When All Else Fails...

Try these 9 tips every golfer needs

Photos By Hugh Kretschmer

Illustrations by Mark Matcho

October 2012

We all love golf for certain shots: The downhill drive, the perched-up lie in the first cut, the last swing of the day with the sun about down and no one around. This article isn't about those shots. It's about those other shots: the ones that make you panic. We picked nine situations that golfers dread and called in our top teachers. The assignment: Give us a tip that golfers can remember when they're freaking out. Here are their one-liners, and how they work. If you buy in, you'll have a secret weapon you can count on in a pinch--or in a bunker, or over a lake, or on the first tee. You get the idea. For more tips like these, download the GolfLogix app, check out Golf Digest Live and hit the panic button.

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FORE RIGHT! If you've totally lost control, play the ball forward.

PANIC: You're losing all your drives way right

QUICK FIX: Move the ball up in your stance

If you're pushing the ball off the tee--or even worse, hitting shots that start right and then slice--you're probably getting pretty panicky with the driver. In many cases, you can fix a bout with "the rights" by playing the ball two to three inches farther forward than normal. Those way-right shots come from swinging down on a path that goes from well inside the target line to outside the target line after impact--too much in to out. If the ball goes straight right, your clubface is square to that path but open to your target. If the ball also curves right, the face is open to the path. Moving the ball forward helps square the face to the target at impact and will get you swinging on the correct path through the shot: from the inside, out to the ball, then back to the inside.
--David Leadbetter

More advice on slicing