by Andre Sanchez

Everybody has sliced a golf ball at some time, even Tiger Woods, but if you understand what causes a golf slice, then you will be better prepared to deal with it when it happens to you.

The effect of a golf slice is that the ball starts off in the right direction after you hit it, but then starts to turn right. This right hand curve then gets more and more severe until the ball lands a long way right of the target.  If you are left handed, the effect is the opposite, and the ball curves to the left.  The rest of this article will apply in the opposite way for those of you who are left handed golfers.

That’s the effect, but what does it mean in numbers?  By how much will my ball land away to the right? In order to understand that you also have to understand why the ball moves as it does, and what causes it to do it.  Let’s look at the last one first.  What causes your slice?

You will slice a ball because you impart a clockwise spin on it when you hit it.  When the ball leaves the tee, or the lie, and it is spinning in a clockwise direction, then it will slice – it will curve out to the right. There is only one geometric condition in which that can happen, but there are two basic ways in which you can create that condition.  To understand that, you have to envisage in your mind the plane of the club face in relation to the direction of your drive.  Write a diagram down on a piece of paper if it helps.  It might be easier to understand that way.

The direction of your shot is the direction in which your club is going when it hits the ball and follows through. This might or might not be towards the intended target – that is irrelevant to the slice.  The plane of your clubface is a straight line drawn across the face of your club at the moment of strike. Ideally, that line should be straight across the ball, or dead ‘square’ to it. A perfect shot is when the direction of your shot is straight at the target, and the clubface is square to that direction.

The ball then goes straight to the target with no sidespin.  There will be a backspin, since golf clubs are designed to impart a backspin to the golf ball in order to make it travel farther (more on that later).

You spin the ball if your clubface is not square to the direction of your shot at the moment of strike.  This will happen whether or not your shot is in the right direction.  It is the angle between your clubface and the direction your shot that matters. If your shot is straight to the target, but your clubface is ‘open’ when you hit that ball, that is if the clubface has not quite straightened up, and is pointing backwards, when it hits the ball, then you will impart that clockwise spin. The clubface will swipe the ball rather than hit it straight on.

The second way to spin the ball clockwise is if your clubface is straight on to the target when it strikes the golf ball, but you are driving across the ball, from right to left. In that case, there is still an angle between the clubface and the direction of your drive, slicing the ball, and putting that clockwise spin on.

When a golf ball is spinning through the air, the dimples are designed to accentuate the effect of air pressure.  That is the reason for the backspin that your clubs put on the ball. The dimples increase the effect of air pressure between the top and bottom of the ball so that there is more pressure on the side that is spinning towards the direction of flow:  the bottom of the ball that is spinning forward. The top is spinning back (hence ‘backspin’). This forces the ball upwards and so extends its period in the air, and thus increases the length of the drive.

However, if you spin the ball sideways, the same principles apply.  In the clockwise spin imparted by a slice the left hand side of the ball is spinning in the direction of travel, and the right hand side away from it.  Just as there is more pressure on the bottom of a backspun ball, there is then more pressure on the left hand side of a sliced ball, and the ball is pushed to the right. It doesn’t happen right away since it takes time to happen.

Have you ever seen a drive in slow motion? The ball travels slightly upward for a while and then starts to increase in elevation. The same happens with a slice.  It travels almost straight for the first 80 – 100 yards, and then heads off right. Over 200 yards it moves 7-8 yards for every degree that the clubface is out of line with the direction of your swing, so if you are four degrees off (not a lot!) your ball will land 28 – 32 yards right of target.  How many greens or fairways will you hit then?

That’s what causes your slice, so now you should be able to work out ways to get your clubface closed quicker, or to be more accurate with the line of your drive. That, however, is another subject.

What causes a Golf Slice? was originally published at http://www.golfplayernow.com