Ball flight

Symptoms in this group

Each one starts from something you can see for yourself. Open it to find what that shot can come from.

• 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.