You're Correct!

Off centre hits are common amongst every golfer regardless of those playing at the highest level or just beginning their golfing journey. It is what the golfer learns from these off centre hits which enable them to improve and try to prevent them from happening in the future.

It is important to understand that a heeled strike can occur from any swing path depending on what your arms and body do through impact but a heeled strike in synonymous with an out to in swing path because this swing path produces a slice or a fade whereby the club face is left open. This would encourage the head to approach the ball heel first. On an iron shot, heel shots can very quickly escalate into a shank which can prove very detrimental to your game and confidence.

If you are aware that your shots fade or slice, then you should be aware that your swing path is out to in so when heel strikes occur, you also know the reason is the swing path. Without changing the path, your club face can be straightened up by releasing the hands quicker or earlier so the heel is not leading the club head into the ball. This will produce a straight pull but the strike will be better, resulting in the correct distances being hit.

If you hit push shots or draws and you start to catch the ball from the heel then the in to out swing path is causing this strike. Heel strikes from an in to out swing path can occur through actually standing too close to the ball so make sure that your set up positioning with every club is as good as it can be. That would be the easiest solution to the heel strikes, however, the other solution could be what the arms are trying to do through impact and you need to make sure that they are driving towards the target to encourage centred strikes. A good drill would be to try and go for the opposite strikes and hit the ball from the toe. This will help slightly rework your swing leading to cleaner strikes.

Heeled shots will occur when the club face is open at impact which would send the ball from left to right in the air and depending on the swing plane, the slice could be a big one.

The sweet spot on a driver is in the middle of the club face and above the equator line. This area of the face decreases the spin rate at impact and helps the ball fly further.

Heeled strikes will create a lot of spin around the axis of the golf ball sending it away with a shorter distance and potentially poor direction. Low spinning distance drivers need to come from the centre of the club face.