Golf Slice vs Hook: Causes And How To Fix Them

Neither a slice or a hook has ever led to a smiling golfer (unless you’re their opponent). And it is little consolation that it’s usually one or the other that seems to be always lurking, haunting the golfer’s psyche and showing up when there’s water or OB on that side of the course! So let’s take a look at a golf slice and a hook, why these tendencies occur, the differences between them, how to compensate for them or outright fix them.

By understanding the root causes and learning how to “diagnose” our swing issues on the fly we can learn how to completely eliminate one or the other, and who doesn't want that!

What Is A Slice In Golf?

A slice is a shot shape that, for a right-handed golfer, curves dramatically to the right of the target line during its flight. This is the over-done version of a cut or fade shot, moving with the same spin and trajectory but way too much of it. A ball that starts left and curves right is a pull-slice and can be recovered from. A ball that starts right and heads MORE right is known as a block-slice or push-slice and best case scenario you might get to meet the golfers from the group ahead of you who are already on the next hole. Worst case scenario you’re reaching for another golf ball.

What Is A Hook In Golf?

A hook is a shot shape that curves too much right-to-left for a right-handed golfer. This is the drunk uncle of the coveted draw shot, moving in the same direction but uncontrollably so. If the ball starts left and draws sharply MORE left it can be called a pull hook.

Difference Between A Slice And A Hook

Both of these shots are basically mirror images of one another. A slice is an inverted hook. A hooks ball flight curves too much right-to-left and slices curve too much left-to-right for right handed golfers. For a left handed golfer the terminology is opposite, meaning if the ball curves away from where a lefty is standing (right-to-left) it is called a slice even though it curves the same way as a righty’s hook. Likewise a left hander’s hook shot curves the same way as a right hander’s slice.

What Causes A Slice?

A slice is caused by a face that is open to the path of the club, plain and simple. Any combination that has this face/path relationship will produce some variety of a cut or slice. Typically the worst kinds of slices are where a right-handed golfer is swinging with an out to in path and the face is pointed right (open). You can swing to the right, however, and still manage to slice it if the face is even MORE open than that (push slice).

RELATED: How To Fix A Chicken Wing Swing

You can also have the face shut or closed (pointed left) and swing dramatically left of that and hit a pull slice. In every instance, however, by the laws of physics, the face must be open to the path or the path tracking left (for a right-handed golfer) of where the face is pointed.

What Causes A Hook?

The ball flight laws also tell us that a hook shot is produced when the face is closed to the club path. Any shot where this describes the face/path relationship will produce either a draw or a hook, depending on how far apart these two factors are.

The biggest hook is when the face is pointed left of the intended target and the swing direction is pointed right (for a right-handed golfer). This in to out path will produce a very sharp, very devastating “snap hook.” You can still hook the ball with the face pointed right of the target if you manage to swing on a path even MORE right than that, and likewise the duck hook or “snipe” shot is a result of swinging left and shutting the face down to point even MORE left than that at impact, resulting in a shot that starts off bad and only gets worse.

The Caveat: Gear Effect

While the above description is far and away the biggest factor in determining the cause of a hook or a slice, modern radar and high speed camera technology has revealed one factor that can complicate things a little bit: gear effect.

Sparing all of the physics details, we have found out that shots off of the toe produce extra hook spin (or can reduce slice spin) while shots off of the heel can produce extra slice spin (or reduce hook spin). This is especially important to consider with the driver.

While face to path ratios are the #1 thing you should be investigating, be aware also that strike location can affect the results, so don’t drive yourself crazy because it is actually possible to have a relatively square face, a relatively neutral path, and still hook or slice it because you hit it off of the toe or the heel (especially at high swing speeds with a driver), so don’t overlook that factor and start chasing changes for the wrong reasons.

Which Is Better: A Slice Or A Hook?

A true golfer might say “it all depends where the hazard is!”

Conventionally, the hooked golf shot is the miss of the better player and the slice is the miss of the amateur or high-handicapper. However, Lee Trevino had one of the best one-liners/truisms ever in golf when he said “You can talk to a fade, but a hook won’t listen!”

So let’s examine these two facts. The hook is the miss of the better player (generally speaking) because the common pattern for success in golf is a club face that gets square or closes down through impact and a path that approaches the ball “from the inside.” There are, of course, notable exceptions but this is true of many high-level players regardless of whether their favored shot is a draw or a cut. So over-doing these things (coming too far from the inside, swinging too far in-to-out, or closing the face too much or a split-second too soon through impact) will result in a hook.

So it’s more common for good golfers to battle a hook. The saving grace of the slice, however, is that it’s usually weak, and usually once it hits the ground, it lands soft. Its spin gives a slice a chance at staying “safe” from OB or a hazard or the rough. Because of the laws of physics, hook shots first of all come out quite “hot” and can get away from the player very quickly and when they hit the ground their spin tends to kick the ball even farther off-line and roll out like they are getting pulled into the trouble with a homing device.

So hooks and slices are not exactly equal, despite looking like mirror images of each other. Despite the dangers of hooking, if you’re trying to build a good swing, it’s better off to start by sling-hooking the ball and work it back to a baby draw or baby fade eventually.

RELATED: How To Get Better At Golf Without Lessons

Which Goes Further: A Slice Or A Hook?

As we touched on above, all else being equal a hooked golf shot will always go farther than a slice. This is for two reasons.

First of all because the face is square or shut for a hook, the ball is going to get the full force of impact and compress on contact instead of the glancing blow of an open-face slice and many hook shots will carry farther than a normal shot. 

Secondly, even if a hook and a slice were exact duplicates of each other as far as trajectory and carry distance, the hook shot will always travel further because its spin will continue to push it farther down range and farther off line, whereas the spin on a slice shot will give it more of a “bite” on landing and it will have the effect of landing softer and settling down quicker.

Tips To Fix A Slice

There are drivers that help with a slice, but let's talk about a few of the best ways to go about fixing a slice. We recommend that you try one at a time to avoid confusion around which one was the remedy for you specifically. 

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