Find your fault
Every symptom on the site
Pick the one that sounds like your shot. A few questions then narrow it to the cause that fits, and the fix is written for that cause. Nothing sits behind the search box: if it is published, it is here.
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Ball flight
The ball starts in the wrong direction, curves the wrong way, or flies too high or too low.
Slicing the ball
The ball curves hard to the right and finishes well right of where you aimed.
I can't hit a draw
You set up to curve the ball from right to left and it fades anyway, or it starts right and never turns back, so the draw is never there when you want it.
Coming over the top
Someone has told you, or the camera has shown you, that the club swings out and across the ball from the top, and your shots pull left, slice right, or do both.
Hooking the ball
The ball turns hard left and runs a long way after landing, whether it starts left and dives further left or starts right and crosses back over the target.
Losing distance
Shots carry noticeably shorter than they should with the same club, sometimes even when the strike felt solid, and a shorter club goes as far as a longer one.
Misses go both directions
One shot goes hard left and the next goes hard right, so there is no reliable side of the hole to aim away from.
Shots balloon and fall short
The shot climbs far higher than it should, stalls at the top of its flight, and drops almost straight down well short of the target.
I can't hit a fade
You try to move the ball from left to right and it draws anyway, or it starts left and stays left, so the controlled fade off a tee or into a right-hand pin never comes off.
Getting stuck
On the way down the club drops too far behind you and the arms feel trapped, so the shot either blocks straight right or flips hard left.
Ball flight is too low
Shots leave on a flat line, never climb to a proper height, and land short of what the club should carry, even when the strike feels acceptable.
Everything is going left
Your misses all finish left of the target, some flying dead straight on a line left of it and some bending further left as they go.
Everything is going right
Your misses all finish right of the target, some flying dead straight on a line right of it and some bending further right as they go.
Not releasing the club
The face never seems to turn over through the ball, the finish feels held off, and shots either block right or fade away weakly.
The clubface opens or shuts as soon as I take it back
Stopped where the shaft is parallel to the ground, the face is already pointing up at the sky or down at the ground instead of matching the angle of your spine.
The ball curves the opposite way to the shape I played
You aim off to allow for your usual fade or draw, the ball curves the other way instead, and it finishes about twice as far offline as a straight miss would.
Contact
Fat, thin, topped, shanked, or struck off the wrong part of the face.
Topping the ball
The club catches the top of the ball and it scuttles along the ground instead of climbing.
I strike it well off the ground but badly off a tee
Shots off the turf behave, but once the ball is teed up the strike, the height and the direction all fall apart, because nothing in the setup or the delivery changed for a ball sitting above the ground.
Hitting it fat
The club hits the ground before the ball and takes turf first, so the shot comes out heavy, weak and well short of the target.
Hitting it thin
The leading edge catches the ball near its middle instead of the face meeting the back of it, so the shot comes out low and hot and stings your hands.
Lifting your head, or being told to keep it down
Someone tells you that you looked up or lifted your head, almost always after a topped or thin shot, and the advice that follows is to keep your head down.
Losing posture: standing up or dipping in the swing
Your body does not finish the swing at the height it started it: you rise up out of your address posture, or sink down toward the ball, and the strike moves between thin, topped, heeled and fat as the bottom of the arc moves with you.
Can't compress the ball
Contact feels soft and glancing instead of crisp, the club sweeps the ball off the turf without leaving a divot after it, and the flight is high, floaty and short for the club in your hands.
Shanking the ball
The ball meets the hosel instead of the face and squirts away low and almost sideways, sharply right of where you aimed.
Skying it off the tee
The top edge or crown of the club catches the ball, it pops almost straight up, lands a fraction of its normal distance away, and leaves a scuff mark on top of the head.
One fat, the next one thin
Contact never settles: one shot is hit behind the ball, the next is caught thin, and only a few come out of the middle.
Chicken wing through impact
The lead elbow bends and pulls up and away through impact instead of extending, so the club rises early and shots come out thin, weak and often curving right.
Divots pointing left or right of the target
The divot after the ball angles clearly left or right instead of running along the target line, which is the plainest record on the ground of which way the club was travelling.
Divots that are far too deep
The club digs a deep gouge out of the turf instead of a shallow strip, so even a small error in where it bottoms out turns into a heavy, short shot.
Fine off a tee, hopeless off the turf
The same club is playable when teed up but gets topped, thinned or chunked from a fairway lie, and the longer the club, the worse it gets.
Hitting it low on the face
The marks sit below the centre of the face, in the bottom grooves or on the bottom edge, and the shot launches low, spins too much and falls well short of the club's distance.
Good off mats, bad off real grass, or the reverse
Contact that looks fine off a range mat, a home mat or a simulator turns fat or thin off real turf, or a golfer who strikes it well off grass cannot hit off mats at all.
Perfect practice swing, bad real swing
The practice swing brushes the turf in the right place and finishes balanced, but with a ball in front of you the strike turns fat, thin or topped.
The strike is in a different place every time
Impact marks land in a different spot on the face with each swing, so the same club flies a different distance and bends a different amount from one shot to the next.
Suddenly can't strike it at all
Ball striking that was reliable last month has collapsed on the range and on the course alike, with a new miss such as a shank, a top or a chunk that was never part of your game.
Toe shanks
The ball comes off the very end of the face and shoots low and sharply right, or simply squirts away weak and short, and the mark is out on the toe rather than on the neck of the club.
Hitting it off the toe
The ball comes off the end of the face with a dead, hollow feel, flies shorter than it should, and off a driver or wood it often curves left.
Hitting it off the heel
The ball comes off the inside of the face near the hosel with a clunky feel and less distance, and off a driver it tends to curve right.
Hitting it high on the face
The marks sit above the centre of the face, up toward the top grooves rather than on the crown, and the shot climbs higher than it should and still comes up short.
Missing the ball completely
The swing goes past the ball without touching it, and the ball is left sitting where it was or topples off the tee.
Setup
Grip, aim, posture, ball position and stance: the faults that are fixed before the swing starts.
I don't aim where I think I do
The strike feels fine but the ball finishes offline, because your feet, shoulders or clubface point somewhere other than where you think they do.
I never know where the ball should be in my stance
The ball sits somewhere slightly different each time you set up, and the strike changes along with it.
My grip is too strong or too weak
Your hands sit turned too far one way on the handle, the face keeps arriving open or closed, and the ball misses to the same side shot after shot.
I never know how high to tee the ball
You guess the tee height, or it changes from hole to hole, so teed shots come off the crown, the top edge or the bottom grooves, and the miss changes with the height.
Cramped over the ball, or reaching for it
At address you feel crowded with no room for your arms, or stretched out reaching for the ball, and the strike marks drift toward the heel or the toe of the face.
Gripping too tight and tense over the ball
You hold the club so hard that your forearms are tight before it moves, or the handle twists in your hands at contact, and the swing comes out short, stiff and hard to repeat.
Posture at address looks wrong
Your address looks hunched, too tall or sat down into the knees, and contact swings between fat and thin because the body cannot hold that shape once the swing starts.
My hands are too far ahead of or behind the ball at address
Before the swing starts the handle sits well ahead of the clubhead, or level with it, or behind it, which changes the loft and the face aim you are starting from.
My shoulders and head tilt the wrong way at address
Seen face-on, your trail shoulder sits level with or higher than your lead shoulder, or your upper body leans a long way back, so the arc is out of place before the club moves.
I don't know where my weight should be at address
Before the club moves your weight is already loaded onto the trail foot, jammed onto the lead foot, or pushed out onto your toes or back onto your heels.
My stance feels too wide or too narrow
You wobble over the ball or lose your balance in the swing, or cannot turn from a base that feels too wide, and the strike wanders between fat and thin with it.
Short game
Chipping, pitching, and the shots inside full-swing range.
Blading chips across the green
The leading edge catches the middle of the ball on a chip or pitch and it shoots off low and hot, running across the green and well past the hole.
Chunking chips and pitches
The club hits the grass before the ball on a chip or pitch, so the ball pops forward a fraction of the distance you wanted, sometimes only a few feet.
No distance control on partial swings
Anything less than a full swing finishes well short or well long of the number, so the in-between wedge yardages are the least predictable shots you have.
I can't judge how far a chip will carry and roll
The strike is acceptable, but chips land somewhere other than planned and finish a different distance every time, often running well past the hole.
I don't know how to set up for a chip
Ball position, stance width, weight and hand position change from one chip to the next because nothing about the address position is settled, and contact and trajectory change with them.
Chipping yips
A sudden jab, flinch or freeze takes over just before impact on short shots, producing chunks and blades that never turn up in a full swing.
Chips and pitches start left or right of the target
The strike and the distance are fine, but the ball sets off to one side of the flag, pulled left or pushed right, and finishes wide of the hole or off the green.
Chips and pitches always come up short
Chips and pitches keep finishing in front of the hole, either floating up soft and dropping dead or running out of pace on the fringe, even when the strike does not feel badly wrong.
Chips and pitches won't check
Short shots land and run out instead of grabbing, so the ball finishes well past the hole even when the strike felt fine.
One chip fat, the next one thin
Around the green one chip digs into the turf and dribbles a few feet, the next catches the ball thin and runs across the green, and almost nothing comes off the middle of the face.
I almost never get up and down
After a missed green, the chip or pitch rarely finishes close enough to one-putt, so the hole costs a shot almost every time.
Ball resting against the collar of rough
The ball sits on the fringe with thicker grass right behind it, so the club snags on the way in and the shot comes out stubbed, popped up or bladed.
Chips from greenside rough come out dead or fly the green
From the rough beside the green the ball either stays in the grass and moves a few feet, or jumps out with no spin and runs off the far side.
Chips grabbed by grainy, sticky grass
On Bermuda or another grainy grass around the green the club drags in the turf and the chip comes out dead short, or it skids off down-grain grass and runs through the green.
Chips come out too low
Every chip leaves the face on a low, flat line and runs out, so you have no shot that stops quickly when you are short-sided or have something to carry.
Every short shot flies the same distance
Different wedges, and different swing lengths with the same wedge, all finish at roughly the same yardage, leaving no club for the distances in between.
Flop shots slide under the ball or get bladed
The high, soft shot either pops straight up and travels a few feet, or catches the ball thin and races low over the green.
Putts from off the green come up short or hop offline
Putting from the fringe or the fairway, the ball bounces through the longer grass and dies well short, or you give it plenty to make up for that and it races past.
Chips off greenside slopes go wrong
Chipping from a slope beside the green, the leading edge sticks into the upslope and the ball pops up short, or the club skids off the downslope and the shot races past the hole.
Bunkers
Greenside sand, fairway bunkers, and awkward lies.
The ball won't come out of the bunker
It takes two or three swings to escape: the ball moves a few feet in a spray of sand, or comes out low, hits the face and rolls back to your feet.
Can't make clean contact from a fairway bunker
From a decent lie in a fairway bunker the club finds sand before the ball and the shot dies well short, or it catches the ball thin and sends it low into the lip.
Taking too much sand in the bunker
The club goes into the sand well behind the ball and throws up a big pile of it, and the ball pops up weakly and often stays in the bunker.
The sand is rock hard, or soft and fluffy
In wet or firm sand the club skips off the surface and blades the ball, and in deep powdery sand it digs, loses its speed and leaves the ball in the bunker. The shot that works in normal sand fails both ways.
The long bunker shot, 30 to 80 yards from the sand
From a bunker well short of the green, the normal splash can never reach the flag, and trying to pick the ball clean sends it over the green or into the lip.
Plugged lie or fried egg in the bunker
The ball has buried itself where it landed, sitting in its own crater with part or all of it below the sand, and your normal bunker shot either leaves it there or sends it out low and hot.
Short-sided in a bunker and the ball won't stop near the flag
The flag sits just over the lip with little green to land on. Trying to hit it softly leaves the ball in the sand or blades it, and a clean escape comes out with no spin and runs well past.
Blading the ball out of the bunker
The club catches the ball instead of the sand, sending it out low and fast across the green, into the face, or into trouble beyond.
Bunker shots finish short or run way past
Getting out is no longer the problem: the ball leaves the bunker every time but finishes nowhere near the hole, dying on the fringe or racing off the back of the green.
Bunker shots come out right or left of where I aimed
The ball gets out cleanly but starts well right of the flag after opening the face, or pulls left along an open stance, so good escapes still finish on the wrong side of the green.
Sloping lies in a bunker
The ball sits on an upslope, a downslope, or above or below your feet in the sand, and the shot that works from a flat bunker lie comes out fat, thin or well off line.
Freezing up and quitting on bunker shots
The moment you step into a bunker the tension builds and the swing slows or quits in the sand, so every bunker shot is a lottery and you have started aiming away from flags just to keep out of the sand.
Putting
Start line, speed, and the putts that keep missing the same way.
Missing short putts
Putts from three to six feet, the ones you expect to hole without a second thought, keep sliding past the edge or lipping out.
No distance control on the greens
Long putts finish well short or well past the hole, so the first putt seldom leaves you a tap-in.
Three-putting too often
Too many greens take three putts or more, usually because the first putt leaves a second that is longer or harder than it should be.
My head moves or I look up too early on putts
Your head turns or lifts to follow the ball before the stroke is finished, and your shoulders and the putter go with it, which costs both the start line and the strike.
The putting yips
A sudden jerk, flinch or freeze takes over the stroke, mostly on short putts, and the ball leaves the face on a line or at a pace you never chose.
Putts don't start on the line I picked
The ball leaves the putter left or right of the line you chose, so a putt you read correctly still misses.
Misreading the break
Putts you struck the way you meant take more or less break than you allowed for, and miss, often below the hole on the low side.
Uphill putts come up short, downhill putts run away
Flat putts finish about the right length, but uphill putts die well short of the hole and downhill putts race past it or bend far more than you played for.
My wrists break down in the putting stroke
Your hands and wrists hinge or flick during the stroke rather than moving with your arms and shoulders, so the start line and the roll change from putt to putt.
I've lost my putting stroke
Putting that used to be the best part of your game has fallen apart over a few weeks or rounds, and nothing you have tried has brought it back.
I can't putt on grainy greens
On Bermuda or other grainy greens, putts into the grain pull up short, putts down the grain run past, and the ball bends in ways the slope on its own does not explain.
I putt well in practice and badly on the course
Putts that drop on the practice green start missing once you are on the course, and the misses get worse when the putt actually matters.
Putts bounce or skid instead of rolling
The ball hops or skids off the putter face before it starts to roll, so it bobbles off line in the first couple of feet and finishes shorter than the stroke deserved.
Lies and conditions
Slopes, rough, wind, wet turf, and tight lies.
Ball above or below your feet
On a sidehill lie the ball starts left when it sits above your feet and right when it sits below them, and the strike slides toward the toe, the heel or the hosel as your balance goes.
Flyers from the rough that fly the green
From light rough the ball comes out hot, carries past the flag or keeps running after it lands, and finishes over the back of the green off a swing that felt normal.
Can't advance it from thick rough
From deep grass the club feels as if it stops in the lie, and the ball comes out weak and short or squirts out low and left into more trouble.
The wind wrecks my ball flight
Into the wind the ball climbs, stalls and drops well short, and across the wind your usual curve turns into a much bigger one.
Tight lies, bare ground and hardpan
Off firm, bare or closely mown ground the club bounces into the ball or catches it around the middle, and the fear of chunking it makes the next one thinner still.
Uphill and downhill lies
When the ground rises or falls toward the target, the club digs into the slope or catches the ball thin, and even the clean strikes fly the wrong height and distance.
I can't hit it low when I need to
When you need a low punch under branches or under the wind, the ball still comes out too high and clips the trees or climbs into the breeze.
Tempo and pressure
Rhythm, the first tee, and the swing that works on the range but not on the course.
Great on the range, lost on the course
You strike it well ball after ball on the range, then the same swing starts topping and chunking it, or sending it sideways, as soon as the round begins.
I fall apart on the first tee
The opening tee shot comes off topped, duffed or sideways, far below your normal standard, and it can take several holes before your game settles.
One bad shot turns into a blow-up hole
A single poor shot becomes a triple bogey or worse, and the damage often carries on into the next few holes.
I play much worse when it counts
Your scores in competitions, matches and any round with something riding on it are far worse than your casual scores, and a good score coming into view only makes it worse.
I keep taking on shots I can't pull off
The big numbers come from decisions rather than swings: going for greens out of range, threading gaps through trees and firing at every flag.
My swing feels rushed and too quick
The swing snatches from the top with no rhythm to it, and the smooth practice swing you made a moment earlier turns quick and jerky once there is a ball in front of you.
I overthink my swing on the course
Several swing thoughts compete while you stand over the ball, the swing comes out stiff and unfamiliar, and the harder you try to apply what you have been working on, the worse the shots get.
Losing balance and falling out of the finish
The swing ends in a stumble, a step or a fall instead of a finish you can hold, and the strike is unpredictable with it.
My setup is different every time
There is no set sequence before your shots, so aim, ball position, stance and grip drift from one swing to the next, and you often arrive over the ball still unsure of the shot.
Not here?
The list is not finished and does not pretend to be. If the fault you came for is missing, describing it in your own words is the fastest way to get it written. A gap someone reports is worth more than a guess about what to cover next.
You can also read how a diagnosis is reached before you trust any of it.