You Have Two Options with a Slice

You have two options with a slice – you can either try to fix it or learn to love it.  The choice is yours.

Based on everything I see and read the most common problem for the average golfer is the slice and if you do a Google search on “fix a slice” you will get about 31,700,000 results, most of which are useless or incorrect.

The simple thing to do is just learn to love it.  When I say this the first response I get is: “My slice is why I can’t break 100.”  Not true.

Over the years I have known many golfers that learned to score well and have fun while playing a slice.  One example in particular was a self-taught golfer that sliced everything.  Now I don’t mean a fade, I’m talking big time curving slice.  We used to kid him about wearing out the insert in his driver sideways (back in the days of persimmon).  He also had a single digit handicap and shot consistently in the 70’s.

I would say his secret was—but I hate the term secret in golf just because there is no such thing—what he had learned to do was slice the ball the same amount every time.  In other words he became consistent at hitting a slice.  This way he knew where to aim and line up to get the ball where he wanted it.  Dogleg left holes were more difficult, but he could still get it in play.

The reason most people have a difficult time with a slice is that they fight it on every swing.  This means they never swing the same way twice.  You can never become consistent trying NOT to slice the ball.  By learning to slice the ball the same amount every time, you actually learn to hit the ball much more consistently solid.  As you get more comfortable with it your swing will actually improve a lot from a repeating consistently standpoint.

One last point I would make.  My friend that shot in the 70’s did have a good short game and putting stroke, but anyone can develop that with a little effort.

Hope this helps you learn to love your slice.  I would appreciate if you follow me as I start to write more for Golficity.  I  promise to only put good simple tips out here.  I also tweet several times daily about golf and post on Facebook.  Between those two I have several thousand followers.  Come join me and have some fun.

Cover Photo via Flickr