The fade and the draw

Jesse Grewal

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The fade and the draw are shots that are required on the golf course and are created by a change in the swing and not by a change of the club face position. There is a big difference technically between a fade and a slice and similarly between the draw and a hook. 

The fade is a shot which starts left of where we are aligned which in technical terms is the target line and then curves right and finishes on the target ( for a right handed golfer). Technically the slice starts right of the alignment line and turns drastically to the right. If the ball does start left of the alignment line and then moves a lot to the right it would be termed as a pull slice. To clarify this confusion take a situation like having a tree between you and the target and playing a shot around it. The commonly advice was to align where you want the ball to start and aim the club face at the target or where you want the ball to finish. If you follow this principle the ball will curve but go into the tree and not around it. This is because the club face has a 75 per cent effect on the starting direction of the ball and therefore if one wanted to play a hook the ball would have started way left of the line aligned and then start hooking. 

If one needed a big movement we would have to understand the method of a draw and fade and then adjust the club face position depending on the amount of curvature desired. 

For a draw, the club face must remain square to the target and the swing must change and become more in to out. This into out swing makes the ball start to the right and as the club face is at the target it is closed to this path and therefore makes the ball curve slightly to the left. For a fade the swing is out to in with a club face remaining square. 

If we want to bend the ball a lot for example in case of hooking the ball around a tree you would have to align right of the tree and swing in to out or away from your body on the follow through to get the ball to start to the right and then curve. If the shot requires a large amount of curvature one would have to align a lot to the right of the tree and yet swing in to out. 

More on this in next weeks article. 

(Grewal is the director of National Golf Academy of India and CGA Hero Honda Golf Academy)