A draw is a golf shot that curves during its flight. For right handed golfers, a draw will curve from right to left and for left handed players the ball would draw from right to left.
This curve is pretty to watch occur when you hit a successful draw golf shot and it also has some benefits which we will discuss below if you are considering learning how to change your golf swing so you hit a draw instead of slicing, fades, or straight shots.
How to Hit a Draw Video Lesson
The reason your golf swing isn’t hitting balls to the left is due to your club face and the swing path the clubhead is traveling on as it makes contact with the golf ball.
To get the golf ball curving to the left, you need to start by getting the club face closed relative to your swing path. In simple terms, the club face needs to be slightly angled to the left as this angle creates spin on the ball, drawing the ball left.
When the club face hits the ball straight on with no open or closed angle, the ball should continue straight with no curve.
And when you hit the ball with the face angle open, relative to your swing path, then this creates that slice or fade spin sending the golf ball to the right.
So if you currently slice the golf ball, you are leaving the face open relative to your path and the first step to stopping a slice and getting the ball to draw is closing the club face at impact.
How to Close the Clubface to Draw the Golf Ball
The Takeaway
Start off by working on the takeaway. Many beginners take the club away from the golf ball on the backswing improperly and get their swing off to a bad start.
One of these errors they make is rotating the club face open during the takeaway. This makes it hard to get the clubface back shut or square throughout the rest of the swing.
Instead, focus on the takeaway and keeping the clubface square or slightly closed as you take the club back and up to the top of the backswing.
A good checkpoint is to pause when the club shaft and hands get to about weight height on the takeaway / backswing. At this point, the club shaft should be parallel with the ground and the clubhead should be straight so the face is pointing sideways, not up at the sky and not down at the ground.
Over rotate your hands and clubface during the takeaway to learn how the face rotates open or shut depending which way you’re rotating the hands. Rotate both ways so you get a feel for both. You’ll notice as you rotate the hands to close the face, it points down towards the ground as you’re taking it back on the takeaway. And when you rotate the face up towards the sky you’re opening the face up.
Now work to find the neutral position or position where the club face is slightly angled down towards the ground.
This will get the clubface in more of a closed face angle during the takeaway which can help you achieve that left curving spin needed for a draw golf shot.
Golf Resource: Foy Golf Academy Practice System + Practice Plans
The Top of the Backswing
When you get to the top of your backswing your wrist should be slightly bowed. This causes the club face to be in a closed position and can help you achieve the draw spin at impact.
The Downswing
If the club has remained open during the back swing and / or is open still at the top of the backswing, then the last chance you have to get the club face back to a closed position is during the downswing.
Work on feeling your hands slightly rotate the club face closed during the downswing. You can exaggerate this move to start off with to get the feel down of closing the face. If it starts causing a severe hook, we can work that out later. But step one is to get that ball curving left so over doing it isn’t a bad thing!
Impact & Follow Through
As you come through the impact zone and into the follow through you want to feel the forearms roll over or turn over. This helps get that club face square or closed relative to your swing path. If you’re holding off your hands and not releasing then, rolling over your forearms, then this will leave the face open and cause the slice golf shot.
Think of it like when you reach out to shake someone’s hand. Your palm is facing sideways. Not up at the sky. Now slightly roll your palm over a little bit so it angles toward the ground, while keeping your hand reaching out in front of you like you’re going to shake someone’s hand.
This is the position to be in during the follow through.
Your arm will go across your body to the left side during follow through and when it’s parallel to the ground, your palm should be facing slightly down. If you can get to this follow through position, you have properly released the clubhead through the impact zone and allowed your arms to turn over properly.
Once You Get the Ball Curving Left
Now we have the golf shot going left, either as a draw or if more severely then a hook.
In order to get the ball to curve left AND finish center of the fairway or center of the green, you have two choices:
- Aim right and left the ball curve back left to center position
- Get your swing path moving right to start the ball right, while keeping your body aimed straight
You can either change where you aim your body and your setup position, by aiming yourself to the right to account for the ball curving back left.
Or you can do the better method which is changing your swing path so it swings out to the right, starting the ball right and letting it curve back left naturally without having to adjust your stance and where your body and feet are aimed.
Changing Your Swing Path to the Right
To get your swing path moving right, you’ll need to learn how to get your hands down to the inside and moving towards the outside on the downswing.
We call this the inside to outside swing.
Most beginners (who slice the ball) do the opposite and they bring the club out away from their body and come down from the outside to the inside. This is called coming over the top.
You may want to set up some barriers like an alignment stick in the ground on the outside to force you to stay to the inside with your swing path.
Or you can set some noodles on the ground and parallel to each other but angled toward the right to form a path from inside to outside for the club to follow. Take the club back slow motion and come back to the ball in slow motion to practice the feeling of bringing the club inside to outside.
As the club comes into the ball at impact, it’s coming from the inside. Once it hits the ball, the club continues on that path moving to the right (outside), and this should start the golf ball off to the right of the line your body is aimed, known as the target line.
Golf Practice System for Lower Scores
Learn the exact golf practice routines thousands of students at Foy Golf Academy are using to lower their golf scores.
Follow these step by step practice plans and watch video lessons to learn how to improve your golf swing, chipping, and putting fundamentals.
Get access to hundreds of golf drills to practice as well as content on the mental side of golf, fitness plans, worksheets, and many more resources. This is a complete golf practice system.
Start Following These Practices —> Nick Foy Golf Practice System
Work hard,
Nick Foy, Instructor