How to (start trying to) fix my high fade?
I’ve been playing golf semi-seriously for about 15 yrs now.
Left handed.
I’m self taught, but I have developed a standard swing. I would consider it fairly "textbook" when I’m hitting it well.
My driver "miss" is a high fade. Once or twice a round I will bomb one long and straight, and it feels efforless. I’ve even won a few long drives in some local scrambles, but the vast majority are are high, way left, and 50 yds shorter.
I feel like I’m blocking my hands somehow or they’re lagging behind the rest of my swing, but if that were the case it seems like something that would be easy to NOT do.
I guess I’m just curious if there’s a "standard" cause for a consistent high fade. Could it be as simple as over-swinging?
To correct Brad: teeing it lower will lower the trajectory, but a low trajectory tee shot will do nothing but lower one’s margin or error as well as producing lower than normal ball flight that land sooner which results in short tee shots. "Air has less resistance than grass does." Today’s modern bigheaded drivers are designed with a sibsequent higher sweetspot, but the "teed" ball position has not changed, the equator of the ball should still be teed up so that it’s level with the top of the clubface so as to promote a proper swing path.
To the OP: Since you’re not a newbie, I won’t bore you with the standard (outside-to-in) swing explanation blah, blah, blah — as I would surmise you already know that.
I will start by saying that a "high weak fade" is usually as a result of what’s called "coming out of your shot" (as in not powering through the ball), and/or your hands just not keeping up with your body (lagging far behind), a terribly open clubface.at impact, and possibly "toe hits" (which are hard to recognize with modern Ti drivers).
But I would like to suggest you take a couple of lessons from your local pro, to get rid of your swingfault and so as to pinpoint your specific problem.
And I’ll end with adding that a standard loft driver is the hardest club in the bag to hit well, as you well know, and that there has been a number of articles in the golf magazines over the years in which they’ve done some scientific testing of golfers (men, woman, all different skill levels) and wha they found to be true in almost every case (except for the most skilled of players, those with the lowest of handicap) ALL golfers not only hit their 3woods just as far but way straighter than their drivers off the teebox. And as a result they’d be better served over the course of the round to leave their drivers in the bag (or at home) and save themselves quite a few shots each round.
Then again, with today’s big headed drivers there is something to be said that the larger face allows for more swing errors….. I do understand your urge to grab the bigdog on every teeshot……… so………..
TIP OF THE DAY: So my suggestion would be for you to look into locating a "high-lofted driver," or more specifically one whose loft is closer to that of a 3wood (13 to 15 degrees) than a standard driver with a slightly shorter shaft.
I came to this same conclusion a few years ago and now actually carry two drivers in my bag, the standard one I hardly use (primarily for long par-5s), and use my "trick" driver for almost all tee shots now and have found that I am now hardly ever in the weeds (almost always in the short grass) and just as far down the fairway as anyone except for the rare one they really catch well – and I’m playing from the tips and carry a very low single digit handicap. It’s especially handy on tight driving holes.