Golf Fault Diagnosis
Direct answer
A slice happens when the clubface is open relative to your swing path at impact, causing the ball to curve right for right-handed golfers and curve left for left-handed golfers. Most golfers slice because of poor body rotation, an outside-in swing path, or an open clubface at contact. Fixing it requires identifying which of these is actually happening in your swing, not guessing.
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What causes a slice
Every slice traces back to one of these. The tricky part: they look similar from the outside but require completely different fixes.
Most golfers we analyze fall into one of these three patterns:
The face points right of your swing path at impact. The ball gets sidepin and curves away from you. This is the most common cause and the most misdiagnosed.
The club cuts across the ball from outside to inside the target line. Even a square face can produce a slice with this path. Most “tips” address this and miss the others.
When the body stalls through impact, the arms take over and the face flips open. You can fix your grip and path all day but if rotation is the problem, the slice comes back.
If your miss goes the other way, see why you hook your golf ball.
Why most fixes don't work
You find a tip online. You try it for a bucket of balls. It works a little, then the slice comes back. You try another tip. Same result.
Two golfers can hit the exact same slice for completely different reasons. The ball only shows the result, it does not tell you what caused it.
The problem is not effort, it is that you are applying fixes without knowing your actual cause. A golfer with an open clubface and a golfer with poor rotation will slice identically. But the fix for one makes the other worse.
The real issue is not knowing what your swing is actually doing. Every fix you apply without that knowledge is a guess.
How to actually fix your slice
The golfers who fix their slice permanently do not find the right tip. They get clear on what their swing is doing. Once you see the actual cause, the fix becomes obvious.
SwingCheck analyzes your swing video against seven signals including clubface angle, body rotation, lateral sway, and hip position and gives you one clear fault to work on.
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Not a list of 10 things to fix. The one thing that is actually causing your slice.
Check your swing →Quick checks
These will not fix your slice on their own, that depends on your cause. But they are worth feeling before your next round.
On the downswing, your hips should initiate before your hands drop. Most slicers do the opposite, their arms fire first and the body stalls. Try making practice swings where you consciously bump the lead hip toward the target before anything else moves.
Most golfers let the face open in the last foot before impact. Try holding the face pointing at the target through the entire hitting zone past where you would normally release. It will feel like a hook. That is usually where neutral actually is.
If neither of these changes anything, your cause is structural and the fix has to come from seeing what is actually happening.
Common questions
Grip can contribute. A weak grip (hands rotated toward the target) makes it harder to square the face at impact and increases the chance of an open clubface. But grip alone rarely explains a consistent slice. Body rotation and swing path usually play a larger role, which is why fixing grip sometimes reduces the slice without eliminating it.
If the cause is isolated, say a single grip issue or a simple path problem, yes, some golfers fix a slice in one session. But if the cause is body rotation or deeply ingrained swing mechanics, expect two to four weeks of deliberate practice before the change sticks. The speed of the fix depends entirely on correctly identifying the cause first.
The driver is played further forward in your stance, which exaggerates any open face or outside-in path. Irons are shorter and hit with a steeper angle of attack that naturally reduces sidespin. A golfer who slices the driver but hits irons straight usually has a path or face issue that the iron setup masks and the driver just exposes it.
The fastest path is knowing your specific cause, then applying the correct fix. Without that information, most golfers spend weeks cycling through tips that do not apply to them. Getting clear on what your swing is actually doing through SwingCheck video analysis can cut that process down significantly.
Your cause is different from every other golfer's.
Find out exactly which of the three is happening in your swing.
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