Golf Slice vs. Golf Hook

Golf is a game mostly loved by Chinese and Australians. In this game, the player hits the ball and directs it towards holes. The player has to do it in minimum strikes as possible. Just imagine how peaceful it would be seeing the sun shower its warmth and radiance on the grass of a pretty vast golf club. Golf was invented in Scotland in 1457. It is an easy game and very ravishing to play but there are certain short comings in the shots which some people experience and they turn out to be problematic especially golf slice and hook.

What Is a Golf Slice?

Golf Slice is a shot in golf in which the ball when hit by the player curves away from the side of the dominant hand of the player. Considering the dominant hand of the player to be right, the ball will curve towards the left side and if the player is left hander, the ball will swing towards the right side of the player thus the shot would be missed and it may be troublesome for the player.

We can see clearly in this picture that the ball has swung towards the left side of the player.

What Is a Golf Hook?

Golf hook can be considered somewhat the opposite of slice shot. In this shot, the ball when hit by the club covers its path in one direction, say right side for a right handed person, and then it changes its path to the opposite direction, the left hand side. Similarly, if the person is left handed, the ball will travel to the left side initially after impact and then after some time it will change its direction towards right side and continue travelling in that direction. In the picture given below we can see the projectile motion of the ball and it is clear that the shot changes its direction during its path.

Now that the two types of shots are clear we will see further,

• The various reasons leading to distorted motion of the ball and occurrence of slice and hook.
• How to overcome these problems and become a better and a professional player.
• Comparisons of two shots and arrive at a conclusion of choosing one shot over the other.

Why Does My Shot Slice?

Your shot is most likely to slice because of swinging of the ball towards a particular direction or because of open clubface during impact.

Now several factors may lead to swinging and open club facing the two of which are cupping and body positioning:

1. Cupping/Open Club Face

Cupping of your wrist occurs if you extend your wrist beyond a limit. During impact, your grip has to be sufficient and for a sufficient grip, you must look into the way you are holding the club and hold it in a way that you get the maximum control of your club. One of the reason why slicing occurs is the club face facing way too much to the right hand side. This is also called open club face.

2. Body Alignment/ Body Positioning

Your slightest wrong posture and body positioning may become a key factor causing slicing of your shot. The right posture will be the one in which the player aims straight forward, neither left nor right. It is natural for an untrained person to aim the opposite direction of his dominant hand side which causes slicing. Suppose a right handed person will be standing to the left of the target.

Facing left is another common cause of golf slicing. A swing path that faces more left will cause the ball to slice. If you combine this with an open club face you might get an out of control slice of golf ball.

How do I stop slicing?

Stop Cupping Your Wrist/Deal With the Open Clubface

It is simple, avoid cupping your wrist and keep an optimum grip of your club and impact with a straight clubface. Hold the club in such a way that the sign on your golf glove coincides with the club. In that case, your grip will be sufficient enough to avoid cupping. Some professional golf players/coaches say that when you lift the club to swing, the club face should be around 45 degrees angle to hit the perfect, ideal and a flawless shot.

Correct Your Body Alignment

Also, don't forget to align your upper body correctly. Avoid over bending and face directly parallel to your target.

Correct Your Body Positioning

Remember, do not go left or right, stay right in plane to the target so that your shot may go straight to the hole and you can win your game within the specified number of strikes.

Why Does My Shot Hook?

As we said earlier that the hook is opposite to slice, the reason for this shot is also opposite to the slice.A shot may hook because of closed clubface during impact as we previously discussed that a sliced shot is caused by open clubface. Thus the two shots result from opposite sides of the club faces.

What causes a closed club face? If the open clubface is caused by cupping or wrist extension, the closed clubface is a consequence of arching due to flexing of your wrist. You hit a hook by developing a grip force too strong. Now again, you should look into your position of gripping the club and keep it ideal to avoid arching and to weaken the grip force.Upper body positioning also plays a role in hooking of a shot. For a dominant right hand, body positioning to the left of your target leads to a slice. Similarly, if you position your body to the right of your target as most fresh players do, you may hit a hook. So be sure to align yourself parallel to the target and not to deviate otherwise you will end up with a hooked shot.

How do I stop hooking?

Manage Your Closed Clubface

So you know that hooking results from arching or bowing of the wrist leading to a closed clubface, what you can do to avoid a hook is to improve your grip of the club and don't flex it too much. Otherwise it leads to arching of your wrist and you lose grip of the club thereby getting a closed club face.

You develop a very strong grip force of the club when hooking a shot. To correct it, you must weaken your force of gripping as shown in the image below. Align your wrist in the following position:

Correct Your Body Alignment

Do not forget to align your body such that your whole body is straight and your weight is balanced at the front and slightly more than balanced (40/60) on your back side.

Correct Your Body Positioning

Do not aim to the right side of the target which will cause your shot to hook.

Slice VS hook!

Did you know that golf was also played on the moon? Well now you know

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is an Open Clubface and Closed Clubface?

An open club face occurs when the clubface is aligned to the right side of the target. In a closed clubface, the clubface is aligned to the left side of the target.

 What Is Cupping?

In golf, cupping of the wrist refers to bending of your hand in such a way that the hand moves towards the top of your forearm and an open clubface results thus slicing the shot.

Conclusion

Golf slice and golf hook are two shortcomings of golf strokes. A slice occurs when the player's wrist undergoes cupping or his body alignment is such that an open clubface is observed and the ball swings to the left side.

In a golf hook, the player' body alignment and wrist arching leads to a closed clubface and the ball's path initially is to the left side of the player and eventually it switches its direction to the right side.