i can fade (slice really) the ball easy.
For the life of me i cant create a draw. Ive tried various things.
Wtf is wrong with me?

i dont know i used to hit a big hook, then I couldn't hit anything but a fade for years, now I am back to hitting a hook and can't possibly hit a fade for the life of me.

Post swing so we can analyze.

i dont have a vid

step 1: pick a target

step 2: align your body right of the target (assuming you're right handed)

step 3: align clubface at the target

step 4: swing

lol

Two things to try:

1) Assuming you're right handed, try dropping your right foot back in your stance, so that you're toes are not even. If you were to put a shaft down in front of them, it would point right of the target.

This will create a more inside path for the club face, which will create a massive push right, or a nice draw to the left, if you rotate your hands at impact.

2) Rotate your hands and the clubhead at impact. A lot of slices are caused by lazy hands and an open clubface. By focusing on rotating your hands, and forearms through the ball at impact, you close the clubface and either get it square, in which case voila, a straight shot, or you create a slight closed clubface, which creates a draw.

If you start pulling the ball directly left (once again, for a righty) then you are overcompensating to try and hit a draw, and are coming over the top with an outside to in swing, instead of inside to out.


My suggestion is to hit the range, grab a 7 iron and shorten your backswing to half or quarter swings, just working on rotating the clubface through at impact and keeping an inside to outside swing path.

I slice the ball when i try to swing to fast. My wrist does not have time to release. It feels like i am getting my upper body ahead of the swing, causes the club face to be wide open at impact. Try slowing down your swing and think stay behind the shot.

I was same way always slices/fades NEVER a draw unless it was a duck hook crap, took some lessons he had me run through some easy things that helped.

Its simple really, you are leaving the face open in most cases so the key is not to of course. In most cases its either not rolling wrists properly OR your body is pulling your hands through and out of sync.

Couple drills I picked up that helped immensely:

Take normal half swings, not half speed but half way back with normal body tilt/turn and consciously try to roll your wrists or "touch your forearms" together with right forearm on top. (assuming right handed entire time) You will feel the wrist action more so and begin to understand it.

In the same vein also using half swings use a baseball grip but leave a couple inch gap between hands, use the same swing etc you will really be forced to roll the wrists in order to make contact.

In regards to your body pulling through your hands and leaving face open that way its simply a timing issue in most cases, just use a "swing thought" and think at the top of your swing to start your arms first. Its easier to catch your body up to your hands than catch your hands up to your body. Try even bringing back the club head slowly like normal and pause for a second at the peak and then bring it down, remember you do not need to back swing it hard to swing forward hard.

All these tips are range tips, try hittin a 1/3 to a 1/2 bucket of each drill a couple times with no regards to results EXCEPT you should be hooking/fading it. Don't care about how far or how you look to people around you just get that muscle memory down. Its not something that poof magically will happy, remember it takes a second to learn and a lifetime to master.

Now when taking it to the course here is a random tip. Take a practice swing ahead of time EXACTLY like you would a normal swing, from set up to completion and during this think of all the things you are working on (swing thoughts) BUT when you are hitting the ball for real simply clear your mind and follow your set up etc and swing thought free. All that **** in your head will **** you up if you are trying to hit a ball, I know its dumb but think of the movie Tin Cup when Costner gets the shanks and Cheech tells him to do all the stupid stuff like hat backwards, sunglasses upside down etc etc... he stopped worrying about his swing and just let his muscle memory come in and strike it perfectly.

Hope it helps you or someone.

If you are right handed. Lower your right elbow at address

One thing you should know-
as soon as you do learn to draw, your scores will probably go up.

ok, so thanks for the replies so far

i went to the range again today
once again tried varies techniques to make it happen
no luck. not even close.

i did the move the feet thing, ball went straight at the target.
i tried the roll the wrist thing, ball went straight at the target (or sometimes off to the right a little)

one shot i did manage to hook one, and it was hooked good, but to achieve this i had to address the ball with the club face facing the ground. everything about the address was normal, except the club was rotated 90 degrees from normal. i tried it with the club rotated 45 degress, and the ball went dead straight. (when i address the ball normally with no club rotation, most shots are straight, some are straight and drift right). i rotated the club so drastically to see what effect it had on the ball flight. did the 45 degrees first, and was surprised there was no effect.

does this last paragraph indicate any common swing flaws? (probably sounds retarted, but who knows)

Try putting the ball in line with your left foot, then if I'm hitting a draw I align it to my right foot...

I don't understand this thread. If you're not good enough to figure out how to hit a draw, you're not good enough to be shaping shots on the course anyway. You'd be much better off practicing your normal fade and making that shot shape work for you.

If you really want to hit a draw just for the hell of it, it's not that hard. Just keep strengthening your grip and aligning your body (your ENTIRE body, not just your feet) farther to the right until it works.

Do you understand the golf ball flight "laws"?

1. The initial direction of the ball flight is mostly determined by the angle of the club face at impact. An open club face will start the ball right, a closed club face left, and a square club face straight.
2. The curvature of the ball flight (fade, draw, straight) is determined by the club path RELATIVE to the club face, not your target, at impact. A club path outside-to-in relative to the club face will fade, inside-to-out will draw, and square will go straight in the direction of the club face.

These rules are applicable to shots hit solidly in the center of the club face. Shots hit on the heel or toe can exaggerate or ****** the curvature of the ball flight.

I am about a 4 handicap and pretty much my entire career I have just lined up to the right of my target and hit a slight draw in.

The best advice for someone that can't draw/hook the ball is to literally pretend you are on the baseball field for a minute. You are at practice and the coach has told you he wants you to hit every ball to left field. Transfer this to the golf course! As you line up to the ball, say to yourself that you are going to hit to left field and really let your arms clear and turn right over at impact. Don't be lazy with your hands or too strong. Just think left field and let it rip.

Like others have said, a 7 iron is the easiest. You really need to get this down because once you do the hook/draw gets you out of almost any tree trouble that you might find yourself in. If you can't hit a low hook, it's going to cost you some strokes at some point.

After you address and grip and before you start your swing take your right hand and make a pointer with your thumb and finger so they're not gripping the club. Focus on pushing the club back with your left hand on your takeaway and smoothly pulling with your left shoulder and hip to start the downswing. Just make a smooth swing doing this. It always creates a 10-15 yard draw for me.

Your wrist/forearm rotation is definitely an issue if you are rotating the club head that much in order to hit a hook, your body is either too far ahead or you are just not rolling your wrists at all.

By using the drill I explained with the baseball grip and gap between hands its impossible not to roll the wrists/forearms in order finish correctly, I never hit a draw in my life until I did this and understood how my body needed to feel though exaggerated in order to achieve it.

Sounds like you need to better understand what your body is doing and how it is supposed to move during a golf swing. Get some lessons is my next advice

Don't try and manipulate anything other than your grip and feet position...

Try and strengthening your grip ( Turn your left hand over more so that when you set the club down you are able to see all 4 knuckles, Then place your right hand on top like you normally would ) This will help you to roll your hands over easier without trying to manipulate them!

Then align your feet to the right of the target like mentioned and your clubface square to the target. This should "help" in your desire to hit a draw....

But I will mention this, If you have an over the top motion from the top of the downswing, it will be very very difficult for you to accomplish this, as the club is not in a position to be able to draw the ball naturally...

Or as I like to think of it:

Turn your clubface in a little and hang it out to the right.

are you youtube videos allowed ?

Corey Pavin does a nice one here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HM6wzxyWQQU

as per the general tone of thread (i think), i don't think it's that hard to draw or fade, one of them matches your general swing. i think the trick is to be able to either without giving up alot of distance (for sure, you'll usually give up some. fade because of the flight, and draw because i think you need to go at it a little easier for the early swing)

The first thing you need is the correct swing path.Check your divot lines,if you cant get your divots pointing right of target then forget it.Once you get this right(if this is even possible).Then its a matter of controlling the timing of your release.Might sound easy but I know people who spend years of their lives chasing the draw without ever even getting close to actually hitting one(pull draws or pull hooks dont count).If you want to shoot lower scores then do more work with the wedges and the putter.

lots of good advice, except that i think it may lead to pulls (which are usually great hits in general) and pull hooks.

need to find a way to start a draw to the right. usually i was pulling them to the left (well, i'm left-handed, but i adjusted this analysis).......... one thing that helped me was bobby clampett's aiming point (golf machine too?). try to aim your hands to a point slightly ahead and to the right of the ball so that your hands get to point to push the ball right. but roll them hard at same time. not that i'm huge fan but pelz really stresses swing direction vs. clubface alignment.