Welcome to Alistair Davies Golf. Today I want to talk to you about how to hit the deliberate Draw Shot, a shot that most of us want to hit, but can’t all do successfully. So the idea with this shot is we hit it so that it starts right at our target, draws and finishes on our target exactly. A shot that finishes left of the target will become a hook and a shot that finishes right of the target would be a push. So the precise labeling of the shot and then understanding how we create it is important when we’re referring to these shots.

A lot of books in the past described a draw as  we aim our body where we want the ball to start and then aim the club face where we want the ball to finish. Essentially that is scientifically incorrect and doesn’t work because what happens is when we have a none square impact the ball will always cross the position where the club face is pointed at impact. This is because the club face is more influential  than the path. The club face will start the ball 75% closer to where it’s aligned rather than the path and the path , and the path will have 25% influence.

So with a none square impact, the ball will start nearer to the club face, cross that position and finish left of its orientation. So the old methodology when the club face points at the target, the ball will always finish left of target becoming a hook. Players who used to play the draw that way might well have manipulate it somehow to make the ball finish on target or they might have the club face aligned slightly right target without really knowing and this might well be a great conscious way to play it as the ball gives them the right results. I don’t mind that.

The science would dictate that we need the club face right to the target in order to draw the ball and the path further right of that. So if we look at the clubs on the floor here (image below), the furthest right club one would represent the  club path,

the middle club would represent the club face and the furthest left one would represent the ball to target line. The idea being that the swing path is going to be to the right, the club face is left of that so it’s closed to that creating a none square impact and thus creating tilted access spin on the ball to the left.

This will start the ball between these two vectors, closer to the club face line, as we said 75% closer, it’ll curve past that line and finish on target. So how do we go about playing this? What’s the best system to do for this? Well I don’t want to see players manipulate their plane or their hands to create this shot. I want it all to be done through their set up positions. Then I want your normal actual golf swing and if we can’t produce the desired ball flight it is because your normal golf swing is slightly misaligned somewhere and gives you a different outcome. That should then be addressed through tuition or accept their might be certain shots that you can’t play to the level you may want.

How you play the shot

So what I want you to do is aim everything to this right hand club so that everything is pointing to the right and turn the club face a few degrees to the left onto this middle club  and then I want you to take your grip as normal. So the grip now will be neutral in relation to your body, but obviously closed or strong position in relation to the shaft and the club face. This in turn will give us that none square impact that we wanted with your normal swing with no compensation. The ball will start left of our path line, your aim line and will curve to the left and it will finish on your target line.

Have a go at doing this. Have a practice first and then try to take it to the course and use it on specific shots where you need to draw the ball or where you’re really trying to play into that zone in the golf course. Have a go at this and obviously try the opposite for the fade.

Click here to watch my you tube clip on How to hit the perfect draw: https://youtu.be/sIUF6pOOep