Hitting fades and draws on demand, or what many seasoned players call “working the ball”, is such an art form that many golfers are just happy hitting the ball straight or simply away from trouble. Hitting fades and draws can be very beneficial to your golf game.
The understanding of how to “work” golf shots is all about having the knowledge of certain spin on the ball. This is very similar to a pitcher looking to change the spin on his curve balls to fool batters. Pitchers work long and hard at controlling the effect of spin on the baseball. You see this in games where a pitch starts down the centre and literally snaps low and outside. The next pitch will be altered slightly to look like it has the same delivery and spin but moves slightly and catches the corner of the plate for a strike. Major League pitchers work hard on their strategy to be as deceptive as possible. The most effective pitchers are the ones that can control the spin of their pitch. It’s the same in golf. The best players know what their ball is doing better than anyone else. If a pitcher just tries to pitch fastballs for strikes, he’ll have short term success before batters catch up. You need diversity to be effective. In golf, very few holes are straight.
Hitting a fade is what many top players in the world are attempting to accomplish. It’s been proven that a fade is much easier to control and takes less effort and timing to perfect. Golf courses are larger and require the ball to stay in the air longer. Typically a fade will carry further than a draw and land softer. Combined with power, a well-controlled fade can be a deadly weapon. As we progress our games to a higher level it becomes more apparent that we need to eliminate a miss or a particular side of the golf course. If you struggle with hitting an untimely hook, you may want to understand and possibly incorporate the basics of hitting a fade.
The outline below will give the basic steps and understanding of how to hit a fade or draw.
A fade, for a right handed golfer (left handers please take note that everything is opposite), is simply a golf shot that starts out slightly left of the target and gently moves from left to right finishing on the target line or just right of it. In order to accomplish this ball flight we need to have a left to right spin on the ball. To create this we must do the following.
The combination of a weaker grip, ball position and slight out to in swing path will put a very effective left to right spin on the ball. To add more spin to create a larger fade just aim a little further left of target, weaken the grip a little more and if required swing the club a little more out to in.
A great adage to remember while hitting a fade is this “Swing (through impact) to the left, Ball goes right”
Hitting a draw is essentially the opposite of hitting a fade. The ball flight will be a right to left one that starts slightly right of the target (left of the target for left handed golfers) and finishes on the target line or slightly left. A draw has more ball speed and travels through the air lower than a fade. When it hits the ground the tendency will be to roll out and have more distance than a fade. In order to accomplish the desired left to right spin for a draw follow the steps below.
To control the effect of spin just practice working from one extreme to another within each of the steps. Practicing fades and draws can be extremely fun and adds imagination, creativity and memorable shots to your golf game.
