Scott Munroe on How to Keep a Slice in Play

Golf Magazine has made a lot of its online content unavailable unless you have a subscription. (You can get to the pages but they won't respond to your mouse.) However, I keep checking things there because sometimes I find useful things that ARE available for free.

One such thing is the video at this link. In this video Top100 Teacher Scott Munroe teaches you how to keep a problematic slice in the fairway when you simply can't afford to miss. I'm going to summarize his tips here but you'll want to watch the video.

• Tee the ball on the right side of the tee. (Obviously you lefties will tee it on the left side since your slice flies right to left.)
• Tee the ball lower. Yeah, this may cost you a little distance but the lower ball flight makes it easier to reduce the slice and hit the ball straighter. Think stinger.
• Aim down the left side of the fairway. (Again, you lefties will aim down the right side.)

Let me take a moment here to make sure you understand what Munroe is saying here. He is NOT saying to open your stance. If you do that, you're only going to make your slice worse.

What you want to do is take a square stance -- a stance for hitting a straight ball -- that is aimed down the side of the fairway. (Again, righties are aimed down the left side, lefties are aimed down the right.) The idea is to aim your shot so that, if you do hit the ball straight, it will land in that side of the fairway. Got it?

• Make sure you don't have a weak grip on the club. You don't have to overdo it and turn your grip so it's superstrong. Just make sure that you can clearly see a couple of knuckles on that lead hand when you take your grip.
• Finally, when you make your backswing be sure to get your lead shoulder back behind the ball.

Again, let's make sure you understand this. You don't want a big sway away from the ball during your backswing. You're just trying to make sure you get a good shoulder turn.

Also, when you make your downswing you don't want to hang back or slide forward ahead of the ball. If you do this whole "lead shoulder behind the ball" correctly, your upper body will stay relatively centered in your stance until you smack that ball and finish your swing with your weight balanced on your lead foot.

Practice it slowly a few times to get used to the feeling because a good shoulder turn might feel strange if you haven't been making one. Here's a good checkpoint to help you know if you're doing it correctly: Your trailing knee should be over the inside of your trailing foot when you reach the top of your backswing. You can check it by using your club shaft -- if you point it straight at the ground in front of your knee, the grip end should point at the ground and not the top of your foot.

And that's all there is to it. The main mistake to watch out for is opening your stance when you need to aim a straight stance down the side of the fairway. (Remember, opening your stance increases the slice.) If you follow these steps, they should help you start turning that slice into a nice controllable fade.