Fix a Closed Club Face for Better Draws

This drill trains one of the hardest changes for many golfers who fight a fade or weak slice: learning how a closed club face should actually feel in your hands. If you have been working on the “motorcycle” move, trying to rotate the face more closed in transition, or trying to turn a left-to-right pattern into a stronger draw, the biggest obstacle is often not mechanics alone. It is comfort. A face that is finally in a better position can feel dramatically shut, even when it is exactly what you need. This drill helps you break through that barrier by pre-setting the face more closed to the shaft and making short swings until your brain accepts that new relationship as normal.

How the Drill Works

The idea is simple: instead of trying to close the club face during the motion, you begin with the face already more closed relative to the shaft. Then you make small 9-to-3 swings—waist high back and waist high through—while keeping that relationship intact.

This matters because many golfers who struggle with a fade are used to a club face that feels square to them but is actually too open relative to the swing path. When you pre-close the face, the club immediately feels different. The clubhead no longer feels perfectly balanced under the shaft. Instead, you feel a slight asymmetry or extra pull in the lead arm because the mass of the clubhead is no longer lined up directly behind the shaft.

That “weighted” sensation is useful. It teaches you what a more closed face feels like during the swing. If you have never experienced that sensation, it is very difficult to reproduce it dynamically on the downswing.

From there, you make short shots while preserving that closed-face condition. At first, the ball may want to start left if your path stays the same. That is part of the learning process. The drill teaches you not only how to feel a face that is more closed, but also how to adjust your swing path so the face can be closed to the path without sending the ball too far left.

In other words, this drill helps you build the ingredients for a reliable draw:

• A face that is not hanging open
• A path that supports a right-to-left shot shape
• A release pattern that produces better compression

Step-by-Step

1. Take your normal grip. Set up as you normally would with a short iron or wedge. You do not need to change your grip to do this drill. Start with the grip you typically use on the course.

2. Pre-close the club face relative to the shaft. Before you swing, rotate the club so the face looks more shut than normal. You are not changing your whole setup; you are simply giving yourself a stronger face orientation from the start.

3. Notice the weight of the clubhead. Hold the club still for a moment and pay attention to how the club feels in your lead arm and hands. When the face is more closed, the clubhead will feel less neutral and more offset. That is the sensation you are trying to learn.

4. Make slow rehearsal swings to waist high. Without hitting a ball at first, swing the club back to about waist high and through to about waist high, keeping the face in that pre-closed condition. The goal is not speed. The goal is awareness.

5. Hit short 9-to-3 shots. Place a ball down and make small shots while preserving that same face feel. Think of brushing the turf and striking the ball cleanly with a compact motion.

6. Watch the starting direction. If your normal path is slightly out-to-in, the ball may start left or curve too much left with this closed face. That is expected. It tells you the face is finally in a stronger position than what you are used to.

7. Adjust the path slightly. As you continue hitting these short shots, begin to shallow the path a bit or feel the club traveling more from the inside. You are learning how to pair a more closed face with a path that launches the ball straighter and lets it draw.

8. Keep the face feel, not a hand flip. The goal is not to violently roll the forearms through impact. You want to maintain the closed-face relationship and let the body motion and delivery organize the strike.

9. Gradually increase speed only after the ball flight improves. Once you can hit solid short shots that start on line or slightly right and curve back, you can make the motion a little longer and faster. But do not rush into full swings.

10. Use the drill as a reference point. After you have learned the feel, experiment with creating that same face condition during the backswing, at the top, or in transition rather than presetting it at address. The drill gives you the destination; your full swing work teaches you how to arrive there naturally.

What You Should Feel

The most important part of this drill is the change in sensation. If you only focus on positions, you may miss why the drill works so well.

A heavier, less neutral clubhead

With the face pre-closed, the clubhead should not feel like it is hanging straight under the shaft. It should feel slightly off-center or more loaded into the lead side. For many golfers, this is the first time they have truly felt what a stronger face condition is like.

A face that stays organized, not manipulated late

During the short swing, you want to feel that the face remains in a more closed relationship to the shaft rather than opening early and then being rescued at the last second. This is especially helpful if you tend to leave the face open and then stall or flip through impact.

Arms extending at the right time

As you swing through, pay attention to when your arms extend. If the face is in a better position, you can let the club move through the ball more confidently rather than hanging back and trying to steer it. The strike should feel more compressed and less glancing.

A path that adapts to the face

Once the face is stronger, your body will need to organize the path differently. You may feel the club approaching from a slightly more inside direction. That is a healthy adjustment. The drill is not just about shutting the face; it is about learning how face and path work together.

Better contact with less wipe across the ball

When the face is too open, many golfers cut across the ball and produce a weak strike. With this drill, solid contact often improves quickly because the club can deliver more compression with less glancing blow.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Making the swing too big too soon. This is a short-swing drill. If you jump straight to full speed, you will usually lose the face awareness you are trying to build.
• Flipping the hands through impact. The goal is not a last-second roll of the wrists. You want a face that is organized earlier, not rescued late.
• Ignoring the path. If you close the face but keep swinging across the ball, shots will often start and stay left. You must learn to pair the stronger face with a better path.
• Changing your grip dramatically. Use your normal grip unless you are specifically working on grip changes elsewhere. This drill is about face awareness and delivery, not a complete rebuild.
• Trying to hold the face off rigidly. You want to preserve the closed relationship, but not with excessive tension. Stay athletic and let the club move.
• Judging the drill by one ball flight. Early shots may look strange. That does not mean the drill is wrong. It usually means you are finally seeing what a different face condition does.
• Confusing closed to the shaft with closed to the target. The key concept is how the face relates to the shaft and path during delivery. The ball flight depends on both face and path together.

How This Fits Your Swing

This drill is especially valuable if your stock pattern is a fade, slice, or weak push. In those patterns, the club face is often too open relative to the path, even if it does not look obviously open on video. You may already be trying to fix it with body rotation, wrist conditions, or transition work, but if the closed-face feel still seems foreign, this drill gives you a direct shortcut.

It also helps you understand a critical truth about shot shaping: a draw does not come from simply swinging more to the right. It comes from managing the relationship between club face and path. If the face is too open, changing the path alone can produce pushes, blocks, or weak curvature. You need the face to be stronger first, then the path can support it.

That is why this drill can be so effective for players who are learning the motorcycle move or any pattern that closes the face earlier in the downswing. By presetting the face, you remove the timing challenge for a moment and experience the result directly. Once you know what the correct face condition feels like, you can work backward and learn how to create it in motion.

Over time, this drill can lead to several improvements in your full swing:

• Less slice spin because the face is no longer excessively open
• Better starting lines because you understand how face and path influence launch
• More compression from a face that is delivered in a stronger position
• A more reliable draw pattern built on a face that is closed to the path, not just a path that is shifted
• More versatility because you can begin to choose when and where in the swing you close the face

As you improve, you do not have to keep presetting the face forever. The long-term goal is to create the same condition naturally—perhaps in the backswing, at the top, or during transition. But the preset version is what teaches your hands and arms what “closed enough” actually feels like.

If you have spent years seeing only left-to-right shots, this drill can be a major reset. It gives you a new reference point for what the club should feel like, what a stronger release should produce, and how to blend face control with path control. That combination is what turns a wipey fade pattern into a more powerful, predictable draw.