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Your golf swing path is one of the crucial factors that influences the direction that the golf ball flies in and whether it flies straight or curves in the air. Understanding your golf swing path will allow you to straighten up your golf shots and become much more accurate. Being able to hit the golf ball closer to the target means that you will take fewer shots to play the hole and your scores and handicap will improve.

wing path refers to the direction of travel that the club head is moving in through impact with the golf ball. This can easily be illustrated if you place an alignment pole, or other golf club, on the ground to represent the target line that you want the golf ball to fly along. The far side on the target line is known as the outside and the side that you are standing on to take up your address position is known as the inside. As the club head approaches the golf ball, to hit a straight golf shot, you need to be swinging the club head from just on the inside of the target line so that the club head travels along the target line as it strikes the golf ball and then just back on to the inside of the target line again on your follow through. If the club face is aiming down the target line as you swing the club head on this swing path, you will hit a straight golf shot at the target.

If the club head is approaching the golf ball from the outside of the target line, then to strike the ball, the club head has to travel from the outside to the ball and then it will continue across to the inside. Effectively, it cuts across the target line as it strikes the golf ball, rather than swinging directly along it. The converse is true if the club head approaches the golf ball too much from the inside of the target line. From this position, the club head has to move towards the golf ball to strike it and therefore swings across the target line from inside to outside through impact, cutting across the target line rather than swinging directly along it.

If the club face is aiming in the direction that the club head is travelling in, then a straight golf shot will be played. However, a straight golf shot from an out to in swing path produces a pull, or a golf shot that flies straight left of the target. If the club face is square to an in to out swing path, then a straight golf shot is hit, but this time producing a push, or a shot that flies straight right of the target.
If you have the club face aiming at the target as you strike the ball on one of these swing paths, a curved shot will be produced. How much curve is generated during the flight of the golf ball will depend upon how much of a difference there is between club face aim and swing path.

The term used for how you swing the club head away from the golf ball is your takeaway. Golf swing path refers to the movement in the club head as the head swings through impact. It indicates the direction that the club head approached the golf ball in and then the direction that it moved through the strike in.

Swing path is not the position of the club face. It is the direction of travel of the club head through impact. It is very connected with club face position as the face position and the swing path of the club head create the flight that is seen in the golf ball. But face aim and swing path are two separate elements.

Ball flight is influenced by swing path. But it is a combination of swing path and club face aim that influences the ball flight that is seen. Ball flight is far more influenced by club face aim than it is by swing path. Club face aim is about 85% responsible for the golf balls flight, compared to swing path only influencing the flight by about 15%.