An open club face at impact is the single most common cause of slices and pushed shots, and fixing it usually comes down to a few specific changes in your grip, wrist position, and body rotation. The good news: even a 2-degree improvement in face angle can eliminate 15 to 20 yards of unwanted curve on a drive. Here’s how to close that face and start hitting straighter shots.
Why the Club Face Opens in the First Place
The club face is constantly rotating throughout your swing. Your job is to get it back to square (or slightly closed to your swing path) at the exact moment it contacts the ball. When it arrives even a few degrees open, the ball launches right of your target with clockwise sidespin that curves it further right.
TrackMan data shows how little margin there is. For a PGA Tour player carrying a driver 275 yards, just 5 degrees of open face-to-path produces roughly 44 yards of right curvature. Even 2 degrees open generates about 14 yards of drift on an LPGA Tour drive. Elite players who consistently drive it 300-plus yards keep their face-to-path difference under 1 degree, because anything more than 1.5 degrees forces them to aim away from the fairway entirely.
Three things typically cause an open face: a grip that’s too weak, a lead wrist that cups (extends) through the downswing instead of bowing, and hips that stall before impact, leaving the hands scrambling to square things up. Let’s fix each one.
Check Your Grip First
Your grip is the foundation. If it’s too weak (rotated too far toward the target), you’re fighting the club face from the moment you take the club back. A small grip change can close the face several degrees without changing anything else in your swing.
Set up at address and look down at your lead hand (left hand for right-handed golfers). You should see two to three knuckles. If you can only see one, your grip is too weak. Your lead thumb should sit slightly diagonal, falling just right of center on the shaft.
Now check the “V” formed by the crease between your thumb and index finger on each hand. For a neutral grip, both V’s point roughly toward your right eye. For a slightly strong grip, which is what most instructors recommend for players fighting an open face, the V on your lead hand points toward your right ear or right shoulder. This rotates the hands slightly away from the target on the grip, which naturally closes the face through impact without requiring extra hand manipulation. A strong grip also stabilizes the club face and reduces the amount it rolls open and closed during the swing, making your shots more consistent even on off-center hits.
Bow Your Lead Wrist
Wrist position is the most direct control you have over the club face during the swing. The key movement is flexion versus extension of your lead wrist. When your lead wrist cups (bends backward, toward the back of your hand), the club face opens. When it bows (bends forward, toward your palm), the face closes. It’s that simple and that important.
Most amateur golfers who slice the ball have too much extension in their lead wrist at the top of the backswing and not enough flexion coming down. Professional golfers do the opposite: they allow some extension at the top, then actively move into flexion during the downswing so the face is closing as they approach the ball.
The fix is to start bowing your lead wrist early in the downswing, not at impact. By the time you reach the ball, you want your lead wrist already in a flexed position. If you wait until impact to try squaring the face, you’re too late. A helpful checkpoint: at the halfway-down point of your downswing, the back of your lead hand should be angling toward the ground rather than toward the sky. Practice this in slow motion first. Grab a club, take it to the top of your backswing, and then slowly move into your downswing while deliberately pressing the back of your lead wrist flat or slightly bowed. Repeat that 20 times before hitting a ball. The motion will feel exaggerated at first, but the actual change in face angle is typically only a few degrees.
Use Your Trail Hand as a Guide
If the lead wrist concept feels abstract, try thinking about your trail hand (right hand for right-handed golfers) instead. A useful feel cue is to keep your trail palm facing down through impact. This naturally squares the club face without forcing you to think about complicated wrist mechanics. Many golfers find this single thought cleans up their impact position because it prevents the trail hand from rolling under the club and flipping the face open. Try it on half-speed swings first, focusing on the sensation of your right palm pointing at the ground as you strike the ball.
Don’t Let Your Hips Stall
Here’s a cause of an open face that surprises many golfers: your lower body might be the problem, not your hands. When your hips stop rotating before impact, your arms and hands have to take over to close the face. That’s an inconsistent, timing-dependent way to hit the ball, and it fails under pressure.
Proper hip rotation through impact helps square the club face automatically. When your pelvis keeps turning toward the target, your arms and hands follow in sequence, and the face closes naturally as part of the chain reaction. You won’t need to manipulate the club with your hands nearly as much. Think of it this way: your body’s rotation is what delivers the club to the ball, and your hands just go along for the ride. If the engine (your hips) quits early, the passenger (the club face) never arrives where it should.
A common cause of stalled hips is swaying laterally toward the target instead of rotating. Focus on turning your belt buckle toward the target through impact. Your left hip should feel like it’s clearing behind you, not sliding forward. Many golfers who make this single change see their ball flight straighten out immediately because the face is closing on its own, without any conscious hand action.
Check Your Ball Position
Ball position affects when in the swing arc the club meets the ball, which directly affects what the face is doing at contact. A ball positioned too far forward in your stance (closer to your lead foot than it should be) gives the face more time to rotate open past the squaring point. A ball too far back can catch the face before it has fully closed.
For a driver, standard ball position is just inside your lead heel. For a mid-iron, it’s roughly center or one ball-width forward of center. If you’re consistently hitting open-face shots, try moving the ball back half an inch and see if that alone changes your impact. It’s a small adjustment, but it shifts the timing of contact relative to where the face naturally squares up in your swing arc. Just don’t overdo it. Moving the ball too far back creates other problems, like hitting down too steeply or pushing your hands too far ahead at impact.
The Gate Drill for Better Path and Face
An open face often pairs with an over-the-top swing path (swinging from outside to inside), which makes the problem worse. This drill, popularized by several top instructors, trains both a better path and better face control at the same time.
Tee up a ball. Place an alignment rod in the ground about three to four inches outside the ball, parallel to your target line. Then set two golf balls on the ground flanking your teed ball, positioned at roughly a 45-degree angle to the target line. Your goal is to hit the middle ball cleanly. If your swing comes over the top, you’ll clip one or both of the outer balls.
If you keep hitting the gate balls, try one setup change: drop your trail foot back a few inches from its normal position. This closes your stance slightly and encourages your club to approach from the inside. An inside path, combined with the grip and wrist changes above, makes it dramatically easier to deliver a square or slightly closed face at impact. Start with easy half-swings and work up to full speed only after you can consistently miss the gate balls.
Putting It All Together
Don’t try to fix everything at once. Start with your grip, since it’s the easiest change and requires zero swing thoughts during the actual swing. Once that feels natural (give it at least a range session or two), layer in the lead wrist bowing feel. Then work on keeping your hips rotating through impact. Each change closes the face by a few degrees on its own. Combined, they can turn a 5-degree open face into a square or slightly closed one, which based on TrackMan data is the difference between a 44-yard slice and a controlled draw.
Practice each change with short, controlled swings before going full speed. Hit punch shots, half-wedges, and 7-irons at 70% effort. The goal is to build the new pattern so it becomes automatic. Trying to implement a new grip or wrist position at full speed with a driver is a recipe for frustration. Slow it down, feel the club face closing, and the speed will come back naturally once the movement is grooved.