How to Fix Slice in Golf

The good news: the most common cause of a slice is well understood, the potential fixes are clear, and you don't need to overhaul your whole swing to sort it out. Here is exactly how to fix your slice, step by step.

What Is the Dreaded Slice?

A slice is a shot where the golf ball curves from left of the target to right of the target. A slice is an aggressive, uncontrolled curve driven by sidespin created at impact when the club face is open relative to the club path.

The Most Common Cause of a Slice

A slice comes from two things working together: an outside-in club path and an open face at impact. The club head arrives at the ball from outside the target line, creates a side swipe across the golf ball, and the open face adds the spin that sends it curving right of the target.

There are a multitude of causes that can produce this combination, but incorrect grip is the most common cause by some distance. More common misconceptions, like aiming further left of the target or swinging harder, do not fix the slice. They make the outside-in club path worse.

Most Common Cause of an Open Club Face

The most common cause of an open club face is a weak grip. Most golfers who slice have their hands positioned on the club in a way that makes it nearly impossible to return the face to square without a compensating move. That compensation is not reliable, and it is not repeatable.

Teacher Kellie Stenzel, Hank Haney, and coach Mike Adams all point to grip as the starting point when addressing a slice. Fix the grip and the club face has a chance to square up naturally. Skip the grip and you are working against yourself from the first place you touch the club.

Incorrect Grip: The First Thing to Fix

An incorrect grip sits at the root of most slices. If the hands are in a weak position, the lead elbow and lead shoulder are also likely to be working against you. This affects the top of your backswing position and makes a proper downswing path harder to achieve. Start here before changing anything else.

Your Lead Hand Position

Place your lead arm on the club and look down. You should see two to three knuckles on your lead hand. If you can only see one knuckle, your grip is too weak. Rotate the lead arm slightly clockwise until those knuckles appear. This adjustment puts the lead shoulder and lead elbow in a more powerful position at address and makes it far easier to square the club face at impact.

Right Hand and Trail Grip

Place your right hand on the club. The V formed between your right thumb and forefinger should point toward your right shoulder. If it is pointing toward your chin, your right hand is in a weak position that keeps the face open through impact. Think of relaxed support from both hands rather than a tight hold. Tension in the grip is one of the fastest ways to prevent the natural release of the club face.

Fix Your Stance and Shoulder Line

One of the more common misconceptions about how to fix a slice is that alignment doesn't matter. It matters more than most golfers realise. Many golfers who fight the dreaded slice aim further left of the target to compensate, which opens the shoulder line and makes the outside-in club path even worse.

Your shoulder line, hip joint rotation, and foot line should all be parallel to the target line. Aiming left of the target feels like a solution but it deepens the slice path. Reset to square and commit to it.

Back Foot and Front Foot Alignment

Lay a club on the ground along your toe line after taking your address position, then step back and look. Most golfers who slice are aimed left of the target without knowing it. Reset so back foot and front foot are both parallel to the target line. With the driver, the golf ball should sit just inside the front foot. Too far forward opens the shoulders and promotes a worse takeaway

The Slice Path Problem

The slice path is an outside-in swing path. The club travels from outside the target line, cuts across the golf ball at impact in a side swipe, and the open face creates the sidespin that curves it right. This outside-in move is almost always triggered by coming over the top at the start of the downswing, where the upper body fires outward before the lower body leads.

For a right handed golfer, this path is the opposite of what tour players use. Tour players swing from slightly inside the target line, which is what produces a straight shot or a nice draw rather than a slice.

Proper Downswing Path

A proper downswing path starts from the ground up. Push the ground with your feet, let the hip joint rotate toward the target first, and let the arms follow from the inside. During practice swings, focus on the feeling of the club dropping to the inside before impact rather than throwing it outward. This is what a proper backswing and transition looks like when it comes from the right place.

Really long backswings can make it harder to find this path. A compact, controlled backswing makes it easier to begin the downswing correctly. Focus on the transition first.

Proper Body Rotation and Hip Joint

Proper body rotation is the engine behind a proper downswing path. The rotation of the body starts from the hip joint, not the shoulders. Some coaches describe it using the image of an underhanded throwing motion: the arm follows the rotation of the body, not the other way around.

Upright posture at address supports this. If you are hunched over or cramped, the hip joint cannot rotate freely and the upper body takes over, which leads straight back to the over-the-top move. Stand tall, let the hips lead, and the proper body rotation follows.

How to Square the Club Face

With the grip corrected and the club path on a better track, squaring the club face at impact becomes far more achievable. The goal is a square club face at impact - not right of the target, which produces the slice, and not dramatically left of the target, which would produce a hook. A square club face pointed at the target at impact is what you are working toward.

Release of the Club Face

The release of the club face is what actually squares it up. Many golfers who slice hold on through impact, keeping the face open because they have spent years training their body to compensate for the curve. Allow the lead arm to rotate through the ball. The natural release of the club face happens when the grip is correct and the path is from the inside. Trust it.

Best Drills to Fix Your Slice

Three drills are worth adding to every practice session.

Alignment stick drill: place a stick just outside the ball line angled toward the target. Swing through without hitting it. This trains a better takeaway and a more inside club path.

Slow-motion release: make half-swings at 50% speed with a short iron. Focus on squaring the face and allowing the natural release. Feel the difference. Build to full speed once it is consistent.

Gate drill: place two tee pegs either side of the club head with just enough room for it to pass through. Swing through clean. It immediately reveals whether your club path is on a slice path or not.

Fairway Woods and Driver Check

Equipment doesn't cause a slice, but it can make one worse and reduce your potential distance significantly. Higher driver loft (10.5 to 12 degrees) reduces the effect of sidespin. The same applies to fairway woods. A shaft flex that is too stiff for your swing speed makes it harder to square the face in time. A basic fitting session at most golf shops covers both and is worth the time.

Course Management Tips

While the fix takes hold, play for the shape. Aim at the left side of the fairway and let the ball work right. Club down from the driver when the slice is costing you holes. Before each tee shot, know where the right-side trouble sits. With Hole19, you get GPS distances and a full flyover map of every hole at 42,000+ courses worldwide, so you can see exactly where the hazards are and make a smarter club and aim decision every time.

When to Get a Golf Lesson

If the slice is still there after several weeks of work on grip, shoulder line, and club path, book a lesson. Ask specifically for coach's advice on swing path and club face angle. A PGA coach will spot what you cannot from the inside. One or two targeted sessions will cut through weeks of trial and error. It is the fastest potential fix available.

The dreaded slice is fixable. Start with the incorrect grip, reset your shoulder line, work on proper body rotation and a proper downswing path, and trust the release of the club face. Give the drills time to take effect and track what changes.

Track Your Progress

With Hole19 Premium, Shot Tracker records where every shot lands across multiple rounds. You can see whether your miss is getting smaller, which clubs are giving you the most trouble, and whether the potential fixes are actually translating into straighter shots. The data removes the guesswork and shows real progress round by round.

Download free today. Know more. Score less.