How to Hit the Draw Shot: Golf’s Secret Weapon for Mastering Difficult Courses

Let’s talk about hitting draws. To be clear draws fly from right to left for righties and left to right for lefties. On holes like the dogleg-left par 5 13th at Augusta National, righties hoping for a shorter approach into the green will opt for a draw-biased swing/setup off the tee.

When the trouble is across our body at the setup position (left for righties), we’re often served best by opting for a draw as opposed to a fade/straight ball. As is tradition on Sundays at the Masters, the back left hole location on the par 3 16th hole presents players the opportunity to use the slope located in the middle of the green in order to feed the ball closer to the hole.

In order to execute a wise game plan that reflects sound course-management reasoning, players often utilize a right-to-left ball flight on the 16th tee. With the tournament’s result still hanging in the balance, players are fully aware that they must avoid the pond that runs along the left-hand side of the green’s surface in order to remain in contention.

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At the same time, The Masters champ often cards a 2 on 16 during Sunday’s final round like Tiger Woods did back in 2019. Tiger flushed an 8 iron to within 3 feet of the cup in Sunday’s final round after his well-struck ball turned over from right to left, landed pin high at the top of the slope located in the middle of the green, and rolled towards its final destination.

As part of Tiger’s execution in playing numerous beautiful shots that week, like the tee ball on 16, he relied heavily upon his ability to turn the ball over from right to left. If you have trouble getting your ball to turn over, opting to address this deficiency will help you gain more yards and attack more pins. Also, a very high percentage of mid-to-high handicappers hit weaker fades or even nasty slices.

If this is you, you need to learn, at a bare minimum, how to neutralize your ball flight. Achieving a more-neutral ball flight involves learning how to produce the mirror image of your preferred miss. In other words, if you’re a slicer, learn how to hit a hook.

With the driver, we’re supposed to set up to the golf ball so that it’s positioned slightly inside our lead heel. Many people like moving the ball up/forward slightly in their stance (closer to their target) in order to hit a draw.

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By moving the ball up, it often promotes a lower trail shoulder/higher lead shoulder in relation to the ground at address. To clarify, an important aspect of a draw-biased setup involves positioning your trail shoulder lower in relation to your lead shoulder.

If you want to turn it over more with the big stick, start by checking your ball position. If the ball is positioned off the inside part of your lead heel, you are in a good spot. But, if your ball position is too far back, get it further forward.

If you exhibit solid fundamentals with respect to both ball position/shoulder tilt, and you’re still not neutralizing the flight of your ball/hitting a draw, it’s time to keep digging.

Remember, force equals mass multiplied by acceleration. You have to get your weight behind the golf ball in relation to your target in order to optimize distance. Just like a pitcher throwing from the stretch, they are exploding off their trail foot/side before releasing the ball toward home plate.

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To hit a draw, get your weight behind the golf ball. Too often, players hit weak slices because they fail to transfer their weight optimally during the swing.

Get your weight into your trail foot during the backswing, back into your lead foot on the downswing before striking the ball and ultimately finishing with the club’s shaft wrapped around your shoulders as part of a proper, balanced finish.

Also, examine where your toes are pointed at the setup. If your lead foot isn’t open enough, this may discourage you from delivering the clubhead into the ball so that it produces a draw. Also, check your trail foot.

If your toes are pointed in too much, as if you’re pigeon-toed, allow yourself more freedom by opening it up. Generally, the more we open or rotate our trail foot at the setup, the more we can rotate our lower/upper body during the swing.

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Also, it may promote more weight transfer. Rotating the trail foot open will help you get your weight where it needs to be in order to deliver a more powerful punch at impact. A more powerful punch is often made visible in one’s more draw-biased ball flight.

If you’ve performed all of the above and you’re still struggling, you can always strengthen your lead hand on the golf club. Remember, a neutral grip involves placing your lead hand on the grip so that you can see 2/2.5 knuckles on your lead hand when you address the ball.

Check to make sure your grip isn’t too weak. The weaker your grip, the more susceptible you are to hitting slices. Keep in mind that grip changes are awkward and take time to get used to. If you’re a fairly experienced player and your grip is fairly neutral/comfortable, strengthening your grip may be uncomfortable and not in your best interest.

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In attempting to hit more draws with the driver, start by adjusting your ball position so it’s further up in your stance. If that doesn’t do the trick, evaluate how level your shoulders are in relation to one another.

If they’re level with one another in relation to the ground, you may struggle hitting draws. Dropping the trail shoulder or raising your lead shoulder promotes a sweeping action at the bottom of your swing. By sweeping the ball more, you will naturally hit the ball higher and have a better chance of turning the ball over with a draw.

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