Top 100 Teacher: How to shallow your transition and fix your slice

Most golfers have struggled with a slice at one point or another. It’s the most common miss in golf, and it’s caused by an open clubface to the swing path and usually one that’s moving too far to the left — or from out to in.

Swing path issues often times start in a golfer’s transition from the backswing to the downswing. Golfers need to shift, rotate and then spring up on the downswing. Doing those things in the wrong order usually results in errors in swing path. It’s what makes the transition such a critical part of the golf swing, and getting it wrong can inhibit your ability to hit good shots.

The first thing I want you to feel in your transition is a move laterally into your lead side with your lower body. Keep your chest from spinning open as you feel your weight shift to your lead side. You want to feel like your chest faces away from the target. When you execute it correctly you’ll feel the club drop to the inside or shallow, as I’m demonstrating below.

Now you can rotate your hips open through the ball. Rotating too soon is often what causes an out-to-in swing path, but because you’ve shallowed the club in transition and shifted your weight laterally, you can now rotate freely on the downswing without the club moving too far left. Right before impact, push out of the ground for more added power.

No two golfers are the same, but learning the proper sequence of the lower body in the downswing will help shallow the club in transition, swing more from the inside, and will help you find a pattern in your swing for more crisp, powerful shots, without fear of a slice.

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