I’ve written several times on how to hit fades and draws, and this one is probably my best post on the subject.
There are other ways to get this done, though, and you should be acquainted with a few of them. The ones I am going to talk about today involve the hands.
Let’s review the problem to be solved. To fade, the clubface must be open to the swing path. To draw, the clubface must be closed to the swing path.
Here are several ways to get that done with your hands alone.
When you set up, your right palm (left palm for left-handed golfers) faces a certain direction, and you can feel the orientation of that palm against the club and in relation to the other hand. I wrote about this a few weeks ago.
When you take the club back and through and that feeling of orientation doesn’t change, you will hit a straight shot, all things being equal.
To hit a draw, feel like your palm has turned toward the other hand just a little bit as you bring the club into impact. That “just a little bit” part is important. Don’t overdo it.
To hit a fade, do the opposite. Feel as if the right palm has turned away from from the other hand and you come into the ball.
Note: this does not mean the hands have gotten closer together or separated. They stay as united as they were at address.
If you have feeling of the palm having moved, you will get it right. If you actually move the palm, you will overdo it and hit a slice or a hook, which you don’t want.
Another way to get this done is by altering the orientation of your hands during the takeaway.
When you take the club away, your forearms naturally rotate. Retard the rotation slightly and the clubface closes. Over-rotate slightly from normal and the clubface opens.
From there, hold that orientation throughout the backswing and forward into the ball.
A third way is a different way of looking at the first way. To draw, turn your right palm down as the club comes into the ball. To fade, turn the right palm upward.
A fourth way is entirely mental and relies on giving your unconscious mind instructions and then staying out of its way as it tells your body what to do.
If you look at your hands as they approach impact, the right palm faces somewhat upward, squares up at impact, and appears to turn and face downward following through. It is as if your hands are rotating. They aren’t, though. It’s the forearms that are rotating, but you get the idea.
To fade, think about delaying the rotation until a touch after impact. That will leave the clubface open at impact. To draw, think about rotating a tiny bit early. The clubface will then be closed at impact.
A fifth way is to swing back normally, and on the forward swing, to fade, think of the heel of the clubhead leading the clubface into the ball. To draw, think of the toe of the clubhead leading the clubface into the ball.
These thoughts will be felt in a subtle movement of the right hand of which there is no need to control deliberately. The shift will happen by itself and hopefully give you a controllable amount of curve.
Five ways to think about working the ball. Five ways of saying the same thing, probably. Pick one and work on it.
The benefit of these methods is that you can use the same setup and the same swing and still be able to move the ball. The more things you do that are the same, the easier golf is.
But to do something different with the ball, you have to change something that you do, which means you have to practice until you own that change.
