As a golf professional, I would have to list cutting across the
ball as the No. 1 fault that golfers have.
As a golf professional, I would have to list cutting across the ball as the No. 1 fault that golfers have. The reason is that this is the path of least resistance for your body and swing.
Doing it the “right” way takes a little more work and is a little more unnatural.
When you cut across the ball, your hips and shoulders open to the target and your swing path cuts across the intended target line. To correct this, slide your hips laterally toward the target and extend your arms out toward the target. You even have to exaggerate it a bit, feeling like you are swinging out to the right of your target to break the bad habit of swinging to the left of it.
A good drill to work on this is to put a tee about 18 inches behind your ball to the inside of your target line, and another one about 18 inches in front of your ball to the outside of the target line. This will encourage that inside-to-out swing, instead of the outside-to-in cut across swing.
