Hitting the Fade

The golf swing technique in this first photo is an example of a set-up and proper golf swing to produce the fade golf shot. At first glance, it appears as if I'm set-up like most normal golf swings to hit a straight shot, yet my body is actually set-up left of my intended line of flight or target to fade the ball. My swinging down line without my hands rolling over at impact, shows I'm leaving the clubface open at impact as if I was making a bunt to first base in baseball. This particular golf swing instruction, shows all the moves in a stop action affect so you can easily see the position of my body and hands while hitting through the shot. This produces a high fade from left to right when a fade is needed, especially when you can play the ball forward in your stance to go over say a small tree to the green. There are a couple of ways to fade a golf ball through knowledge, experience, playability and confidence that usually is reserved for the seasoned professional. I'm providing you a more simplified version to give you more immediate hands-on approach, which will manifest itself into a player's mentality. Once you have mastered this particular golf swing technique and added it to you're personal blue print, you will have the mental and visual confidence to perform this shot at random. How we're going to get you there is to start by using some PVC pipe in the grass to illustrate where the proper body positions are, its alignment and which direction your club head travels and its impact position in order to make this fade shot successful.

This second photo will show a good example of which direction your feet, knees, and hips should be pointing towards, which is about 45 degrees to the left of my intended line of flight. The intended line of flight means where I want my ball flight to travel on, so I want to set up left of that direction. That direction is indicated by the PVC pipe lying in the grass in front of my ball. Why I want my lower body to set-up in this position will help in assisting me to put side spin on the ball, from swinging on an outside to in swing path. This is the shot I called the tamed down slice, we spoke about before. The pipe along my toe line gives you a visual for what my lower body is doing in comparison to my upper body at address position. The pipe in the grass behind my ball is very close to where I want my club heads swing path to be on, as I swing back and to the top of my swing. This helps me to start my down swing, from the top, which places the club outside my normal swing plane. You should also choke down here about one inch, in order to have more control of the swing. I have taken a normal 35 degree tilt from the hip position, which is ideal for good posture and a smooth transition of the shot. You want to play the ball in the middle of your stance for best results, or place the ball forward of that for a higher trajectory fade. Take one more club than usual for your distance if moving the ball forward, because a high fade shot into the green travels less distance, especially when you've choked down on the grip. Take a look at this set-up position from the front view to help you see why you're swinging across your body line, giving you the desired fade into that tough pin placement. These golf swing mechanics promote the club face to be open at impact as the club is still traveling down the intended line of flight.

This photo shows me in the exact position from the frontal view, it should also reinforce the how and why this fade will work. This is how you set up, but it is the why which will help you to learn the fade golf shot. You will want to take, what should seem to be a normal swing, by taking the club up to the top as usual. The difference here will be, because you have positioned you lower body left, the shoulders going back and up will tilt more like a see saw, rather than rotate around like they normally do. This tilting action forces the shoulders to stay more open at the top and when you try and rotate your hips around to swing at the ball, the club head is already on a pre determined outside to in swing path. This produces side spin on the ball, which forces the ball to travel out, up and to the right. The cause and effect of these golf swing mechanics, is what creates the side spin, caused by a slightly open club face at impact, which was the whole purpose. I will explain in the next photo of what the hands should be doing, but you should now understand the why in these golf swing mechanics and how they happen from this set-up in this demonstration. You can replace the PVC pipe with golf clubs in your bag on the driving range to practice this set-up, but the important message here is to actually practice this set-up and swing, till you achieve the desired result. The next photo will demonstrate how to swing through the shot and finish so as not hook the ball.

Now that we have set-up properly, to mechanically force an open clubface at impact, we must take notice of club impact and what needs to happen, to complete the desired result. From the top of my swing, I am rotating my hips around and to the left, while my shoulders are following a pre determined path across my body. The difference here is that I'm not going to roll my wrist over at impact like we learned on the draw, because I will then nullify the whole purpose of trying to leave the club face open at impact. Makes sense right? So, as you can see, I leave my wrists in about the same position as they were at address. My shoulder tilts upward, following the lead of the back of my left hand, which is powering through towards my intended target. This also leaves the club face open at impact. The club face is just squaring up to the ball now, after traveling about two feet past impact. The ball climbs quickly as shown, which ends up in a very respectful high fade. To make this shot complete, you must aim left of where you want the ball to end up on the green. This high fade should move between eight and twelve feet from left to right, so take you're aiming alignments seriously when setting up this shot. In addition to this blue print, use one more club than your normal distance to the flag. I am providing yet another key tip in this shot, because fades travel less distance than a draw and because this shot calls for an open club face at impact, you should realize that also weakens the loft of the club, thereby reducing the overall distance. A draw travels farther, because the club face closes at impact making it a stronger loft. So remember this golf swing instruction, when needing that fade shot. Proper golf swing technique and a proper golf swing is key to producing the desired golf fade shot.