Manufacturing A Draw Or A Fade In Your Golf Swing

I have been asked a number of times from our golf visitors and newsletter subscribers how to control hitting a draw or a fade when it is needed for a particular shot on the golf course. I have hesitated to talk about this because, in my opinion, it is a difficult thing to do for many amateur golfers. But so many people have requested this that I am going to give in with some cautions.

First of all, this is not something that everyone will be able to do. It took me a while to be able to do this. Second, this is probably not the way most golf teaching pros would suggest that you do it. I just can’t do it the way that that a lot of them say, which is to change your grip. And lastly, this is easier to do if you typically hit the ball fairly straight and consistent. If you are all over the place, I wouldn’t suggest trying it.

For me, what has worked is to use the club face as the way to manufacture a fade or draw when I want it. It is very simple in theory, but can be challenging to execute. Let’s say I am playing a par 5 with a dog leg right on the second shot. I can hit it a little shorter towards the middle of the fairway and leave a longer approach shot. Or I can hit a slight fade and be able to move the golf ball farther down the fairway to leave myself a short approach shot

The first key point is to not change anything about your grip, swing, or the shot. All you to do is slightly rotate the club face. In this case, we will open it just slightly for a fade. By “just slightly” what do I mean? Well you have to practice this a little to gauge how much for your swing, but in general for a slight fade I open the club face about a quarter of an inch or maybe just over that. For a slight draw, you just do the opposite.

Then you aim slightly to the left (again we’re back to the fade) of your target line and swing like you want to hit it straight. This is what I’ve found to be the tricky part. It is like when you are hitting a breaking putt. Rather than reading the green, hitting it on your line, and letting the break take the golf ball to the hold, we have a tendency to try and steer the putt.

The same with this fade shot. Instead of letting the club face do the work and just hit it straight, we almost sub consciously try to adjust our swing. Don’t do that! Just pick your straight line to the left of where you are trying to fade the ball and hit it normal and straight. If you let the club face do all the work you will love what happens.

One thing that you can do to test and practice this a little and learn to trust the club face is to do the following on the range:

Choke down on a 6 or 7 iron. Adjust the club face as I described above. Now take only a half to three quarter swing and follow through like you are trying to punch out of the woods or from behind an obstruction. You should hit a low shot that will fade or draw based on what you did with the club face. Do this until you are comfortable how much to adjust the club face and with not changing your swing.

Then practice the full swing. As I said earlier, this is a simple way to manufacture a shot in concept, but it can be a challenge to execute. Give it try and let me know how it goes.