Shot Shaping – The Fade

March 29, 2017 9:46 am

By Jon Woodroffe

An interesting fact is that 85% of golfers worldwide suffer from the dreaded slice. But there are times when this much maligned shot can be of great help. The skill required for the fade is well within the reach of all of us.

So say for example, you are teeing off and the fairway bends to the right and you want to fade the ball round the trees jutting out from the right hand side.

The simplest way to describe the process is as follows:

  • Aim your feet, hips, shoulders and brain where you want the ball to start
  • Aim the clubface where you want the ball to finish
  • Swing the golf club along the line that your body is aiming

Now, aiming the feet, hips and shoulders left of the target for us right handed players is understandable. What I mean by aiming the brain is you must look at a new target where you wish the ball to begin it’s journey towards. If you make the mistake of letting your eyes get drawn towards the flag, then you will subconsciously end up swinging the club towards the flag. This will result in the ball heading straight into the trees that are jutting in from the right hand side.

Aim the clubface where you want the ball to finish; simply means aim the club at the flag. This will look odd as it will be considerably to the right of where everything else is aiming, but if you fail to do this, you will hit a lovely straight shot, straight left into the trees that side of the fairway.

Finally swing the golf club along the line that your body is aiming, not the flag. This will then deliver a glancing blow to the ball that should mean it sets off up the left hand side of the fairway. As it loses it’s pace, it will then turn to the right, to end in the middle of the fairway.

Just one final point, this is a shot that you can really only do with either the woods or a very long iron. You will not be able to fade the ball with anything more lofted than a 5 iron as the ball will get some much backspin that it will negate the effect of the sidespin and the ball will just go straight.

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