Adjust your setup to change your path.
Back in 1984, just months before his US Open victory at Winged Foot, Fuzzy Zoeller said in Golf Digest’s April issue that his unusual setup move with the driver helped improve his accuracy off the tee. It’s also one that can help you turn a slice into a fade – or even a draw.
Zoeller would slide the clubhead away from him at address so that the heel of the driver was behind the ball [below]. “This tells me to pull the heel of the clubhead down first in my downswing. With that little slide, I get away from that over-the-top swinging motion.”
Many amateurs incorrectly whip the club inside the target line on the backswing and then have no choice but to re-route it “over the top” of the line on the downswing, Zoeller says. This typically sets the clubface open in relation to the path and causes a slice.
The adjustment prompted Zoeller to take the club back outside the target line and then loop it inside coming down- – the opposite of the slice move. Think of it as a figure-eight motion going from out to in. Zoeller’s thought of leading down with the heel sets the club on the proper in-to-out path.
“You need something to remind you to do certain things in your swing,” he said. “It just works for me – and might do the same for you.”
Illustration by jim mcqueen
