Symptom
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.
A ball curves because the face and the path through impact disagree. The flight alone cannot tell you which of the two is out of place, because a face problem and a path problem can produce the same shape, and that is exactly what the questions separate.
Common ways golfers describe this
Divots point left
Divots pointing way left of target
Divot points left ball goes straight
What your divots tell you about your swing?
Divot left and the ball slices
- Target line
- Your flight
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
- Stand behind the divot and look down the line from where the ball sat to the target. Which way does the scar point?
- Now lay a club on the ground along your toes, the way you were standing for that shot. Does the divot run parallel to it, or angle away from it?
- With a mid iron, where does the ball sit in your stance?
- Set up to a target on the range, step away without touching your feet, and look at that toe line from behind the ball. Where does it point?
- Where does the divot begin, compared with where the ball sat?
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.
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
In-to-out swing path
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.
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
Body aimed right of target
Feet, hips or shoulders point right of the ball-to-target line. Right-handed golfers do this far more often than they believe: a square stance runs parallel to the target line, so the feet point at a spot left of the flag, which looks wrong from address. Turning until the feet point at the flag aims the body right. Shots either go right with it or require a compensating move across the ball.
Read the fix
Ball too far forward in the stance
The ball sits ahead of where the swing arc reaches its lowest point. With an iron off turf this means the club is already climbing at contact. It also encourages the shoulders to aim left at address, which pulls the path further left and adds curve to the miss.
Read the fix
Ball too far back in the stance
The ball sits well before the low point, so the club is still descending steeply when it arrives and delivers less loft than the club actually carries. Flight is low and the ball meets the face while the path is still travelling right, which is why a back ball position so often adds a push or a hook.
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.
- 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 out-to-in swing path
- I can't hit a drawYou 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.Shares out-to-in swing path
- Slicing the ballThe ball curves hard to the right and finishes well right of where you aimed.Shares out-to-in swing path
- Divots that are far too deepThe 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.Shares out-to-in swing path
- 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 out-to-in swing path
- Chicken wing through impactThe 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.Shares out-to-in swing path
What this rests on
- 40+ TrackMan Parameters ExplainedTrackMan, accessed 2026
- 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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