by Andre Sanchez

What is a golf slice?  How often have I heard that question!  Many people know the effect of a slice, that dreaded banana shot that everybody plays now and again, even the very top players in the world.  Even Tiger Woods plays into the trees now and again, and not deliberately!

However, what causes it is a mystery to most golfers, and if they knew the reason for it they might find it easier to understand and to at least compensate for it, if not to cure it.  ‘Compensating’ does not mean that you should aim to the left of your target and hope for the slice to bring the ball back.  That is giving in to the problem, and only results in loss of accuracy and distance.  The shortest distance between you and the target is straight line, not a banana curve.

Let’s have a look at what exactly causes a slice.  Very basically it is caused by air pressure. If there is more air pressure on one side of the ball than the other then the ball will turn.  I am writing now about right-handed players, and left handers can reverse the sides for this explanation to apply to them.

Let’s have a look at the dimples on your ball and how they help to promote a slice.  Golf balls have dimples to improve the aerodynamics of the ball.  Before dimples nobody could drive 300 yards because the ball would drop too quickly.  The dimples in your ball are designed to keep the ball in the air for as long as possible before falling to the ground.

When you drive the golf ball, the club puts a back-spin on it.  The dimples are designed so that the air pressure is greater on the ball when it is moving in the direction of travel and less when moving against the direction of travel.  When a golf ball is spinning backwards, the bottom is spinning towards the direction of travel, and the top of the ball away from it.  This means that the air pressure is greater on the bottom of the ball, the dimples magnifying this effect, so the ball is being lifted and kept in the air.

Now consider a ball with a clockwise spin.  The left side of the ball is moving towards the direction of travel, and the right side away from it.  This means that there is more air pressure on the left of the ball, so that it will tend to swing out to the right.  Exactly what happens with a slice.  Again, as with the back spinning ball, the dimples exaggerate the effect, and the very feature of a golf ball designed to give you length also magnifies the effect of a slice.

The spin is imparted on the ball by you striking it with the club face not straight to the direct of your drive, but pointing back from it at the toe of the club.  This can happen in one of two ways.  First your club face could be open when you hit the ball.  You are driving straight, but have not closed the club face quickly enough.  The result is that you ‘swipe’ the ball, or ‘slice’ it, in the same way that Roger Federer deliberately slices a tennis ball to put spin on it. 

The second way is that your club face is square enough to the ball, but you are driving across the ball.  You are again ‘slicing’ it, but this time your angle of strike is across from right to left with a club face square to the target but not the direction of strike. Both have the same effect – a clockwise spin on the ball and hence differing air pressures on either side.  It’s the same principle used by soccer players to bend the ball in flight.

In practice, there are actually two spins on a sliced ball.  A clockwise spin imparted by the slice, and a back spin imparted by the drive itself.  The combination of both tends to hold the ball straight for a short while before it starts to move out right.  You think that you have hit a good drive then after about 100 yards, it starts to bend and the curve just gets worse and worse.  It is so severe, and so difficult for some people to cure, that they can give the game up because of it.

However, now that you know the cause, you should be able to work out how to compensate properly, rather than aiming left.  If you are slow in closing the club face, then strengthen your grip by moving it more clockwise round the shaft.  This will bring the club face round quicker.  If you are swinging across the ball, move your stance so you are pointing more to the right of the target.  Either of these will likely solve the problem, but if not then you need professional help with your swing mechanics.

If you spin the ball the other way, counter-clockwise, the air pressure will then be greater on the right hand side of the ball that is now the side moving in the direction of travel.  In this case, the ball will curve out to the left.  That’s a hook, and is cause by exactly the mirror image of the problems that caused a slice:  counter-clockwise spin cause by closing the club face too quickly, or swinging across the ball from inside to outside (left to right) with a club face square to the direction of the target.

So, what is a golf slice?  It is a situation where the golf ball has been given a clockwise spin by a right handed player or a counter-clockwise spin by a left handed player.  The dimples don’t help, and improvements in ball design have resulted in slices and hooks by players who never had the problem before. 

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