — it refers to the rotational position of your hands on the club. This adjustment alone eliminates the slice for a significant number of golfers. Give it at least a bucket of balls at the range before adding other changes.
Drills to Fix an Out-to-In Swing Path
If your slice is caused by an out-to-in path (the most common scenario), these drills will help you reroute your swing to approach the ball from the inside.
The Headcover Drill
Place a headcover or small towel about six inches outside and slightly behind the ball (on the far side from your body). If your swing path is out-to-in, you’ll hit the headcover on the downswing. The presence of the headcover forces you to swing more from the inside to avoid it. Start with half-swings, focusing on the feeling of the club approaching from inside the target line. As this becomes comfortable, gradually increase to full swings. This is one of the most effective path-correction drills because it provides immediate physical feedback.
The Step-Through Drill
Set up normally, but as you start your downswing, take a small step toward the target with your lead foot. This forces your body to clear and rotate through the shot rather than sliding laterally, which is a common cause of the over-the-top move that creates an out-to-in path. The step naturally encourages your arms to drop into the correct inside slot. Practice this with a 7-iron until the stepping motion and the inside path feel connected, then gradually reduce the step to a subtle weight shift.
The Inside Tee Drill
Place two tees in the ground about four inches apart, with the ball on the front tee. Position the rear tee slightly inside (closer to you) relative to the front tee. Your goal is to swing the club along a path that passes over the inside tee after striking the ball. This trains an in-to-out path that is the opposite of the slice-producing out-to-in path. Start with easy swings and focus on the direction the club travels through the impact zone, not on where the ball goes.
Drills to Square the Clubface
If your primary issue is an open clubface, these drills focus on improving face control through impact.
The Glove Under the Arm Drill
Tuck a glove or small towel under your lead armpit and hit shots without letting it fall. This keeps your arms connected to your body rotation and prevents the common error of your arms running away from your body, which opens the face. When your arms stay connected to your body’s rotation, the face naturally squares more consistently through impact. This drill works especially well with short irons and wedges before progressing to longer clubs.
The Split-Grip Rotation Drill
Grip the club with about an inch of space between your hands. Make slow half-swings, focusing on your forearms rotating through impact so the toe of the club passes the heel. The split grip exaggerates the feeling of forearm rotation and makes it easier to sense whether the face is opening or closing. Do twenty to thirty repetitions, then return to your normal grip and try to replicate that same feeling of the face squaring through the ball.
The Feet-Together Drill
Hit shots with your feet touching or nearly touching. This eliminates the lower body as a variable and lets you focus entirely on your hand and arm action through impact. With a narrow stance, you can’t generate power from your legs, so your natural tendency to overswing (which often opens the face) is reduced. Focus on making solid contact with a square face. The shots will be shorter, but the improved face control will translate directly to your full swing.
Alignment and Setup Checks
Many slicers unknowingly set up in a way that guarantees a slice before they even swing. Here are the most common setup errors and their fixes.
Ball position that is too far forward in your stance can cause the club to reach the ball after it has already started traveling left on its arc, creating an out-to-in impact. For irons, the ball should be roughly center or one ball-width forward of center. For driver, just inside the lead heel is standard.
Aiming left to compensate for the slice is a trap that makes things worse. When you align your body left but still aim the clubface at the target, you’ve built an open-face-to-path relationship directly into your setup. Instead, aim your body and clubface at your actual target and work on fixing the root cause of the slice with the drills above. You may hit some shots right while you’re making changes, but that’s a necessary part of the correction process.
Check that your shoulders are parallel to your target line, not open (rotated left for righties). An open shoulder alignment at setup almost guarantees an out-to-in path. Place a club or alignment stick across your shoulders during practice to verify this. Your mental game matters here too — developing confidence on the course means trusting your new mechanics even when old habits pull at you.
A Practice Plan to Fix Your Slice
Fixing a slice doesn’t happen in one range session, but a structured practice plan can produce noticeable results within two to three weeks. Here’s a suggested approach.
Week 1: Focus entirely on your grip. Strengthen your grip as described above and hit one hundred balls per session with nothing but the grip change. Don’t add any other fixes yet — you need to isolate this variable and let your hands adapt to the new position. If the slice improves with the grip change alone, you may not need the path drills at all.
Week 2: Add the headcover drill. With your improved grip in place, spend the first half of each range session with the headcover positioned to train your inside path. Then remove it and hit the second half trying to replicate the same path feel. Also verify your alignment and ball position using the checks above.
Week 3: Integrate on the course. Play a round where your sole focus is your new grip and inside path — don’t worry about score. Hit each shot with the intention of starting the ball straight or slightly right of target. Accept that some shots may hook left as you overcorrect — that’s actually a good sign, because a hook means the face is closing, and fine-tuning a hook into a draw is much easier than converting a slice.
If you want to complement this swing work with physical preparation that supports a better body turn and club path, our golf fitness guide includes exercises that build rotational power and flexibility. And for those days when your irons are misbehaving too, check out our guide on how to stop hitting fat and thin shots — those contact issues often share root causes with the slice.
When to Seek Professional Help
If you’ve worked through these fixes for three to four weeks without meaningful improvement, consider booking a lesson with a PGA professional. A qualified instructor can identify subtleties in your swing that are difficult to self-diagnose, and modern launch monitor technology can precisely measure your face angle, swing path, and spin characteristics. Sometimes a single lesson can unlock the specific adjustment that makes everything click. For a broader perspective on thinking your way around the course more effectively, even while working on swing changes, see our course management strategy guide.
