GolfIssues
Search

Menu

Sign in or create a free account

Optional. Every page reads in full without one.

Contact

Symptom

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.

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

  • Two way miss
  • I hit it left and right
  • Can't tell which way its going?
  • One hole left next hole right
  • Hook or slice never know which
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. Think about your last few big misses on each side. Where did they start?
  2. Mark the face and hit ten shots with the club that goes both ways. What does the pattern look like?
  3. Does the two-way miss show up on the range too, or mostly on the course?
  4. Before each tee shot, do you set tee height, ball position and aim the same way every time?
  5. With an iron, which way do your divots point?
  6. Push a stick into the ground just outside your front hip at address and make slow swings. Does the hip slide into it?

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 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

  2. Strike scattered across the face

    Contact lands somewhere different on nearly every swing, so distance and curve change shot to shot even when face and path are reasonable. Centredness is a cause in its own right, and it is measurable in two minutes with face tape.

    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. No repeatable setup or routine

    Aim, ball position, stance width and grip get rebuilt slightly differently on every shot, so face angle, low point and strike location all vary with them. Address is the reference the whole swing is measured from, and a reference that moves explains misses that seem to have no pattern.

    Read the fix

  5. Hips sliding instead of turning

    The lower body moves laterally toward the target without rotating. The low point travels forward with it while the path stays right of target and the face is left behind, which is the combination that produces a block one swing and a hook the next.

    Read the fix

  6. Grip pressure too tight

    Holding the club hard enough to tense the hands and forearms makes the delivered face angle less repeatable and shortens the motion. It is the most common physical expression of pressure, which is why the same golfer strikes it well on the range and loses the face on the first tee.

    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.

Loading the discussion