Power Fade Choosing a Ball Flight (Video) - by Pete Styles
Power Fade Choosing a Ball Flight (Video) - by Pete Styles

So the shot we’re now going to discuss is a shot that sometimes has a bit of a misinterpretation. We’re going to talk about a power fade. Now the amount of golfers that have talked to me how they have a power fade and then I let them hit a few shots and actually what they have is a slice. They just setup and they just slice the ball but because they slice the ball a long way they call it a power fade. And I think it’s not a bit tongue-in-cheek. They know it’s not a power fade. They know it’s a big slice. But a power fade has a genuine place in the game of golf. We only have to look at players like Bubba Watson or even Tiger when he was in his prime. They go to this kind of stock shot, particularly for Watson it’s really the way he plays or how the way he sees, an awful lot of shots out on the golf course are power fades.

So a fade is different to a slice in that a fade is a shot that deliberately and intentionally moves left to right and does land on the intended target. So as a right-handed golfer, we’d be setting the ball off down the left hand side of the intended target line, fading it back in towards the middle and landing it on target. And a slice is a ball that sets off left, goes to the right but overdoes it, overcooks it and finishes out of bounds or in trouble, not a good shot is a slice. So often people say to me oh I faded out of bounds. Well now you can’t really fade a ball out of bounds. We would like to say technically a fade lands on the fairway and it’s a decent shot, you sliced it out of bounds if you hit a bad shot. So a power fade is an intentional left to right moving shot for a right-handed golfer but it’s a good shot and happens deliberately, goes a long way, we don’t lose a great deal of power with it. And actually some of the longest hitters, Bubba Watson, Tiger Woods, good long hitters of the intentional power fade. In this next little mini series, we’re going to look at how we can hit that power fade and how it can be useful to your game as well. 2015-08-12

So the shot we’re now going to discuss is a shot that sometimes has a bit of a misinterpretation. We’re going to talk about a power fade. Now the amount of golfers that have talked to me how they have a power fade and then I let them hit a few shots and actually what they have is a slice. They just setup and they just slice the ball but because they slice the ball a long way they call it a power fade. And I think it’s not a bit tongue-in-cheek. They know it’s not a power fade. They know it’s a big slice. But a power fade has a genuine place in the game of golf. We only have to look at players like Bubba Watson or even Tiger when he was in his prime. They go to this kind of stock shot, particularly for Watson it’s really the way he plays or how the way he sees, an awful lot of shots out on the golf course are power fades.

So a fade is different to a slice in that a fade is a shot that deliberately and intentionally moves left to right and does land on the intended target. So as a right-handed golfer, we’d be setting the ball off down the left hand side of the intended target line, fading it back in towards the middle and landing it on target. And a slice is a ball that sets off left, goes to the right but overdoes it, overcooks it and finishes out of bounds or in trouble, not a good shot is a slice. So often people say to me oh I faded out of bounds. Well now you can’t really fade a ball out of bounds. We would like to say technically a fade lands on the fairway and it’s a decent shot, you sliced it out of bounds if you hit a bad shot. So a power fade is an intentional left to right moving shot for a right-handed golfer but it’s a good shot and happens deliberately, goes a long way, we don’t lose a great deal of power with it. And actually some of the longest hitters, Bubba Watson, Tiger Woods, good long hitters of the intentional power fade. In this next little mini series, we’re going to look at how we can hit that power fade and how it can be useful to your game as well.