Symptom
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.
Where a shot starts is governed almost entirely by where the clubface is pointing when it meets the ball. That is the relationship this symptom sits on, so the questions work back from the start line rather than from anything about your swing.
Common ways golfers describe this
Why do my chip shots go left?
Pulling my chips left
Why do my wedges go left?
Pulling wedge shots left
Pitch shots going left
- Target line
- Club path
- Clubface
Narrow it to one cause
Each question is here because golfers answer it differently, and that difference is what rules a cause out. Nothing is generated while you answer: every question, cause and fix was written and checked in advance.
A few questions · no account needed
What you will be asked
- Compared with where you aimed, which way does the ball set off?
- Sole the club behind the ball for a normal chip. Where does the leading edge point?
- Lay one club along your toes and hold another across your shoulders. Where do the two point?
- Mark the face of your wedge and hit five chips. Where are the marks?
- Once it has set off, does the ball hold that line or bend?
Where this can come from
These are the causes this symptom resolves to, in the order they turn up most often. That order is not a diagnosis and it is not your answer: two of them can produce a shot that looks identical from behind. Each has a fix you can read now, whether or not you answer anything.
Face closed at impact
The face points left of where the club is travelling. The ball starts left of the path and keeps turning left, and because a closed face also removes loft, the flight is usually lower and more diving than the golfer expected. The same closed face that produces a playable draw produces a hook once it outruns the path by enough.
Read the fix
Face open at impact
The clubface is pointing right of where the club is travelling when it meets the ball. Start direction is governed almost entirely by where the face points at impact, and the curve comes from how far the face sits open to the path. An open face is why the ball starts right, curves right, and loses height-adjusted distance: loft is effectively added as the face rotates open.
Read the fix
Clubface aimed off at address
The face is soled pointing somewhere other than the intended start line before the swing begins. It usually happens when the stance is taken first and the face is squared to the body rather than the target, or when the grip is completed after the club is already on the ground. Everything the swing does afterwards is a correction for a starting error.
Read the fix
Body aimed left of target
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.
Read the fix
Out-to-in swing path
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.
Read the fix
Contact on the hosel
The ball meets the rounded hosel instead of the face, so it leaves at an extreme angle with almost none of the speed the swing produced. Whatever move caused it, the fault itself is purely a question of where the club met the ball.
Read the fix
Related symptoms
These are not here because they sound similar. Each one can come from a cause on the list above, which is why fixing one sometimes quietly fixes another. The closest matches are first.
- The ball curves the opposite way to the shape I playedYou 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.Shares face closed at impact
- Bunker shots come out right or left of where I aimedThe 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.Shares face open at impact
- Everything is going leftYour 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.Shares face closed at impact
- The clubface opens or shuts as soon as I take it backStopped 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.Shares face open at impact
- Hooking the ballThe 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.Shares face closed at impact
- Coming over the topSomeone 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.Shares face open at impact
What this rests on
- 40+ TrackMan Parameters ExplainedTrackMan, 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
- How to Use Face to Path Data to Improve Your GolfFlightScope, accessed 2026
- 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
If something here contradicts what a launch monitor tells you, say so. Corrections change the page.
Discussion
Golfers who have had this shot, on what it turned out to be and what sorted it. Read it as experience rather than diagnosis: the questions above are what narrow it to a cause.
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