We have all suffered from them at one time or another. The Slice can raise its ugly head in many shapes and forms with the inevitable result being the ball coming to rest a long way more to the right of the target than intended.

Solving the riddle Is more involved than it looks as many factors come into play. Watching YouTube videos or reading an article in Golf Digest may solve the mystery. If it works, fantastic. But what if it doesn’t work? What are we undoing in our swing while trying out the tip of the month? It’s like looking for a needle at the bottom of a haystack, and unless our swing has solid fundamentals, The card house will come tumbling down when we fiddle with our swing unnecessarily.

I look at each person’s Golf on its merits and analyse each person on the basics, thought is given, if the student can actually implement the changes and what effect this will have on the rest of the swing. Many factors are taken into consideration including age, ability, goals and frequency of play.

If somebody were about to jump off a ten story building unless their slice was cured, without having seen their swing I would give the following advice. Rather like the Golf Digest articles and YouTube scenario. All the information although very well intended and presented can be misleading if it has no relevance to our own system. Back to the situation in hand. To help calm the golfer I would suggest the following 3-point plan to straighten up the shots.

1. Strengthen up the left-hand grip and check that at least one knuckle is visible looking down at the address position.

2. Make sure that the clubhead is square at address (sounds an obvious point but it is surprising the number of people think they are square but are open).

3. Make sure that the forearms rotate correctly through impact. Emphasising the importance of the forearms and that is not the hands or wrists. These need to stay quiet. The feeling for the mid to high handicap player is that the left forearm will turn more. Most times it is as stiff as steel causing path and clubface issues. In reality, both forearms rotate evenly. The Key here being forearms not hands wrists or shoulders

Practice with a 7 or 8 Iron at the start with ¾ swings reducing the tempo and slowly build up to a full swing and tempo. In the above is no mention of planes or paths and everything else that could solve the problem of a slice. Different players need different information. That’s the art of coaching, assessing each issue and delivering effective information at the right time. The old saying still rings true, never fix something that works!

Two-Under Club members are not immune to a slice and all the other nasties that can creep into our games.

At the Two-Under Club, we are exploring the idea of video analysis whereby members send in the video footage, qualified Professionals will analyse the swing and return to members a video presentation. We do not want to take over the role of your local Professional, but we will work with your coach and can also provide you with a second opinion if necessary. This service will be a free service for members on a once a month basis. Please let us know if this is of interest. The suicidal Slicer never jumped off the building. If you missed our article on the Shank, you can find it here.

Hit it straighter and less often.

The Two-Under Club.