How to Hit a Draw in Golf: 3 Steps for a Strategic Curve 

I am aiming this at those in the same position I was in early on in developing my golf game.

That position: seeing all these beautiful shots by pro golfers and lower handicap amateur players where they would put beautiful curvature on their shot (on purpose, mind you) to end up accurate at the green or intended target. 

I say on purpose because I could put a beautiful curvature to my shots, except mine was more of a banana slice or hook (if overcompensating for the slice) and hurt my game in a big way.

You can hit a draw with any of your clubs, but my biggest struggle was trying to figure out how to hit a driver with consistency.

I will lay out what a draw is in golf and give you some tips on how to hit a draw shot in this beautiful game. My intention is not to make it seem too easy, but even learning some swing tendencies needed to hit a draw can help straighten out the shots of golfers with bad slices. 

Key Takeaways

• A draw is helpful for distance gains and navigating required shot shaping for certain course situations (e.g., doglegs).

• Setup with your body parallel to your aiming point, which should be slightly right of your ultimate target line, with the clubface slightly closed relative to the swing path.

• Swing inside-out, swinging away from your body with the slightly closed clubface to promote right to left ball flight through creating the draw spin off impact. 

What is a Draw in Golf?

This is a beautiful ball flight that, for us right handed golfers, starts out to the right and “draws” nicely and smoothly back left in the air towards your intended target (the pin, or even a nice positional spot in the fairway if you are laying up on a par 5).

I also used to think it was counterintuitive that many “better” golfers like to hit draws because I figured distance would be lost, but often, the draw actually rolls out further after landing (if in the fairway) because the swing needed creates more topspin on the ball. 

This is why I used to get so frustrated when my slice would lose so much distance, but the swing plane to get a slice just creates such a high amount of unhelpful spin on the golf ball. 

The point is, if you struggle slicing the ball a lot, learning how to hit a draw (or the mechanics of it) will vastly help you improve the straightness of your shots overall, even if at first you don’t get the perfect right-to-left ball flight. 

A draw is useful for navigating tight fairways, avoiding hazards, and improving your distance (especially if you play in a nice, warm place with fast fairways and good roll for drives). 

The draw can also be played with both your irons and driver/hybrids. 

How To Hit a Draw With Irons

Step 1: Body Alignment 

For a draw shot, I generally set my stance (shoulders and feet) parallel to my chosen target line, which should be just slightly right of where I want the ball to end up when the shot is done. 

This alignment helps promote swinging inside-out (or away) to create the spin on the ball to draw right to left. Also, to emphasize this more, you can bump out (or push) your front hip a bit more towards the target to promote the swinging away from the body (or inside out) during the swing.

You can also have your back foot drop back a few inches in your stance while bumping your front hip out slightly to promote the inside-out swing path further. 

Step 2: Club Face Setup 

After my body is aligned, I have my clubface (and this is an important distinction) slightly CLOSED relative to my swing path but slightly OPEN relative to my body alignment. 

To make sense of this, it is because we want the clubface to be closed to the swing path to create the right to left topspin on the ball, but open to body alignment because we are swinging inside-out or AWAY from the body (basically an anti-slice swing path - see diagram below). 

You want to make sure your grip is relatively firm but not TOO strong. In my experience, gripping the club too strongly trying to hit a draw can often result in a big hook instead. 

Step 3: Inside-Out Swing Path

The previous two steps are crucial for setting up success on the draw shot, but even if you set up as I have described above and still somehow generate an outside-in (or over-the-top) swing path, this will not work.

This understanding of hitting inside out eluded me for a long time (hence a lot of sliced drives), but once you understand and practice it, you will see a whole new world of improvement.

By following what I recommended in steps 1 and 2 above, you should already be correctly set up to swing with an inside-out swing path. As long as you consciously know you have to have a regular smooth swing tempo with full rotation while maintaining the clubface slightly closed relative to your swing path on impact and make sure your swing path is away from your body, you should see the impact of the right-to-left ball flight.

This will take some practice to get used to, but once you get the hang of this inside-out concept, you will better understand swing path vs clubface control. 

How To Hit a Draw With a Driver

Luckily for you, and me, the concept of hitting a draw with a driver is the same thing noted above.

The main difference is that, on set-up, the ball position will be forward in your stance towards the inside heel of your front foot, as you would typically have with your driver. This differs from irons, where you want to have it in the middle of your stance, if not slightly back. 

Aside from that, follow the steps above!

What are the benefits of hitting a draw in golf?

Hands down, what I found the most beneficial to at least understand the concept of hitting a draw in golf was learning about how the club face and swing path worked with each other to determine what happens with my shot.

This was important because this alone fixed the slice with my driver and added about 30 yards to my drives. 

Hitting a draw can add distance because of the more right-to-left topspin created, usually generating more rollout on the fairway off drives. 

It also allows for strategizing better shot shape on dogleg holes where a draw (either for lefty or righty golfers) is useful.

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