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Symptom

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.

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

  • I keep hitting it right
  • Everything goes right
  • All my shots go right
  • Can't stop going right?
  • My misses are all right
Club path square to the target, face square 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 meets the target line at the ball travelling straight down it, so its direction at the ball matches the target. A short solid line at the ball is the clubface. It points along that path, so there is no gap between them and nothing to bend the ball. 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.
  • Target line
  • Club path
  • Clubface
The two things a shot's shape comes out of, seen from above: where the club is travelling at the ball, and where the face is pointing. They are drawn matched here, which is the only state that curves nothing.

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.

Start the questions

A few questions · no account needed

What you will be asked

  1. Watch a few of the right misses all the way down. Which describes them best?
  2. Set up to a target, lay a club along your toes, then step behind the ball and look down that club. Where does it point?
  3. At address, how many knuckles can you see on your top hand when you look down?
  4. Mark the face and hit five shots with the club that goes right most. Where do the marks gather?
  5. With a mid-iron, where does the ball sit between your feet?

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.

  1. 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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. Grip too weak

    The hands sit rotated toward the target on the handle, so the lead wrist has to do extra work to square the face in the time available. A weak grip does not cause a slice on its own, but it makes an open face the default outcome rather than something the golfer has to actively produce.

    Read the fix

  5. Strike toward the heel

    Contact inside the centre of the face costs ball speed, and on a large head it twists the face closed around its centre of gravity, adding fade-side spin through gear effect. A heel strike and a shank are the same fault at different severities.

    Read the fix

  6. 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.

What this rests on

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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