The fix for Body aimed left of target

Fixing a body aimed left of the target

What is actually happening

Feet, hips or shoulders point left of the ball-to-target line. It usually starts when the shoulders swivel open to follow the eyes toward the target, or when a golfer aims left on purpose to allow for a slice. The path tends to follow the body, so aiming further left to allow for a slice reliably makes the slice worse.

Feet, in the footprints: square to the line
Hips, cross ticks: square to the line
Shoulders, round ends: square to the line
Target line

Body parallel, not at the flag

The fix

Your feet, hips or shoulders point left of the line that runs from the ball to the target. Left-handers mirror this, so for you the body points right. The ball and clubface sit on the target line, and the body belongs on a second line parallel to it, like the two rails of a railway. A body set that way passes left of the flag by about the distance between your toes and the ball, and that is correct. The fault is pointing further left than that. It usually comes from the shoulders following the eyes: the feet go down parallel, then you look up at the target, the shoulders turn with your head and never come back, and they settle open. Sometimes it is deliberate, a golfer allowing for a slice by aiming away from it.

Aim matters because the path tends to follow the body, the shoulders in particular. With the body open, the club travels left of the target line through impact. What happens next depends on the face. Where the face points decides, for the most part, where the ball starts, and the gap between face and path decides the curve. If the face points left along with the body, the ball starts left and flies straight, which is a pull. If the face points at the target while the path runs left, the face is open to that path, so the ball starts near the target or a little left and bends right, a fade that grows into a slice.

Two grip faults get mistaken for this one, and the ball separates them. A strong grip closes the face, so the ball curves left, often low. Tight grip pressure makes the face vary, so misses scatter both ways. A body aimed left moves the path, so you get pulls that start left and fades that start left of where you meant, with divots pointing left even on shots you struck well.

You cannot judge aim from address, because standing beside the ball distorts every line you look at. Check it from behind. Set up to a target as normal, lay a club along your toes, then step back behind the ball and compare that club with the line to the target. It should run parallel, not angle away to the left. Feet can be square while the shoulders are open, so check those as well. Put a phone on the ground a few paces behind the ball, on the target line, set up, and hold a club across the front of your shoulders without moving them. The shoulder club and the target line should head toward the same point in the distance.

The change happens before the swing, in the order you build your setup. Stand behind the ball and pick a mark on the target line a metre or so in front of it: a leaf, an old divot, a darker patch of grass. Set the clubface to that mark first. Then set your feet parallel to the line from ball to mark, then your hips and shoulders to match. Look at the target by turning your head, not your shoulders. Aiming at something close is far easier than aiming at something a long way off. An open stance chosen on purpose for a bunker shot or a short pitch is a different matter; this page is about full swings.

The instinctive fix for a slice is to aim further left and let it curve back. The path follows the body further left, the face sits even more open to that new path, and the slice grows to fill the room you gave it. Closing the feet while the shoulders stay open does not help either, because it looks square from above the ball and leaves the path where it was.

If the ball starts right of the target for a while after you square up, the face was open to the target all along and the aim was hiding it. That is useful information rather than a reason to aim left again.

Drills

Work through them in order. Each one says what it needs before you start.

Railway lines
Lay one alignment stick just outside the ball, pointing at your target, and a second parallel to it along your toe line. Hit ten balls with a mid-iron, setting up to the sticks each time and stepping behind the ball before every shot to confirm they still run parallel. Then remove the toe stick and hit ten more using only the target stick. After setting up for each of those, lay a club along your toes and check it against the stick. Success is eight of the ten toe lines parallel without shuffling your feet. Hit full shots without either stick once you manage that in two sessions running.
Needs Two alignment sticks
Shoulder club on camera
Lay an alignment stick on the target line and put a phone on the ground a few paces behind the ball, pointing at the target along that stick. Set up to a ball, then, without moving your shoulders, hold a club across the front of them with both hands. Record five setups, walking away and starting from scratch each time. Success is five clips in which the shoulder club and the stick head toward the same point in the distance. If the shoulder club points left of that point, rebuild the setup and film again before hitting any balls, then hit ten shots and film one more setup at the end to see whether it held.
Needs An alignment stick and a phone
Intermediate mark routine
For every ball in a 20-ball session, stand behind the ball and pick a mark on the target line about a metre in front of it. Walk in and set the clubface to that mark before your feet settle. Then set feet, hips and shoulders parallel to the line from ball to mark, and look at the target by turning your head only. Do not adjust your feet after glancing at the flag. Success is twenty balls in which your feet never shuffle round after the look, and divots that point at the target rather than left of it. Once the session runs cleanly, use the routine for every full shot on the course.
Needs nothing but a club

Browse every drill on the site

Practice plan and log

Practise this fix, day by day

Keep a dated log of every session against this fix, so in a few weeks you can read back whether the change has taken instead of trying to remember.

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Or turn this fix into a practice plan

With a free account, the drills above become a 14-day plan: the setup checks and the first drill for three days, then the next drill, a rest day every fourth day, and a re-test on the last day that sends you back through the questions. Each day is a short list to tick off at the range, with reminders by email or in your calendar if you want them.

How the 14 days run

Day 1Ten balls as a baseline, then the setup checks and the first drill
Days 2 to 3The first drill again, one checkpoint and one feel a day
Day 4Rest, as are days 8 and 12
Days 5 to 11The next drills in turn, each warmed up by the one before
Day 13Every drill once, then every checkpoint
Day 14Re-test: the baseline again and the questions for your symptom

Checkpoints

What to look for to know whether the change has taken.

Viewed from behind the ball, a club laid along your toes after you set up runs parallel to the target line.
Filmed from behind on the target line, a club held across your shoulders at address heads toward the same distant point as the target line, not left of it.
A club held across the front of your hips agrees with the one along your toes.
Divots point at the target, not left of it.
Well-struck shots start on or near the target line instead of left of it.

Feels

A feel is not a description of what the club does. It is whatever gets your body to do it, and a correct change usually feels exaggerated long before it looks correct.

Your body feels aimed well right of where you used to set it, even when the sticks say it is square.
You turn your head to look at the target and the shoulders stay exactly where they were.
The trail shoulder feels further back from the ball than it used to.

Symptoms that lead here

Each of these can resolve to this cause. If the page above does not match what you are seeing, start from the symptom instead and let the questions narrow it.

If this is not it: causes that produce the same shots

What this rests on

Search for the Perfect Swing: The Proven Scientific Approach to Fundamentally Improving Your GameAlastair Cochran and John Stobbs, for the Golf Society of Great Britain, 2005 reissue, originally 1968
40+ TrackMan Parameters ExplainedTrackMan, accessed 2026
How to Use Face to Path Data to Improve Your GolfFlightScope, accessed 2026

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