The Simplest Way to Hit a Draw (Video)

This is an older video from the Meandmygolf YouTube channel that demonstrates a simple way to hit a draw. I'm going to try and make it even simpler!

The guys are changing the shot shape simply through setup. They want you to rotate the club in your hands -- more on that in a minute -- and then close your stance. (At least, they close their stance in the video.) We're going to try and make things even simpler.

Let's talk about the grip for a moment. The key thing here is that you don't grip the club and then twist your forearms because that isn't going to change anything. If you do that, you'll just roll your forearms back to normal during your downswing and slice the ball like you already tend to do!

You want to grip the club so your hands and arms are in their normal position BUT you want the club turned so the clubface is going to hook the ball. (If you're a righty, that means the clubface will be 'looking' around you to your left. If you're a lefty, that means the clubface will be 'looking' around you to your right.)

If you just do that and then you swing the club -- that is, you don't change your aim at all -- the ball is going to draw more than it normally does.

• If you normally slice the ball, it's going to start out like normal but only fade.
• If you normally fade the ball, it's going to start out like normal but go pretty straight.
• If you normally hit the ball straight, it's going to start out like normal but draw.
• And if you normally draw the ball, it's going to start out like normal but hook.

Do you understand? You don't have to change anything but your grip on the club to change the shot shape. You don't have to do anything else to get a different shot shape.

And if you're slicing the ball and you just want to straighten it out or maybe get a little draw, that's probably all you need to do. You can just change your grip enough to get that ball to land in the fairway and you'll be good to go. Congratulations!

But let's say you want to change your aim as well. Perhaps your slice was so bad that you're aimed way down the edge of the fairway and the ball is now going in the rough. What do you do?

First off, DON'T CLOSE YOUR STANCE. Closing your stance can work if, when you close your stance, you don't change the way you swing the club. But if you're trying to straighten out a slice, there's a good chance that closing your stance will make you leave the clubface open anyway and you'll STILL hit a slice or a bad push. We don't want that.

What you want to do is just move your normal stance. If you normally set up to hit the ball straight at the edge of the fairway, hoping the ball will slice back into the middle, don't open or close your stance. Instead, turn your whole body so you aim to hit the ball straight to a point closer to the middle of the fairway. (Righties, aim at the left center of the fairway. Lefties, aim at the right center.) Now your arms and hands will move the same way as they normally do and the clubface will take care of the shot shape.

If you do manage to hook the ball into the rough with this change, then you can do one of two things.

• You can aim your body closer to the middle of the fairway or even at the opposite edge if the hook is big enough.
• You can just turn the club a little less in your hands at setup.

The idea is to make as few changes as possible to get the shot shape you want. All that matters when you're trying to get the ball to land in the fairway is that it actually DOES land in the fairway.

The biggest problem you will have is trusting that the ball will now go where you want it to go -- and this doubt will go away once you practice enough to trust where the ball wants to go with the grip change.

Remember: The idea is to make as few changes as possible to get the result you want. You can do this!