How to Stop Slicing the Golf Ball: 7 Fixes That Work

To stop slicing the golf ball you have to fix the two faults behind every slice: an out-to-in swing path and a clubface that is open relative to that path at impact. The path starts the ball left of target, the open face carves sidespin across it, and the ball peels hard right. Fix your grip so the face can square up, then swing more from the inside — and the banana ball turns into a gentle draw. Here are seven fixes, worked from the most common cause to the least, plus a two-week plan.

What Actually Causes a Slice

A slice is spin, not bad luck. When the clubface points right of your swing path at impact, the ball takes on clockwise sidespin and curves away to the right for a right-handed player. Almost every slicer combines two errors: they swing on an out-to-in path (the club travels across the ball from outside the target line, finishing left), and the face stays open to that path. The out-to-in path alone would pull the ball straight left; it is the open face that turns the pull into a curving slice. Diagnose your own miss before you change anything — if the ball starts left and curves right, that is the textbook slice and the fixes below are aimed straight at it. Understanding the whole motion first, through our guide to how to swing a golf club, makes each fix land faster.

Fix 1: Strengthen Your Grip

Start here, because a weak grip is the single most common cause of an open face and the fastest thing to change. Rotate both hands slightly away from the target on the club until you can see two or three knuckles on your lead hand looking down, and the V’s formed by each thumb and forefinger point up toward your trail shoulder. A stronger grip lets your hands naturally return the face to square through impact instead of leaving it hanging open. It feels strange for a few swings and you may even hook one or two — that is the face finally closing. Our full walkthrough of how to grip a golf club shows the exact hand positions to copy.

Fix 2: Close the Clubface Through Impact

Even with a good grip, many slicers hold the face open because they never let the club release. Through impact the toe of the club should rotate past the heel — think of the clubhead turning over like a door swinging shut. A simple checkpoint: at waist height in the follow-through, the toe of the club should point up at the sky, not out at the target. Rehearse it in slow motion, feeling your lead forearm rotate over your trail forearm just after contact. This is the release that squares the face, and it is covered in depth in our breakdown of golf swing technique.

Fix 3: Swing From the Inside (Fix the Path)

If your grip is sound and you still slice, the culprit is the out-to-in path. You are swinging across the ball from outside the line, usually because your upper body throws the club “over the top” at the start of the downswing. The cure is to start down with your lower body — feel your lead hip clear first while your arms and club drop behind you, then swing out toward an imaginary point at right field rather than pulling left across your body. Dedicated golf swing path drills train this inside delivery better than any single swing thought, because they give you instant feedback the moment the club comes over the top. This same out-to-in move is why chronic slicers sometimes flip into shanks, so if the ball starts squirting dead right off the neck, our guide on how to fix a shank in golf attacks the identical root path.

Fix 4: The Headcover Drill

Place a headcover (or an empty water bottle) on the ground a few inches outside and just behind the ball, on your target line. Make swings that miss the headcover on the way down. If you swing over the top from out to in, you will clip it every time; to avoid it you are forced to route the club to the inside and approach the ball from the correct direction. Start at half speed with a mid-iron, and only add speed once you can clear the headcover ten times in a row. It is the most direct feedback loop there is for killing an out-to-in path.

Fix 5: The Gate Drill for the Clubface

Push two tees into the ground just wider than your clubhead, forming a narrow “gate” straddling the ball on your target line. Swing through the gate without clipping either tee. A slicer who comes over the top with an open face will nick the outside tee on the way in; grooving a swing that passes cleanly through the gate trains both a squarer face and a more neutral path at once. Combine it with the golf swing drills matched to your specific miss for a full practice menu rather than random ball-beating.

Fix 6: Check Your Alignment and Ball Position

Slicers often make the slice worse by aiming further left to “allow” for the curve — which steepens the out-to-in path and adds even more slice spin. Lay an alignment stick along your toes and confirm your feet, hips, and shoulders are parallel to the target line, not aimed left of it. Open shoulders alone will send the club over the top. Play the ball slightly forward for the driver (off your lead heel) so the face has time to square up before contact, and make sure your trail shoulder sits lower than your lead shoulder at address, which pre-sets an inside approach.

Fix 7: Fixing the Slice With a Driver

The driver magnifies a slice because its length and low loft add sidespin and leave less margin for a late-squaring face. Tee the ball higher so roughly half the ball sits above the crown, play it forward off your lead heel, and widen your stance for a shallower, more sweeping angle of attack. Then exaggerate everything above — a slightly stronger grip, an in-to-out feel toward right field, and a full release where the toe passes the heel. Most amateurs never let the big stick release, which is why the slice shows up worst here. Our guide to how to hit a driver covers the setup changes that stop the tee shot leaking right.

Common Mistakes That Keep the Slice Alive

Aiming further left. The instinct to aim left of a slice only steepens the out-to-in path and adds spin. Aim at the target and fix the cause instead.

Swinging harder. More speed with an open face equals more sidespin, so a hard swing curves more, not less. Swing at 75 percent while you rebuild the pattern.

Changing five things at once. Grip, path, and face all interact. Fix grip first, groove it for a few sessions, then move to path — layering changes one at a time is how they stick.

Skipping slow reps. Full-speed swings let the old pattern take over before the new one is grooved. Every drill above should start slow. Beginners in particular benefit from the pacing in our golf swing tips for beginners.

A Two-Week Plan to Stop Slicing

Week 1 — Grip and face. Reset to a neutral-to-strong grip and hit soft half-shots at 50 percent, four short sessions this week, feeling the toe rotate past the heel through impact. Do not chase distance; you are teaching the face to square.

Week 2 — Path. Add the headcover drill and the gate drill. Do ten slow reps of each, then hit five real balls and watch the flight. When the ball starts drawing gently left, build back to full speed in stages, checking that the curve stays gone.

Fix the grip and the face, then the path, and the slice does not just shrink — it flips into a draw. Once the ball is turning left instead of bleeding right, you can turn that new shape into a real weapon by learning how to hit a draw with a driver on purpose. That is the payoff, and it is why the order of these fixes matters more than the number of balls you hit. Take one fault to the range at a time, keep the swings slow until the feeling is automatic, and let the course be where you finally trust it.