5 Practical Drills to Master Your Golf Swing Path and Lower Scores

Britt Olizarowicz

Jul 22, 2024 . 6 mins read

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Getting the club on the correct swing path will help you hit longer, straighter, and more controlled golf shots.

However, there are some obstacles in your way.

A proper swing path takes the correct wrist action, body movements, and weight transfer. If you struggle with finding the right swing path each time, here are some drills to consider the next time you head to the driving range.

5 Essential Drills to Perfect Your Golf Swing Path

Clock Face Visualization

The clock face visualization drill helps you break down your swing into pieces and work on each one individually.

For this drill, imagine the face of the clock on the ground. When you look down at the ball, 12:00 is toward the target, 6:00 is directly behind the ball, 3:00 is to the right, and 9:00 is to the left.

Take a few shots and determine where your golf club is entering the clock to hit the ball. Is it 5:00 or 7:00?

Now that you have this visualization, you can start working on getting your club to enter at 6:00. You’ll notice in this video that when your club face is entering from the outside at 7:00, you want to try and correct it to 5:00.

An over-correction can get you back on the right path a little quicker.

Hands to Pocket for Shallowing the Club

This drill is great for golfers who struggle with coming over the top and tend to get their hands away from their bodies.

Take your normal setup and make a full and complete backswing. When you get to the top of the backswing, take a look at where your hands and arms are positioned.

The lead arm should be in line with your shoulders, and the club should be more around you.

From here, start lowering your arms toward your trail pocket (right pocket if you are a right-handed golfer).

When you do this, you shallow the club to prevent it from coming over the top. Once your hands have made this drop move, you can start rotating through the ball. The club will be more on an inside path.

Try this drill a few times without a ball and then hit one. You should quickly see how much easier it is to get the club to come from the inside.

Keeping the Hands on the Inner Track

You’ll notice that most of the best drills to correct swing paths deal with getting the club more shallow and coming from the inside. The reason behind this is the fact that most golfers make the mistake of coming from the outside.

For this drill, you’ll need four alignment sticks on the ground. The alignment sticks will form two arcs around your body. The inner arc represents the path of your hands, and the outer arc is the clubhead.

The inner track remains parallel during the swing to help ensure the clubhead contacts the ball correctly.

The easiest way to work on this drill is to start with chip shots. You’ll keep your hands moving along the inner track and the clubhead on the outer track. If your hands move toward the ball, you’ll be moving outside the path.

Build your way up to full swings and continue to visualize this hand and club path until your swing path issues are fixed.

Deep Closed Setup and Weight Anchoring

This drill sounds more complicated than it is. The idea is to give you the feeling that the club is on the correct path.

Stand with your feet open and aim your body just to the right of the target. Ensure that your shoulders, hips, and feet are aligned in this position. Now, put your weight on your lead foot and think about keeping it there for a stable base and consistent contact.

Once you are in this position allow your shoulders, arms and hands to relax and make a backswing that is no longer than hip height. Let the club fall naturally into place on the downswing.

Focus on keeping the chest and shoulders closed without letting them open to the target. Do this with short swings and eventually transfer to the full swing. When watching the video, you’ll notice how a little exaggeration in the setup can quickly help you find the right path.

Improving Swing Path for a Draw

Getting the golf club on the right swing path can also help you learn to hit a draw. This drill is designed to help you create a swing path that can consistently create a draw.

The first part of this drill starts with setting up five tees on the ground. Set these up with a ball on the center tee in the shape as they would be on the “5” side of a die. Two tees are slightly outside the golf ball, and two tees are slightly inside the golf ball.

If you hit a slice, your path will likely hit the outside and inside tee. Your goal is to swing through the gate and strike the ball without touching the tees.

Focus on swinging from the inside to the outside and start noticing the draw you can hit when you do this.

Once you get good at following the path, narrow it and increase the difficulty.

Final Thoughts

Once you work with these golf swing path drills for a few weeks, try to determine if your issue is outside to in or inside to out. Then, narrow down which drills will help with each of these.

Wearing your HackMotion as you work on golf swing path drills can help to clue you in to the proper wrist positions for these drills. Not only do your wrists determine the angle of your clubface, but they can also help you get the club on the proper swing path.