The Fade
A hooking shot has a habit of nose-diving into all sorts of trouble. For the better golfer this can mean successive poor holes in a round. Each time you are forced to play out of difficulty you cannot birdie and at best need a one putt to save par. A low round score may come your way, but invariably follow it with a very bad one. Basic to all corrections of course is to review everything you have learned about fundamentals.
Instead of living in constant fear of producing a hook, history shows that the better golfer explores the soundness of developing a left to right drift, called a fade. The good golfer develops their fade from the use of their hands and by rolling the left shoulder back and away through impact. Too much right hand is used with the explained shoulder action to keep the hands from rolling over. This method draws the face of the club across the ball at impact.
Here is a test on how to use the right hand. Stand facing one side of a door frame. Now slap the side wall at speed with your right hand. The better golfer will do it in a manner that does not involve the right shoulder. The right shoulder does not tighten with the slapping action. If your right shoulder gets involved your hand wont land squarely on the wall.
Too much right hand and the left shoulder rolled back and away from the ball at impact are responsible for producing a fade. It is the style adopted by the better golfer to gain a measure of accuracy and control.
I was shown how to play a fade during my PGA apprenticeship and found it to be a great ally to my golf game. On dogleg-right holes it will help you to keep the ball in the fairway and shorten the hole. On narrow driving holes, particularly when there’s heavy rough on both sides, the fade is easier to control than a draw or a straight ball. Many prominent PGA professionals demonstrate the fade with iron shots knowing that it will bounce more gently, gaining a better chance of stopping at a spot where they want it.