Closing clubface at address

It's something I've avoided doing for a long time since I'm keen on doing things correctly, but my last two rounds, I've closed the clubface of my 3-wood at address (and driver, on the rare occasion I hit it), and I'm swinging with confidence now off the tee. I'm not turning my hands to close the club, I'm actually closing the face and regripping. With it, the ball starts out a bit to the right and stays there or maybe cuts back in a bit (draw). I fight a push-slice, so this is straightening things out. Occasionally I'll come over the top and yank it way left, but most of the time, I'm hitting it out there in play with this compensation, which is great.

What does this tell me? I'm no longer swaying on the downswing, so is it safe to say that my release is just that poor? I've been focusing on keeping my left wrist flat at the top, but things happen so quickly on the downswing, I'm not sure exactly what is going wrong to cause this trailing slice at the end of my shots (with mid to long irons and woods).

There could be a number of things...(I might have an idea as I fight this shot with my longer clubs too )

1. Shooting your hips forward
2. Inside out swing path/swinging off plane
3. Not releasing the club at impact
4. Swinging too hard and losing the right hand/thumb off the grip (you would see a big worn/shredded spot under your thumb if this is happening)

My guess is that it would be a combination of these thing. While closing the club may be an effective way to play the shot it's very short term as you're compensating for an error (it's a workaround not a solution).

Solutions for the above issues can be:

1. Keeping your back to the target for longer at the top of the swing and leading with your front shoulder. Try to rotate the hips open rather than make a lateral slide towards to hole.
2. Alignment of feet knees and shoulders more closed of target while still swinging dow the target line.
3. I found that re-gripping my clubs with a larger grip helped here as I have more to turn against. My hands are fairly large although not massive and just an extra layer of tape seemed to make a big difference.
4. As above, else try a stronger grip with the left/top hand.

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Cleveland Launcher 460 - Aldila NV 65 x-stiff
Callaway Big Bertha 3W - Aldila NV 75 x-stiff
TaylorMade Rescue Dual TP (16°, 19°) stiff
Mizuno MP-32 2-PW Rifle Flighted 6.0
Titleist Vokey Wedges 52°, 56°, 60°
Scotty Cameron Circa 62 #3 35/330

Hey, thanks for the detailed response.

I think my troubles stem more from #3 and #4;

1. Not releasing the club at impact
2. Swinging too hard and losing the right hand/thumb off the grip (you would see a big worn/shredded spot under your thumb if this is happening)

I've often felt the connection between the pocket of my right hand and left thumb come undone during the swing. I will make a conscious effort to retain that connection. Can you explain again exactly where I would see a worn spot if this was happening to me?

You should see the worn spot directly where your right thumb rests. It gets caused by the movement away and then the movement back as you grab at the club through impact. My grips were a couple of years old and showed this; newer grips might not.

I would definitely suggest having a club you don't often use regripped thicker if you use large size gloves.

A good training guide for losing the right hand is to place a tee between your left thumb and the pocket of your right hand and swing normally. If your right hand moves away, the tee falls out. If the tee doesn't fall out and your shots still slice then it's something else, but if the tee stays in and your shots start zipping down the middle of the range, then that is your swing problem and practising like that will give you the feel of what your hands should be doing at impact.

__________________
Cleveland Launcher 460 - Aldila NV 65 x-stiff
Callaway Big Bertha 3W - Aldila NV 75 x-stiff
TaylorMade Rescue Dual TP (16°, 19°) stiff
Mizuno MP-32 2-PW Rifle Flighted 6.0
Titleist Vokey Wedges 52°, 56°, 60°
Scotty Cameron Circa 62 #3 35/330

Hey,

Why not purchase a new driver, 3 wood which has lots of OFF-SET?

My dad brought a new driver 2 months back, cobra M-Speed which has lots of off-set and he went from hitting a big banana slice to hitting a draw in one day.

Worth a thought!

i can back that up! i had a wicked slice so i got a mspeed 3wood and its longer and straighter than my driver ever was!

If you really struggle with a banana ball, get a club with both offset and a closed face. Both things help to straighten out ball flight.

FWIW, most modern drivers are actually designed to be setup with the face closed. Another note of interest - with drivers greater than 410cc, if you set it up so that it looks square, it's actually sitting open, according to Tom Wishon. Interesting.

I'd look into clubs with offset, but my strong preference is to fix it. I've just been doing this to keep my scores down and it's been working, so I was just wondering if we could figure out the cause based on the information given.

I feel like I chicken wing a bit, which I know leaves the face open, but when I intentionally release the club by rolling my forearms over, I might hit one good one but come over the top and pull the next one way left.

Unless you have an irredeemable slice, surely it's better to go down the route of fixing the mechanics of your swing, than living with a bad swing and using offset to deal with it.

Another possible cause of slice is the breakdown of the right elbow in the top 1/3 of the swing. The stronger you keep your right elbow the less likely you will over-open the club face and so be unable to close it at contact.

Pulling the ball left can be a good sign in a slicer. It means that you are able to release the club head properly and you should see a nice penetrating ball fligh rather than your ususual high fade that lands shorter than it should. It could also be a sign that you are trying to overcompensate by being too wristy, but as long as it's not a really nasty snap-hook, it's a start.

But try the tee between the hands drill and tell us what happened and what it felt like.

__________________
Cleveland Launcher 460 - Aldila NV 65 x-stiff
Callaway Big Bertha 3W - Aldila NV 75 x-stiff
TaylorMade Rescue Dual TP (16°, 19°) stiff
Mizuno MP-32 2-PW Rifle Flighted 6.0
Titleist Vokey Wedges 52°, 56°, 60°
Scotty Cameron Circa 62 #3 35/330