“If I want to draw the ball, I think draw.” Sam Snead said this and as simple as it sounds it still made me think. Why would this idea work?

Hitting the ball to the follow through is probably why thinking draw would make the ball draw back. I have just come off the range using this idea to just hit draws and fades with my eight iron aiming at concentrating on how I should be finishing my follow through.

For me to draw the ball I need to line my club face up to where I want the ball to land and my feet out to where I want the ball to fade in from. I then need the swing to finish with my hands crossed and out to the left of my body at about ten o’clock. This takes work but addressing the ball correctly and thinking draw, or more specifically thinking about where the swing will finish will give you a nice draw.

To fade the ball most golfers need just to open the stance a little and the ball will slice off the face like crazy. To make the difference between a flat out slice and a fade I play to a finish which has my hands finishing high over my left shoulder and the club face feels more parallel to the ground (even though it’s not really but the face is open through the follow through). This will put work on the ball as opposed to just slicing one off the fairway and out of bounds and ensure the club head gets under the ball at impact.

A draw will go further than a fade if hit exactly the same way so you need more space to work with to curl balls out of trouble and to the contrary will finish shorter than you think when fading the ball. The ball will also spin more to the right than to the left so expect the ball to fade away more than the draw to come back but thinking about how you should look at the end of the stroke certainly helps.

Photos By Stephen Szurlej