Why You Should Learn How To Hit A Fade

Many golfers spend hours wondering how to draw the ball yet very few give much thought to the benefits of a fade. If you can master how to hit a fade you will have a very useful shot in your armoury.

Some of the world's top professionals have the fade as their "bread and butter" shot - Martin Kaymer, the current world number 3 is one - and for very good reason.

In this article I intend to tell you those reasons and teach you how to hit a fade.

But first let's make it clear that we understand what a fade is. You need to know this if you want to learn to hit a fade and not a slice.

The following description is for right-handed golfers. For left-handed golfers the opposite is true.

A fade is a ball that starts off heading slightly left of target and proceeds roughly on a straight arc until the ball reaches its highest trajectory at which point it starts falling gently to the right, back on to the intended target. A ball landing from a fade shot lands softly (like a butterfly with sore feet) and stops quickly.

Don't mistake a fade for a uncontrollable slice!

96% of golfers suffer from slicing which is a totally different shot to a fade although there is only a small margin of error between an intentional fade and a damaging slice.

Firstly let's look at some of the reasons the slice is such a handy shot to have on call.

With a slice you can:

• Land the ball softly and stop it quickly.
• Play the ball away from trouble. For example if the pin is to the right of a green, or there is water or a hazard on the left, you can safely aim slightly left or to the center of the green knowing the ball will "fall" to the right.
• Off the tee you can use the entire fairway by aiming for the left edge of the fairway - the fade will bring your ball back to the center or left-center of the fairway. This is very useful for those fairways that have tight right-hand dog legs.
• Stop long iron shots quicker when you need a lot of carry but not much roll-out. This is what players mean when they talk about the "power fade".

Now let me try to teach you how to hit a fade.

It is important that you have a repeatable golf swing in order to make the few minor adjustments required for a fade. It is no use trying to play a fade if every time you swing the club back it is a totally different swing.

The set up for a fade is relatively simple:

• Set up as you normally would, with your "toe-line" and your "ball-to-target-line" parallel to each other and your club face square to the target.
• Keep your club face aiming square to the target but now align your "toe-line" slightly left of where it was.
• Your club should now be square to the target, but your "toe-line" (sometimes called your "body line") should be aiming left of the target.
• Take a normal swing along your "toe-line" which will result in the club face cutting across the ball on a slight out-to-in path.

Learning how to hit a fade (and I mean a controlled fade not a wild slice) is essential if you want to improve your golf scores. Anyone who knows how to hit a fade will tell you what a useful shot it really is.