What causes a push slice off the tee with your golf ball? Now, the first thing we have to consider again is what is a push slice? A push by definition for a right-handed golfer is a ball that starts to the start right hand side and stays to the right hand side. And a slice is a ball that moves left to right in the air away from your target line. So, we are talking about that shot that starts down the right hand side and you kind of hoping it drills back in, but it doesn’t. It goes the opposite way and slices out further. It’s going to finish quite a long way down the right hand side of the target.

Now, the reason why the balls starts to the right hand side is because that’s where the clubface will be pointing at impact. The clubface is responsible for about 85% of the ball’s initial flight direction. So, if my clubface is open to the right hand side quite severely, maybe 5 or 6 degrees open as I make my swing, the ball will set off to the right. If my swing path is not to the right but more left than the face, the ball is now going to have cutting spin imparted on it as well because effectively the face is more open than the path. That’s cutting spin. The face is open to the target line, that’s more cutting spin and out we go down the right hand side.

So, if we could get the club coming too much from the inside with a very open clubface, then we’ve got the push slice combination. It’s often caused because a golfer is trying to come from the inside line to roll hands over to get the ball drawing. But to get the combination wrong to draw the ball, the face would have to be more left than the path. But in the push slice shot, the face is more open than the path, starts right, curves further right. It’s quite a destructive shot particularly from a golfer who’s already slicing the ball to try and to correct the slice and draw and they always double cross themselves. They end up with that push slice shot. If you understand how it’s caused, you may be able to go ahead and work on how to correct it.