How to hit a 'safe' fade

Historically, teaching pros have always tried to find new catchphrases and buzzwords for the golf swing. One of the latest ones is ‘Use or drive off the ground to create power’.

Well, asking a golfer to use the ground is like asking a boat to use water!

When you swing a golf club, of course you're going to use the ground. The ground itself is inert, it’s the swing that’s active!

My latest pet hate is the phrase ‘turning left through the ball’. Like there's some big mystery here.

So using the Explanar to show the swing plane here, if I swing back on plane and then keep the shaft low through impact, that's a fundamental part of turning left through the ball.

There are two elements as you come to impact – if you keep the shaft low at impact, as you go through and turn your body left, the golf club has to continue above the plane and you hold it off.

When you draw the ball, the club tends to rise through impact and then slot onto the ideal plane. With a fade, the butt of the club is lower through impact and that matches the body turn left.

So there you have it. Turning left through the ball. In the old days, we called it a fade!