

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Butch Harmon's Unusual Slice Cure

I saw this new piece from Butch Harmon and... well, it caught my eye because it's so unusual. Butch sees a lot of players who hit banana balls into the rough and can't stop. Guess what his advice is?

Stop trying to hit it straight. Instead, set up to hit a fade. Yes, you read that right.

Butch not hitting it straight

This is actually a cool mental trick. Butch wants to help you straighten out your slice by setting up to hit a fade! Here's how it works.
  1. Set up on the right side of the tee, next to the tee marker. (If you're a rightie, that is. Lefties set up on the left.) If you're gonna hit a fade, that's where you should tee up anyway.
  2. Pick out a target down the left side of the fairway. (Lefties, aim down the right side.) You need to start the ball that way if you're gonna hit a fade.
  3. Here's the key: Aim your clubface squarely at your target, then take your stance with your body lines aimed parallel to your aim line.
If you do this, you're actually in a square setup -- which you weren't really doing before when you tried to hit the ball straight -- and you'll hit the fairway. You may hit a slight fade at first but you'll be in the fairway.

I know it sounds strange but it makes sense if you think about it. Your problem is that you THINK you set up for a straight ball when you actually set up for a slice. This is both a MENTAL and a VISION problem because you can't recognize that your setup is wrong, even though you know what you should do. So since your eyes have trouble telling the difference between a slice setup and a square setup, Butch has you setting up so your eyes think you've set up for a fade but you're actually setting up square.

Eventually your brain will get things straight (sorry, couldn't resist the pun). But at least you'll hit the ball in the fairway until it does.

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