The fix for In-to-out swing path

Fixing an in-to-out swing path

What is actually happening

The club is travelling right of the target line through impact. With the face closed to that path the ball hooks; with the face square to it the ball is pushed straight right and never comes back. It is frequently the residue of an over-applied slice fix, which is why the miss often changes sides rather than disappearing.

Target line
Club path
Clubface
Square path

Path right of the line, face square to it

The fix

The club is travelling right of the target line when it meets the ball. It approaches from inside the line, on your side of it, and is still heading outward at impact instead of moving along the line. This page is written for a right-handed golfer, so left-handers should mirror every direction in it.

What the ball does 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 how much it curves. With the face closed to the path the ball curves left: a small gap gives a draw that starts right and comes back, a large gap gives a hook, and a face that is also left of the target gives a ball that starts left and keeps going. With the face square to the path there is no gap at all, and the ball flies straight right of where you aimed. That is the push, and it never comes back.

Those misses are what separate this fault from two it is often mistaken for. A weak grip leaves the face open, so the ball tends to start right and curve further right. A face aimed off at address can send the ball right with no curve at all, which looks exactly like a push in the air. The difference in both cases is on the ground. With those faults the path can be running down the target line, so the divot points at the target while the ball does not. With an in-to-out path the divot itself points right.

To confirm it, stand behind a few divots taken with a mid-iron and compare them with your target line. Divots pointing right are direct evidence of the path, not an inference from the flight. Then film from behind your hands, with the camera pointing down the target line. The clubhead comes into the ball from well inside the line and carries on out to the right after impact, instead of swinging back to the left of the line as it passes the ball. With a driver, check the strike before blaming the path: a strike toward the toe adds right-to-left curve through gear effect, so a hook with a toe mark on the face is a strike question first.

The path is set before impact, mostly by the setup and by what the body does coming down. The club swings on an arc around you. Aim your feet and shoulders right and the arc tends to tilt right with them. Play the ball too far back and it meets the club early on that arc, while the head is still travelling outward. Let the hips slide toward the target without turning and the path stays right of the target. So check the setup first: body lines parallel to the target line, and the ball no further back than the middle of your stance with a mid-iron. Then, coming down, keep the chest turning toward the target through the ball so the club can swing back left of the line after impact.

The instinctive fix for a hook is to aim further right to leave room for it. That tilts the arc further right, widens the gap between path and face, and bends the ball harder left. The other instinct is to hold the face open through impact. That closes the gap and stops the hook, but the face now matches a path that still points right, so the ball is pushed straight right instead. The miss has changed sides without anything being fixed. It is the same pattern that often creates this path in the first place: a slice cured by swinging further and further out to the right until the curve reverses.

Expect the shape of the shot to change before it settles. As the path moves back toward the target line, whatever the face was doing behind it becomes visible: some shots will start right and drift right, others will start left. That is information about the face rather than a new fault. Fix the path first, then deal with the face.

Drills

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

The exit gate
Put a headcover on the ground about a foot in front of the ball and a few inches beyond the target line, on the far side from your feet. A path working out to the right carries the club straight into it after impact. Make half-speed swings with a mid-iron, without a ball at first, letting the club swing back left of the line as it passes where the ball would be. Once you miss the headcover ten times in a row, add a ball. Add speed only after five solid strikes in a row that also miss it, and move to full swings when that holds.
Needs A headcover or a spare glove
Parallel lines at address
Lay one alignment stick on the ground just beyond the ball, parallel to the target line, and a second parallel to it along your toes. Take your stance, hold a club across the front of your shoulders, and check it on a phone clip taken from behind: it should run parallel to the sticks, not point right of the target. Check the ball against the toe stick as well, no further back than the middle of your stance with a mid-iron. Set up ten times, stepping away between each. Start hitting shots once your shoulders match the sticks on every setup without adjustment.
Needs Two alignment sticks, or two spare clubs and a phone
Chest-high, left finish
With a mid-iron, hit three-quarter shots and hold a finish with your chest facing the target and your hands around to the left of your body at about chest height, rather than high and out toward the target. Hold each finish for a count of three. Hit ten, then stand behind the divots. Success is divots pointing at the target and shots that start nearer the target with less curve to the left. When eight of ten divots point at the target, move to full swings with the same finish, and only then take it to the driver.
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.

Free, and there is no password: you sign in with a link sent to your email, and you come straight back here.

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.

Divots taken with a mid-iron point at the target rather than right of it.
On a phone clip from behind, a club held across your shoulders at address runs parallel to the target line rather than aiming right of it.
The ball sits no further back than the middle of your stance with a mid-iron.
Filmed from behind, the clubhead swings back to the left of the target line after impact instead of carrying on out to the right.
Shots start nearer the target and curve left less, or not at all.

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.

After the ball, the club swings out toward left field.
The chest keeps turning until it faces the target and drags the arms around with it.
The hands finish low and around you rather than high and out toward the target.

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

40+ TrackMan Parameters ExplainedTrackMan, accessed 2026
How to Use Face to Path Data to Improve Your GolfFlightScope, accessed 2026
The Influence of Face Angle and Club Path on the Resultant Launch Angle of a Golf BallPaul Wood, Erik Henrikson, Chris Broadie, 2018
Experimental study of the gear effect in ball collisionsRod Cross, University of Sydney, and Alan M. Nathan, University of Illinois, 2007

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