Symptom
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.
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
Clubface rolls open when I take the club back
Clubface pointing at the ground in the backswing
Leading edge angle at hip height
Leading edge should match my spine angle
Clubface at hip height in the backswing
- Target line
- Start 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
- Swing back until the shaft is parallel to the ground and stop. Where is the face pointing?
- Before the club moves, sole it behind the ball and look at the leading edge. Where does it point?
- Looking down at address, how many knuckles can you see on your lead hand?
- What do the shots do on the days this is at its worst?
- Stop at that same point three swings in a row. Is the face in the same place each time?
- In the first foot of the takeaway, what moves the club?
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 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
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
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
Grip too strong
The hands sit rotated away from the target on the handle, so the face tends to arrive closed unless something else compensates. A strong grip is not a fault by itself and many good players use one, but paired with a path already moving right it is what turns a draw into a hook.
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
Face angle varies shot to shot
The face arrives open on some swings and closed on others, so shots scatter to both sides while the path stays roughly the same. This is variance rather than bias, which is why aiming further right or left never helps: there is no single miss to aim away from. It is the fault behind most two-way misses.
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.
- My grip is too strong or too weakYour 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.Shares grip too weak
- Not releasing the clubThe face never seems to turn over through the ball, the finish feels held off, and shots either block right or fade away weakly.Shares face open at impact
- 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 open at impact
- Everything is going rightYour 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.Shares face open at impact
- Chips and pitches start left or right of the targetThe 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.Shares face open at impact
- Slicing the ballThe ball curves hard to the right and finishes well right of where you aimed.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
- 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.
Loading the discussion