Learn How to Hit a Draw With Ease: Top Tips to Shape Your Shots
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If you’re like most golfers chances are you’ve asked a friend (or Google), “How to hit a draw.” Because let’s get real, most golfers want to play a soft draw that is powerful and looks amazing off the clubface.
Unfortunately, wanting to play a draw isn’t enough as most of us struggle with the opposite shot, the dreaded slice. In fact, I’ve read that between 80-90% of all amateur golfers suffer from a slice!
While a soft fade is fine, no golfer loves seeing a slice in the right rough or trees. It kills distance, reduces top spin, and just isn’t helpful for your game.
The good news is that if you want to learn to hit a draw, you can make it happen. It actually doesn’t even need to be that complicated, either.
Too many golfers try to change their swing, when in reality, hitting a draw comes down to setting up properly. In this post, I’ll take you through the steps that you need to start hitting draws on command.
How to Hit a Draw Without Swing Changes
First off, why do so many golfers want to hit a draw? Is it that much better than hitting a fade?
Yes and no… Hitting a draw is great because it will:
- Build confidence to hit all types of shots.
- Impress your playing partners who struggle with a slice.
- Help you get out of trouble from the right side of the golf course.
- Carry and roll out farther with a driver than a fade, thus giving you a shorter approach shot.
- Give a shorter approach shots so you can be more aggressive and hopefully have easier birdie putts.
Luckily, you don’t need to make a total swing overhaul to start hitting right to left shots. Instead, make these adjustments before your backswing to make it easy to play a draw.
Related: Draw vs. Fade in Golf
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Start With Setup
The longer I play this game, the more I realize that almost everything comes down to a solid setup. It’s why the best players in the world work so hard on getting their setup right every single swing in practice. Because if your setup doesn’t match your intended shot, it’s nearly impossible to pull it off.
For example, if you want to hit it high but have the ball in the back of your stance, it just won’t happen. Or, if you want to hit a fade but have a super strong grip with both hands, it’s nearly impossible to shape it left to right.
Everything starts with a solid setup so you can hit any shot you want. For a draw, you want to look at grip, alignment, ball position, and clubface at setup.
Adjust Your Grip
The grip is arguably the biggest part of hitting a draw and why so many golfers struggle with this shot.
You need a neutral or strong grip so you don’t have to make a ton of changes to your swing. If you have one or both hands in a “weak” position, it’s very difficult and depends too much on rolling your wrists at impact. This can lead to some big misses!
Plus, it’s never a good idea to build your swing based on timing. Because if your timing is off on certain days, you’ll have wayward shots the entire round.
Start by checking your grip position with both hands.
Ideally, you want the “V’s” of your thumb and index finger pointed at your armpits. Plus, a neutral grip makes it easier to shape any shot and add extra distance if you have a weak grip currently.
Change Your Alignment
The second thing you need to do is adjust your alignment to allow you to hit a draw.
You need to make sure your feet, hips, and shoulders are aimed right of your target. The key here is to make sure all three are parallel.
So many golfers only have one or two body parts aligned properly, but that’s not enough to hit a draw consistently. For example, a lot of players will aim their feet and hips right, but their shoulders are open. When your shoulders are open, it is easy to make an over the top move which produces an over the top pull cut, not a draw.
A slightly closed stance will make it easy to drop the club in on the downswing so that you can hit the draw. For a driver, you can also choose to drop your right foot back 1–2 inches as well to promote a swing path that will help yield a draw.
Change Your Ball Position
To hit a draw with irons, hybrids, and fairway woods you want to change your ball position as well. If the ball is too far forward it favors a fade, not a draw. To hit a draw you’ll want to move the ball 1–2 balls back from the normal position.
But don’t overdo it! You don’t want the ball off your back foot as this will cause swing plane issues and negatively impact your ball striking.
Adjust The Clubface
Finally, don’t forget about the clubface to hit a draw.
As Tiger Woods said in his book, How I Play Golf, “I aim my body lines (feet, hips, shoulders) at a point where I want the ball to start and I am the clubface where I want the ball to finish. That simplifies the manipulation of the clubface.”
When your body lines are right of the target and the club is pointed toward the target, it’s easy to swing along your lines. Since the club is already slightly closed at address you don’t have to worry about rolling your wrists or any other swing thoughts.
More Tips to Hit a Draw
Here are some more helpful tips to help you make the right to left shot automatic.
Use the Right Driver
As mentioned earlier, most golfers struggle with a slice – especially off the tee.
One of the main reasons is not using the right equipment. If you’ve tried everything and still can’t get your slice under control, it’s a good idea to buy an adjustable driver and/or a draw biased driver.
Adjustable drivers have changed the game of golf as they allow you to add/remove loft, add more weight in the toe or heel, and even change the overall weighting. Having this type of adjustability allows you to customize your club to your swing without a club fitter.
If you’re struggling with a slice, add more weight on the heel of the club. This makes the toe lighter and thus, easier to square at impact position for a straighter ball flight.
Adding more loft can also help dial in the
Or, if you’re searching for a new driver try to find one that is a draw bias club. For example, the Callaway Paradym drivers have an “X” version that is meant to help straighten out a slice.
As Callaway said, “Paradym X is built for a high launch with high MOI, along with a generously stretched profile at address. This model is best suited for golfers seeking extreme forgiveness and a slight draw bias from their driver. 5g of rear weight is positioned to increase launch and lower spin for maximum carry distance.”
Some of our favorite draw bias drivers include:
- Titleist TSR3
- Ping G430 SFT
- Callaway Paradym X
- TaylorMade Stealth 2 HD (high draw)
Dial in Your Lie Angles
While adjusting your driver can help hit a draw, this isn’t an option with irons. But you can change the lie angle which will help with ball flight and accuracy. If your irons aren’t fit correctly for your swing, the lie angle might negatively affect your contact and shot shape.
As Golf.com said, “For instance, if your iron’s lie angles are too upright for your swing, you’ll likely make heel contact with the ball and leftward divots, which then lead to leftward pulls and hook shots. If your irons are too flat for your swing, you’ll make contact and divots from the toe section, which will push shots out to the right. ”
This is why it’s a great idea to ensure your clubs are fit for your swing. Schedule time with a club fitter and adjust your iron set so they’re more upright or flatter to match your swing plane. Simply adjusting your equipment can make a huge difference in your game.
Tee Up Accordingly
To hit a draw from the tee box, you want to make two adjustments.
First, with a driver, you want to tee it up slightly higher than normal.
This will allow you to hit up on the ball with speed. If you want to hit a fade and/or lower shot (which is great when hitting into the wind) tee it lower to reduce spin.
The second thing to adjust is your position on the tee box itself.
Make sure you tee up in the left or middle side of the box so you have plenty of room to aim right (assuming you’re a right-handed golfer).
By teeing up on this portion of the box you’ll open up the right side of the golf course which makes it easier to shape a draw. On the other hand, if you want to play a fade make sure to tee up in the middle to right side of the tee box to open up the left side of the course.
Add More Speed
Another tip I learned from Tiger Woods is that you need more speed for a draw. Since a draw has more tumbling forward spin, more speed will help your hands turn over and get the ball in the air easier.
This is not the time to make a smooth, relaxed swing with the driver. Instead, swing a little more aggressively so you can get enough speed to hit a draw.
Keep Practicing
Knowing how to set up and make the draw motion in your swing is the first step. But knowing isn’t enough, you need to spend quality time at the driving range to make it happen. Do not read this post and start trying to hit draws in the middle of your next round.
Always start by working on the range so that you can have confidence on the golf course. Then, when you can execute the draw shot on the range, test it out on the course in causal rounds.
To get started, first take a video of your swing on your phone from down the line and face on angle. This will help you establish your starting point and then you can adjust your setup as needed.
As you continue to master this shot, make sure to keep taking regular videos to notate your progress. It’s a great way to see how far your game has grown and save it in the future in case you seem to lose the shot.
Top Questions
How do you hit a draw or fade easily? How do you hit a draw for beginners?
The easiest way to change your shot pattern for a fade or draw is to change your ball position – at least with your irons. Unlike driver or fairway woods, you have some wiggle room with irons on where you can position the ball.
If you want to play a fade, move the ball position so it’s further up in your stance, This makes it easier to hit the ball with an open face, hitting more of a fade shot.
Conversely, if you want to play a draw, move the ball position so it’s further back in your stance. Please note, this does not mean you need to play off your back foot. Instead, move the ball 1–2 balls back of the normal position to promote a more in to out golf swing.
But as I mentioned, this is only for irons, not for drivers. You can’t (or shouldn’t) change your ball position with the driver as you need to hit up on the ball for the proper launch angle. If you move the ball back in your stance, it will lead to getting too steep and likely hit a pop-up shot.
Why can’t I hit a draw?
If you can’t hit a draw, don’t beat yourself up as most of the golf population struggles with this shot. Some of the most common reasons people can’t hit draws include:
- Weak grip.
- Poor alignment.
- Incorrect equipment.
- Incorrect ball position.
How do you hit a big high draw?
A draw and high shot both require one thing above all else – speed. To launch a golf shot higher, you need plenty of speed. To hit a draw, you also need more speed to time your wrists rolling over at the correct sequence.
While the fundamentals discussed above are important, don’t forget to incorporate plenty of speed to hit the coveted high draw in golf.
What is the best training aid to hit a draw?
There are tons of training aids for all parts of your game. Whether you need to fix your weight transfer, putting yips, or swing plane.
One of the best devices I’ve used to promote a draw in practice is the Eyeline Golf Speed Trap. You can improve your swing path for a more in to out or out to in swing with ease. The removable rods force a proper swing path and help groove a more consistent swing.
Wrapping Up
At this point, you have everything you need to start curving the golf ball from right to left. Knowing how to hit a draw is a great tool to add to your game and can help a ton in certain situations.
The biggest thing to remember is that most swing changes happen before you ever swing the club. Your setup plays a massive role in any shot that you hit (or want to hit). If your setup is incorrect, it’s nearly impossible to hit a draw.
Do you prefer to play a draw or a fade? If a draw, do you feel confident with this shot on the course?
Let us know down below in the comments.
Michael Leonard
Michael Leonard is a full-time writer, author, creator of Wicked Smart Golf and +1 handicap amateur golfer. He left his corporate career in 2017 to pursue entrepreneurship and professional golf; since then, he’s competed in 160+ tournament days and went to Q-school in 2019.
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