instruction
The path to success
David Williams
www.willowgolf.com.au
T
he majority of students that I see will
slice the ball. The rest will hook, with
few knowing the correct path on the
downswing. To learn to hit it straighter, let’s
look at why the ball curves in the air.
The main thing that golfers do to curve the
ball is to have an open or closed clubface
compared to the club’s path through impact.
Gear effect will also cause the ball to curve
in the air, even if the path and face angles
are both at 0º. Gear effect happens when
the ball is struck towards the toe or heel
of the club. A ball struck towards the toe
will produce draw/hook spin and a ball
struck towards the heel will produce fade/
slice spin. The path and face angle of the
club through impact can directly influence
the golfer’s ability to hit the sweet spot on
the club face, and have a greater effect on
curvature of the ball through the air. So we
will focus our attention on the club’s path
versus club face angle at impact.
Outside the plane on the downswing, the golfer will swing across the target line
So let’s look at a slice. We know the face is
open to the path at impact. Why?
club face to the ball by manipulating the face
will cause inconsistent results in ball flight.
Is the outside-to-in path causing the face
to remain open or is the open face causing
the golfer to swing across the ball? That’s a
chicken or the egg question.
Once the golfer has worked on their neutral
grip, the turning open and rolling closed of
the club through impact , it shouldn’t take too
long to feel how much this needs to occur to
produce a straighter ball flight in the air.
When the club head path and club face
angle differ, the ball will curve. If the face is
open to the clubhead path the ball’s axis will
tilt and the ball will fade/slice. Conversely, if
the face is closed to the club head path the
ball’s axis will tilt and the ball will draw/hook.
I believe we should correct the face angle
first to allow the ball to fly straight in the
air and then the golfer should correct the
path. An open face at impact can be caused
by a number of faults in a swing, but the one
thing I nearly always see is the club face not
turning back and rolling through impact. The
act of moving both arms around the body
in a swing should see the hands turning and
rolling through impact. The sensation would
be that the club face is turning open on the
backswing and then rolling closed on the
downswing into finish.
The tilting spin axis of the golf ball is
exactly like an airplane flying. When it’s
flying straight, its wings, or horizontal axis,
is level. When it wants to turn, it banks
its wings, or tilts its horizontal axis and it
turns. The more it tilts its horizontal axis the
sharper the plane with turn.
One thing that can have a major impact on
club face rotation is the grip. A strong grip
will usually cause the clubface to close on the
way back and the golfer will subconsciously
react by attempting to open it on the
downswing. This goes against what should
happen bio-mechanically so presenting the
To achieve a straight ball flight, the club face
angle must be pointing in line with the club
head’s path. i.e. if the club face angle is 0º when
compared to the clubhead path (both in the
same direction at impact) the ball will fly straight.
If the club’s path is still across the ball the
golfer merely needs to feel like they are
swinging to the opposite direction.
In the photo, we can see how a typical
right-handed golfer who slices the golf ball
looks prior to impact on the downswing. The
club is above the swing plane and will
therefore be required to swing across the
target line through impact. Depending on
how much the face remains open to the path,
the ball could start slightly left of target but
then fade or slice to the right.
To correct the above picture, We must
understand that as we are standing side on
to the target and swing the club around our
body, the club must travel back, up and in on
the backswing and should follow a similar
path on the downswing. This means the club
should not be directly behind and definitely
Path versus Face differences and corresponding
spin axis tilts
not outside the ball on the downswing. The
club head should attack the ball from a
diagonal delivery path and square up to the
ball at impact.
For a golfer who slices to achieve this, the
golfer may feel like they need to hit the ball
from in-to-out and roll the face closed to
achieve a square impact and square face. If the
golfer who has been slicing wants to hit the
ball straight they will probably need to feel like
they are hitting a draw or hook. The analogy I
use for students is to pretend they are playing
tennis and are required to hit a top spinning
shot down the Right-Hand sideline. Hit out
through the ball and roll the hands.
The opposite would also be true if a golfer
hooked the ball. The club face is closed
to the path to create a draw/hook so the
golfer may feel like they need to hit a fade to
straighten their ball flight out. •
David Williams is Head Teaching Professional
at Patterson River Golf Club. He is also a Master
Instructor at t