GOLFTEC: Avoid the Right Rough by Improving Your Hand Path

Start encouraging a draw and hitting more fairways by moving your hand path more inside during the backswing

By GOLFTEC Digital

Golf is supposed to be a community game. Yet, for the slicers among us, it’s hard to enjoy our playing partners’ company when constantly searching for your ball in the right rough.

If that strikes a chord and you’ve seen enough of your slice, it’s time to straighten out your swing and rejoin your group in the middle of the fairway. All it takes is a tweak to the path your hands travel in the backswing and some practice.

Move inside to hit the middle

A telltale sign of a slicer’s swing is often found in the backswing.

Banana ballers often move their hands on a straight line away from the target line or even outside of that, farther away from their body. This encourages an “out-to-in” swing path and clubface that’s pointed up toward the sky, or “open” in relation to the target line and swing path.

An out-to-in path and open clubface is the technical cause of the pull-slice many amateurs struggle with.

So, to rectify the situation and instead promote a drawing ball flight, it can help to move the path of your hands more inside (or behind you) during the backswing, and focus on the knuckles of your lead hand turning down toward the ground.

This move encourages an “in-to-out” swing and closed clubface in relation to the path, which is how that desirable, right-to-left curving ball flight is created.

As many mechanics of the golf swing work in tandem, a more inward hand path can also increase the turn of your hips and shoulders (and subsequently add distance!) in addition to changing the shape of your ball fight. So, let’s just say it’s a good thing for your swing all around.

GOLFTEC Director of Teaching Quality, Zach Lambeck, recently stopped by Golf Channel’s ‘Morning Drive’ to discuss how changing the direction of your takeaway can turn that slice into a draw. So, check out the video below and once you’ve practiced enough to engrain this new move for good, you’ll say so long to your slice and reconnect with your buddies in the short grass.

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VIDEO: How to Avoid the Right Rough

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Colorado AvidGolfer Magazine is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it, publishing eight issues annually and proudly delivering daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.

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