How to Fix Your Golf Slice: A Roda Golf Pro's July Drills

Walk into the pro shop at Roda Golf on any July morning and you'll hear the same complaint on repeat: the ball starts left of the target, curves hard right, and finishes in the pines or worse, out toward the Camposol road. That's a slice, and it's the single most common fault I see on this course, whatever the handicap. The good news is that it's also one of the easiest faults to fix once you understand what's actually causing it.

I've spent enough summers playing the golf courses around Roda to know that July doesn't forgive a slice the way a soft, damp March fairway does. The ground's baked hard now, the ball reacts differently off the tee, and a sliced drive that might have stayed in play in winter runs straight through the fairway and into trouble. So this month's the right time to sort it properly, not just manage around it.

Why Your Slice Gets Worse in the July Heat

A slice happens for one of two reasons, and usually both together: your clubface is open relative to your swing path at impact, or your path itself is cutting across the ball from outside to in. Add sweaty hands and a grip that slips half a centimetre mid-swing, which happens to everyone in 35-degree heat, and that clubface opens even further without you noticing.

There's a physical reason it feels worse here too. Firm, dry fairways mean less friction on landing, so a ball with slice spin curves and rolls further off line than it would on softer turf back home. What was a ten-yard fade in cooler weather becomes a proper banana ball that finds the rough or the scrub beyond it. Fix the root cause and the July conditions stop being your enemy.

Drill One: The Strong Grip Reset

Most slicers I meet grip the club with their top hand rotated too far underneath, which leaves the face open through impact no matter how good the swing looks. Take your normal grip, then check where the V formed by your right thumb and forefinger points (reverse this if you're left-handed). It should point toward your right shoulder, not your chin.

If it's pointing at your chin, rotate both hands slightly clockwise on the handle until that V shifts toward the shoulder. It'll feel odd, maybe even wrong, for the first twenty balls. Stick with it. Hit some slow, deliberate half-swings on the range before you trust it on a full drive. This single change fixes more slices than any swing thought I know, because it closes the face without you having to manipulate anything mid-swing.

Drill Two: The Gate Drill for an Inside-Out Path

Once the grip's sorted, the path needs attention. Grab two headcovers or spare tees and set them up just outside your ball, roughly a clubhead's width apart, forming a gate. Position them so a ball struck with an out-to-in (slicing) path would clip the outside cover on the way through.

Hit shots trying to swing through the gate without touching either cover. You'll find your body naturally routes the club from slightly inside the target line, which is exactly the path a draw or straight shot needs. Start with half-swings and a mid-iron before moving up to the driver. Do this for fifteen minutes, three times a week, and most golfers see a real change within a fortnight.

A Quick Note on Tempo

Slicers often rush the downswing, throwing the club from the top with the arms instead of letting the body lead. In this heat especially, slow everything down. A lazy, unhurried tempo keeps the sequencing right and stops that outside-in move creeping back in when you get tired on the back nine.

Practice Like You Mean It This Summer

Neither drill works if you only try it once and go straight back to the first tee. Book fifteen minutes on the range before your round, not after, and run through both drills with a handful of balls each. If you're serious about it, a proper lesson will sort a stubborn slice far quicker than weeks of guesswork, and it's worth getting in touch to book a lesson with the pro shop team if you're staying in the area this summer.

For visitors renting one of the holiday rentals near Roda Golf for a golfing week, this is exactly the kind of fault worth ironing out before you tee off on the resort's tighter par fours, where a slice into the trees costs you a shot every time. Twenty minutes on the range each morning, before the real heat sets in, is enough to bed these changes in over a week's stay.

Get the grip right first, then work the gate drill until the inside path feels normal rather than forced. Everything else, the extra distance, the straighter tee shots, the lower scores, follows from those two fixes. For more course-specific tips like this, have a browse through our golf blog section before your next round.