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The fix for Out-to-in swing path

Fixing an out-to-in swing path

What is actually happening

The club is travelling left of the target line through impact for a right-handed golfer. Curvature is produced by the difference between face and path, so a path moving left with a face that lags behind it opens the face relative to the path and bends the ball right. The same path with a face square to it produces a straight pull instead.

Club path out-to-in, face open to itThe club's path through impact seen from above, drawn for a right-handed golfer, with the feet at the left and the target at the top of the page. A dashed line runs up the page through the ball: the target line. The club's arc crosses the target line at the ball, arriving from outside the line and leaving inside it, so the direction it is travelling at the ball points left of the target. A short solid line at the ball is the clubface. It points right of that path, and a thin arc between the two marks the gap: that gap is what bends the ball right. The figure moves. The clubhead travels the arc at an even speed and draws the path in behind it, carrying the face with it, and the face holds the same aim the whole way rather than turning with the arc. The two readings meet at the ball, which is the only moment either of them decides anything. A ghosted arc shows a path running square to the target line.
  • Target line
  • Club path
  • Clubface
  • Square path
Path left, face right of it

The fix

The club is travelling left of the target line when it meets the ball, and the face is sitting open to that path. For a right-handed golfer that is left of the line; left-handers mirror everything on this page. The gap between where the face points and where the club is travelling is what bends the ball right.

This matters more than any other detail of a slice, because the two halves explain two different things. The face decides where the ball starts. The gap between face and path decides how much it curves. A golfer who closes the face without changing the path stops slicing and starts pulling the ball straight left, which feels like a new fault but is the same swing.

So the target is the path itself. A club travelling closer to the target line at impact turns a slice into a shot that starts on line and holds it, without touching the grip or the hands.

You can read this off the ground without a launch monitor. Hit a mid-iron off the fairway, then stand behind the divot and look down your target line. A divot pointing left of the target is the path, measured directly rather than inferred from the flight. Then watch three shots all the way down and note where each one starts before it curves. Starting left and bending back right is the classic version. Starting left and flying dead straight is the same path with the face matched to it. Last, lay a club along your toes and check it with your eyes from behind the ball, because a body aimed left invites a club that travels left.

Two neighbouring causes look similar from the tee box. A ball that starts at the target and then peels right has a face open to the target and a path much closer to neutral, which is a face problem and a different page. A ball that starts right and keeps going right is not this at all. Heel strikes and the occasional shank often do travel with this pattern, because a club arriving from outside the line brings the hosel to the ball first, and the gate drill below deals with both.

The path is set well before impact. By the time the club reaches the ball there is no time to redirect it, which is why trying to "swing more right" during the strike does not work. The change has to happen in the transition, where the club first begins down.

The repairs that suggest themselves make it worse. Aiming further left to allow for the slice takes the shoulders with it, and the path follows the shoulders, so the curve grows to match the new aim. Rolling the hands to shut the face takes the curve away for a session and leaves you pulling the ball straight left, which is the same swing wearing a different miss. Swinging softer reduces the bend only because it reduces the speed. The direction the club travels through the ball is the only thing here worth changing.

Drills

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

  1. The gate

    Put a headcover just outside the ball and slightly behind it, on the line the clubhead would travel if it came from outside. Make slow swings that miss the headcover. Hitting it is the feedback; there is nothing to interpret. Start at half speed and only add speed once you clear the gate five times in a row.

    Needs A headcover or a spare glove

  2. Split-second pause at the top

    Swing to the top, stop for a full second, then start down. The pause removes the momentum that throws the club outward in transition. Most golfers find the club falls into a shallower position on its own once the rush is taken out.

    Needs nothing but a club

  3. Feet-together swings

    Hit half-shots with a mid-iron and your feet touching. A narrow base cannot support a lunge toward the ball, so the arms have to swing the club rather than the body throwing it. Ten of these before a session resets the pattern faster than hitting full shots.

    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.

Checkpoints

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

  • Shoulders at address are parallel to the target line, not aimed left of it. Aiming left is the most common reason a path stays left.
  • The trail elbow stays in front of the trail hip as the club starts down, rather than moving behind the body.
  • Divots point at the target or slightly right of it, not left.
  • The ball starts on or near the target line rather than well 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.

  • The club falls behind you as you start down, rather than moving out toward the ball.
  • You are swinging out toward right field rather than across the ball.
  • The trail shoulder works down rather than around.

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.

Show every symptom that leads here

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

What this rests on

Did this help?

One answer, and nothing is published from it. A fix that keeps getting a no is a fix that is wrong, and this is the only way that shows up.

If something here is wrong, or contradicts what a launch monitor tells you, say so. Corrections change the page.

The weekly fix

One fault a week, written the same way this page is.

One email a week: a fault, its cause, and a drill. Nothing else, and one click to leave. What arrives.

Discussion

Golfers who have worked on this fault, on what helped and what did not. Read it as experience rather than evidence.

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