Fix Your Slice: The Cause & Simple Cures For The Beginner Golfer

Why is it considered the most electrifying club in your golf bag? Why is it the first club anyone talks about when equipment is brought up? Why is it what everyone wants?

The answers are simple - POWER. It's all about the power of the long ball. The golfer who drives the ball the furthest is considered the man of the moment, and everyone wants to be that man. I guess it's an ego thing.

This mind game is played among all golfers form beginner to professional. It is one of the main driving forces behind the design of today's best golf drivers. The manufacturers are continually coming up with newer and better drivers that go further and straighter than the competition. They come in all shapes and sizes with the bigger is better attitude coming out on top.

A lot of the big oversized drivers are built to the largest legal size specifications under PGA rules and regulations. Combine that with the ultra thin super springy club faces. What you get is a kind of loaded canon. These clubs launch the golf balls high in the air and really long. We must emphasize really LONG.

A lot of the club makers have even taken the grooves off the clubfaces around the sweet spot areas. This is to reduce spin and allow the ball more distance with less resistance. What this also causes is less accuracy off the tee. But most golfers are willing to give up a little accuracy for more distance.

Now if you throw in the new technology in today's golf shafts it gets a little complicated. With all the different types of graphite, the raised and lowered flex and kick points, and now even tipping it almost seems out of control.

Wow, that's getting crazy. There is such a huge amount of possible grip, shaft, and club head combinations it can be confusing to the average golfer. But not to worry, there are a ton of great resources out there to get you fitted correctly.

Get more of this article and other golf driver information at:

Are you slicing all or some of your tee shots? If so, you are no different than most new golfers, And even more experienced golfers still slice shots from time to time. Here are some simple things you can try to fix it:

First, the problem is hardly ever the club. If you feel it is, have your driver examined by your local pro-shop, so no doubt lingers in your mind.

Now, let's consider what happens to a sliced ball when it is in the air. Here it seems best to state exactly what is meant by the term 'sliced ball' because a drive that finishes in the rough on the right of the fairway is not necessarily sliced. A sliced drive is one that starts straight, or nearly straight, from the tee and curls in the right of the line on which it started. The reason for this is that the ball is spinning from left to right, and the air pressure, being greater on the side which is turning into the wind, in this case the left side, pushes the ball to the right. A ball that is correctly driven has back-spin imparted to it by the club, and the air pressing on the underside of the ball tends to make it rise in flight. A hooked ball naturally has the reverse spin to a sliced ball.

This is very basic, but it is useful knowledge from a beginner's point of view, because it may give you a clue as to why you are slicing: To impart a left-to- right spin to a ball, the face of the club must be drawn from right to left across the ball during the moment of impact. This right-to-left movement of the club may be the result of several faults: the player may be hitting at the ball, instead of through it, in other words, checking the swing of the club at a critical moment; or the grip may be faulty, too tight with the left hand, too loose with the right, possibly the position of the hands on the shaft may be wrong; or the player may be drawing in his arms and not throwing them, as it were, after the ball. Certainly the best method of locating the fault is to go to your local professional, but if that is not possible, most experienced golfers would be able to spot it.

But once the problem is found it, is by no means cured; it is quite possible to know what you are doing wrong without being able to prevent yourself from continuing to do it!

Sometimes a simple cure will overcome the slicing habit: Try turning the right hand a little more under the shaft or gripping a little tighter with it. You can also try taking up the normal stance and then drawing the right foot back a few inches.

In the beginners' case slicing is just going to happen! But I'm convinced that if the beginner works hard, it can be cured in a month or two instead of wearing itself out perhaps in the course of a year or even longer.

Jarrod Cash & Michael Black have created: "Psychology of Golf: The Complete Study Course." Available at http://www.LostGolfSecrets.com If these simple cures don't fix your slice, learn advanced mental golf techniques to stop slicing for good!