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Every amateur golfer wants to draw the ball, especially those who slice it. Drawing the ball creates more ball speed for distance and a penetrating ball flight which will not be as affected by poor weather conditions as those who fade the ball. When the ball lands on the fairway, it will run further. Invariably, those players who move the ball from left to right in the air create more back spin on the golf ball which hinders any extra roll when compared to the flight of a draw.

To draw the ball, the swing path needs to be in to out relative to the target with the club face closed to the path and there are many adjustments on the set up that can be changed to achieve this ball flight.

Firstly, the body alignment needs to be slightly closed relative to the parallel target line, with the club face pointing right of where the body is pointing. This aids the player in creating an in to out swing path.

The shoulders, in particular, play a huge role in helping a player create an in to out path because the initial movement away from the ball should be with the shoulders. As they are pointing right of the target already, a straight back movement on this line will have the golf club inside the line of the target, encouraging it to continue right of the target through impact.

To practise this for an improved ball flight, use your standard parallel alignment and then adjust your shoulders, hips and feet so they are all pointing just right of the target. This will feel very strange at first, but all golf adjustments do!

From this set up position, start your back swing using your shoulders and hips and get the feeling that the down swing, impact and follow through are all pushing out to the right of the target. At first, the ball may follow but once the timing improves, the club face will start to rotate through impact to create that wonderful penetrating draw.

When a drill for this alignment adjustment is carried out then the ball will go right but once the golf club timing improves, with familiarity of set up changes and swing adjustments, the club face will rotate through impact drawing the ball back on to the target.

Closing the shoulders to the target to create a draw will not hit the ball higher. Dont let this be confused with tilting the shoulders to the sky as you may do with a driver when putting more weight on the right side at set up.

Closing the shoulders at set up is aimed at hitting the ball from right to left, however, if the ball starts hooking left then the release of the hands and the rotation of the club face through impact needs to be amended as it is too fast for the golf swing.