Driver Slice Fix Guide: How To Stop Slicing Your Driver

on 05/17/2023 at 12:23 PM

Do you feel like your game is being held back by an uncontrollable driver slice? If so, this comprehensive guide can help you by walking you through five essential steps to stop slicing your driver and putting more distance and accuracy in your tee shots.

Slicing the driver is one of the most common issues amongst amateurs, and unfortunately, it’s one of the most difficult to fix.

The cause of this problem lies in many factors, such as swing mechanics, improper equipment setup, wrong fundamentals, or even mental issues. We will touch on each point while helping you discover which ones directly influence your tee shots.

By following the advice in this guide, you should be able to reduce or even eliminate slicing from your tee shots and improve your overall game significantly. Before even attempting any of these fixes, you must take a step back and objectively look at where the problems lie…

How To Stop Slicing Your Driver

One of the most common mistakes amateur golfers make is a driver slice caused by a misalignment of the clubface at impact. This misalignment results in the ball starting off to the right of the target (for a right-handed golfer).

To understand the driver slice and how to fix it, it’s helpful to understand the cause of this misalignment. With this knowledge, you can start making changes that will help you find a consistent and powerful golf swing.

Poor Grip

A poor grip is one of the most common causes of a driver’s slice. To fix your slice, focus on changing your grip to achieve the proper hand position at impact. Having the proper hand position can help you minimize your slice and develop a consistent golf swing.

The first step is to ensure that you have good contact between your hands on the club by overlapping a thumb at the base of your fingers in your left hand (for right-handed golfers). When gripping, you want to ensure that your palms face each other and that there is no space between them. This will allow you to hold onto the club and give it more control while keeping it square at impact.

This is key for avoiding a driver slice and will help with consistency throughout clubs.

Poor Alignment

A common cause of a driver slice is poor alignment. When your body aligns in the correct position, aligned with the target and square to the golf ball, your shoulders and hips should be perfectly parallel to the target line. If your feet, hips, and shoulders are open wildly to the right side of the target line (right-handed golfer), you will likely slice the golf ball.

To solve this problem, practice getting into your stance in front of a mirror or have someone watch you from down-the-line or downswing video before each shot on the tee box. Realizing that impact comes from starting in a good position will help eliminate any slices with your driver.

Poor Swing Path

A poor swing path is one of the primary causes of a driver slice. Simply put, your “club face” at impact – the part of your driver that makes contact with the ball – should be pointing in the direction you want your ball to fly when you make contact with it. When your club face is “open” (pointing to your right if you’re a right-hander), they are more likely to produce slices. Conversely, draws will usually occur when it faces left (for a right-hander). An open clubface is caused by an out-to-in swing path, which sees the club moving forwards along an inside line instead of a more rounded or circular arc outside the target line.

To overcome this problem, golfers need to focus on:

Swinging down and along their body line or slightly out instead of in towards their body line/target line on their backswing.

Ensuring that they have transferred their weight from inside their trail leg to their lead leg during their transition from backswing to downswing.

This should result in them maintaining control of the golf club and help them hit better drives and reduce slices off the tee.

Fixing A Driver Slice

Are you tired of slicing your driver? If so, you’re not alone. A slice is a common issue facing amateur golfers, and it can be frustrating when your shot goes wildly off target. Fortunately, there are several steps you can take to stop slicing your driver.

In this guide, we’ll provide a step-by-step guide to help you fix your slice and improve your accuracy and distance off the tee. Let’s get started.

Adjust Your Grip

When fixing a driver slice, first begin with your stance, grip, and setup. With an open face, our ball travels to the right of the target line, so with the setup, we want to compensate in the opposite direction. You can make this adjustment by closing your feet slightly, aiming left of the target, and keeping your shoulders parallel to the target line.

Adjusting your grip is important when setting up for a drive off the tee box. Many players struggle with a slice because their grip is too firm or weak. To combat it, try loosening up your hands during your set-up; not too much that it would be uncomfortable, but just enough where you’re able to hold onto the club more naturally. If your palms are too active while holding onto the club, then this will result in an overactive release causing a wickedly slicing shot down fairways.

Lastly, ensure that everything lines up properly by:

Rotate both hands so that power lines (the backside of each hand) point towards one another.
Adjust until they intersect, which should be somewhere near the middle of your sternum when viewing from the address position.

Adjust Your Alignment

Adjusting the body’s alignment relative to the target (or the ball-to-target line) is likely necessary to eliminate or reduce a slicing issue. Many experienced golfers set up to the ball with their body and club aiming too far left of their desired target line. If the golfer can maintain this misalignment throughout their swing, they will create an outside-in swing path that can lead directly to a slice.

It is important to ensure your setup correctly reflects your desired target line. To do this, practice setting up with an alignment aid, such as a club on the ground and/or a line taped onto the ground/ball lined up with your intended target. Focus on controlling this alignment from start (address) to finish (follow through). Foot position and hip rotation are critical in keeping good alignment throughout the swing. If you are still finding it difficult to keep your alignment on sense, try using impact tape or colored golf tees positioned around your feet at address as another visual aid for you to achieve proper alignment at address!

Adjust Your Swing Path

Adjusting your swing path is the first step to fixing your driver slice. A swing path is the direction from which the club approaches the ball. This is not always easy to assess, but it can be done if you know what to look for and how to make corrections.

If you are a right-handed golfer, a good way to check that your swing path is correct is by standing behind the ball and looking at your feet and shoulders in relation to it. Your feet should be slightly open while still being relatively square with the ball – this represents an in-to-out (or inward) swing path as opposed to an out-to-in (or outward) swing path, which will produce a snap hook or slice (depending on how far out of position you are).

Once you understand where your swing should originate from, adjust the rest of your body accordingly. Make sure all of the other parts of your body line up properly with each other with respect to where you want the ball flight to go, and visualize this just before swinging. Make sure that anything that moves – such as arms, head, or hips – is also swinging in this same direction. When all these pieces are aligned properly, then you can feel confident that when you hit your shot, it will go in its intended direction!

Final Thoughts On How To Stop Slicing Your Driver

The goal of this guide was to provide you with a simple, step-by-step guide to quickly and effectively stop slicing your driver. We discussed the causes of slicing, including clubface misalignment, incorrect ball placement, and faulty body alignment. We also discussed key elements of the golf swing that you should pay attention to ensure an efficient and powerful drive.

These steps, while easy to follow, only scratch the surface. To take it up a notch and become more consistent on the course, it’s important to understand: