Improve Face Angle and Path with the Four Square Motorcycle Drill

The Four Square Motorcycle Drill teaches you to match clubface control with club path. That matters because many golfers improve one while accidentally ruining the other. You may learn how to close an open face, but if the club starts traveling too far left, the result is a pull or pull-hook. Or you may improve your path, only to leave the face too open and hit weak fades. This drill blends the familiar 9-to-3 motion with the motorcycle move so you can train both pieces together and build a more reliable face-to-path relationship.

How the Drill Works

The idea is simple: you create a visual gate on the ground that helps you monitor the club’s travel through impact while you simultaneously work on closing the face with proper shaft rotation.

Many slicers and weak faders have a pattern where the clubface is open relative to the path. Sometimes the path is also slightly out-to-in, but the bigger issue is that the face never gets organized well enough to produce a strong, compressed strike. Once you start trying to fix that by adding the motorcycle feel—a lead-wrist flexion and shaft rotation pattern that helps close the face—you can easily overdo it in the wrong direction. The clubface gets more closed, but the shaft steepens and the path moves farther left. That is when straight weak shots can turn into hard pulls.

This drill gives you feedback on both variables at once:

Face control: You rehearse the motorcycle move to get the face less open.
Path control: You brush the ground through the correct squares so the club does not cut across the ball.

To set it up, draw a simple four-square pattern on the ground. You can use spray paint for a clear visual, but a tee or club can scratch the lines into the turf just fine. Picture a box divided into four equal sections:

Square 1: back-inside
Square 2: back-outside
Square 3: forward-inside
Square 4: forward-outside

For a right-handed golfer, the goal is usually to move the club from Square 1 to Square 3. That gives you the feel of a shallower, more in-to-out delivery instead of a leftward wipe across the ball. At the same time, you rehearse a face that is more square to that path by using the motorcycle motion in the downswing.

This is why the drill is so useful: it prevents you from “fixing” your slice by only closing the face while the path remains steep and left. It also prevents you from chasing path alone while the face stays open. You are connecting the dots between what the clubface is doing and how the club is traveling through impact.

Step-by-Step

Create the four-square station. Draw a box on the ground and divide it into four smaller squares. If you are practicing on grass, a tee can be enough to mark the lines. Start with no ball so you can focus on the motion first.
Set up for a 9-to-3 swing. Make a shorter motion where your lead arm reaches about 9 o’clock in the backswing and your trail arm reaches about 3 o’clock in the follow-through. This keeps the drill manageable and gives you clearer feedback.
Rehearse the motorcycle move from the top of the short swing. As you transition down, feel the clubface becoming more closed through shaft rotation and lead-wrist flexion. You are not trying to roll the hands wildly. You are organizing the face earlier so it is not hanging open into impact.
Brush the ground from Square 1 to Square 3. As you swing through, let the club travel through the inside track of the box rather than cutting from Square 2 to Square 4. This is the path piece of the drill.
Hold the finish and check the clubface. After the strike or turf brush, pause in the follow-through. Make sure the face did not immediately fan back open. You want the club to feel organized through the strike and into the finish.
Add a teed-up ball in the center. Once the motion starts to feel more natural, place a ball in the middle of the four-square pattern. A tee makes it easier at first because it reduces the fear of digging or manipulating the strike.
Watch the starting direction and curve. If the ball starts too far left, your path may still be too left or the face may be too closed. If it starts right and curves farther right, the face is still too open. The best shots will usually start close to your intended line or slightly right of it and gently draw back.
Shift your attention based on the feedback. If the face is still open, give a little more attention to the motorcycle feel. If the face is improving but the ball is launching left, keep the face organized and put more attention on brushing from Square 1 to Square 3.
Build up to longer swings. Once the 9-to-3 version is solid, move to a slightly longer three-quarter motion. You can eventually use the same concept in fuller swings, but the shorter format is usually the best place to train the pattern.

What You Should Feel

This drill works best when you pay attention to a few specific sensations. You are trying to develop a blend of shallow path and organized face rotation, not just one or the other.

Face Feel

The clubface feels more closed earlier in the downswing than you are used to.
Your lead wrist may feel a bit more bowed or flexed through transition.
The shaft feels as though it is rotating in a way that keeps the face from hanging open.

For many golfers, this will feel exaggerated at first. That is normal. If you are used to delivering an open face, a square face often feels shut.

Path Feel

The clubhead feels as if it is approaching from the inside track.
You feel the brush of the club moving through Square 1 to Square 3.
The downswing feels less steep and less like the club is chopping across the ball.

One of the challenges here is that shallowing the club often makes the face want to open. That is exactly why the motorcycle component is paired with the four-square visual. You are learning how to shallow the path without losing face control.

Ball-Flight Checkpoints

Weak fade or straight soft shot: face is still too open relative to path.
Big pull: face may be more closed, but the path is too far left.
Push-draw or straight shot with solid contact: face and path are starting to work together.

If the ball starts slightly right and draws back, that is often a very good sign with this drill. It usually means the face is square to slightly closed relative to the target, while the path is moving more from the inside.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Only focusing on closing the face. If you do the motorcycle move but steepen the shaft and swing left, you may trade a slice for a pull.
Only focusing on path. If you shallow the club but leave the face open, the ball can still leak right.
Rolling the hands late. The goal is not a frantic flip through impact. You want the face organized earlier in the downswing.
Making the swing too long too soon. Start with 9-to-3 swings. Short swings make it easier to feel and measure what is happening.
Ignoring the turf interaction. The brushing action through the squares is a major source of feedback. If the club keeps traveling across the wrong boxes, your path is not where you think it is.
Not checking the finish. A quick pause after the swing can tell you whether the face stayed organized or immediately fanned open.
Expecting the new face position to feel normal. If you have played with an open face for a long time, better mechanics may feel closed even when they are correct.

How This Fits Your Swing

This drill is valuable because it teaches you that face and path are connected. You cannot permanently improve your ball flight by treating them as separate issues.

If you tend to slice, the most obvious problem often looks like an open face. That is true, but the fix is rarely just “turn the face over.” If you close the face while the club keeps moving out-to-in, the ball may stop slicing but start flying left. On the other hand, if you work on an in-to-out path without learning how to control the face, the ball can start right and stay there.

The Four Square Motorcycle Drill helps you blend these two corrections into one coordinated motion:

The motorcycle move improves face control.
The four-square visual improves path awareness.
The 9-to-3 format gives you repeatable feedback without the complexity of a full swing.

That makes this a particularly strong drill if you are the type of player who hits:

weak straight shots with little compression
fades that do not go far enough
slices caused by an open face
pulls that show up after trying to “fix” the slice

It also helps you understand an important pattern in golf mechanics: the moves that shallow the club often tend to open the face, and the moves that close the face can sometimes steepen the club if done poorly. Good ball striking requires you to train those tendencies together, not independently.

As you improve, this drill can become a bridge from practice motion to full-swing performance. Start with rehearsals and no ball. Then hit short shots from a tee. Then progress to three-quarter swings. At each stage, use the same questions:

Was the face organized through impact?
Did the club travel through the correct squares?
Did the ball start where I expected?
Did it curve in a way that matches the face-to-path relationship I wanted?

When you can answer those questions consistently, you are no longer guessing. You are learning to read the shot, adjust the motion, and match face and path on purpose. That is the real value of the Four Square Motorcycle Drill: it gives you a practical way to connect the mechanics you are working on with the ball flight you actually want.