Just like a lot of you, I’m intimately familiar with the dreaded slice. More times than I care to remember, I’ve had to aim about 30 degrees to the left of my target (I’m right-handed) if there was any hope of keeping the ball in play. There are probably as many “cures” for slicing as there are slicers (OK, maybe not, but there are a lot of ‘em!). But there’s only one that worked to end my ugly banana-ball flight path: shortening my backswing.

When you take a backswing that’s too long for your body to comfortably handle, a lot of things go wrong on the downswing. For slicers, it pushes your upper body into what’s known as the “over the top” move. As you begin the downswing, your upper body is too tense from that overly aggressive backswing. Unless you’re aware of this on every swing and you fight it (which causes all kinds of additional problems if you’re not one heck of an athlete), the tension causes you to push out with your right shoulder in an effort to relieve the pressure. Once your right shoulder (or left if you’re a lefty) gets away from your torso on the downswing, you’re destined to come over the top and cut across the ball at impact. The classic “out-to-in” swing path is a virtual certainty. And that, my friends, causes your wince-producing slice-a-roo.

The remedy: give up a bit of distance by shortening your backswing to about three-quarters. Your swing path will be better, you’ll be much less tense, and your ball flight should be straighter and a bit lower. In fact, I’ve found that, while my carry distance is reduced, the extra roll I get from the lower ball flight often creates a shot with very similar total distance numbers.

Practice at the range until you’re comfortable with the timing. Oh, and one other thing to watch out for when you implement this new swing - don’t speed up your swing in an effort to hit the ball harder. It’s a natural tendency when you shorten the backswing, but it will wreck your timing and probably cause you to pull or hook the ball. Ironic, huh?