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18 September 2026 · 10 min read

Draw, fade, hook and slice in golf: the nine ball flights and the two numbers behind them

Nine ball flights, and each one is a pair of two numbers: where the club face points and where the club is moving. If you can read those two, you recognise the draw and the fade, the hook and the slice, the push and the pull on the screen before the ball lands. What every flight is in numbers, how the hook compares with the slice and what a draw really adds in distance.

Draw, fade, hook and slice in golf: the nine ball flights and the two numbers behind them — post image

The draw and the fade are the two curves in golf you want. The hook and the slice are the two you get. Add push and pull, and with the straight ball that makes nine ball flights. They look like nine different faults. They are nine pairs of the same two numbers the launch monitor shows after every shot: where the club face points and where the club moves. Everything here is for right-handers. Left-handers swap left and right and reverse every sign.

Two numbers explain nine ball flights

Face angle is the direction the club face points at impact. Club path is the direction the club head moves at impact. Both are measured against the target line, and for both, plus means right of the target and minus left (TrackMan, Club Path). The difference, face angle minus club path, is called face to path: plus when the face points right of the path (open), minus when it points left of it (closed) (TrackMan, Face to Path).

Two rules follow. First, the ball starts mostly where the face points: with a 6-iron the club face sets about 75 percent of the start direction, with the driver about 85 percent; the rest comes from the path (PGA Academy, Starting Line). Second, with a centred strike the ball curves away from the path and towards the face, and at zero face to path it flies straight (TrackMan). The start is the face. The curve is the difference.

The nine flights, with their signs

Three start directions times three curves. Here are the nine, with example numbers in degrees: face angle, club path, face to path. They show the pattern, not your swing.

FlightStartCurveFace angleClub pathFace to path
Pull-hookleftleftminus 3plus 1minus 4
Pullleftstraightminus 5minus 5zero
Pull-sliceleftrightminus 2minus 8plus 6
Hookat the targetleftzeroplus 4minus 4
Straightat the targetstraightzerozerozero
Sliceat the targetrightzerominus 6plus 6
Push-hookrightleftplus 2plus 5minus 3
Pushrightstraightplus 5plus 5zero
Push-slicerightrightplus 5zeroplus 5

Draw and fade are missing from the list, on purpose. A draw is a push-hook that ends on the target: it starts a little right and comes back with a small curve. A fade is a pull-slice that ends on the target. What decides the name is not the direction of the curve but its size and the start. The same curve, started at the target, ends left of it and is called a hook.

Draw and fade in golf: the two you want

A draw needs an in-to-out path, a fade an out-to-in path, and a straight ball a path at zero (TrackMan, Club Path). A draw in numbers: face plus 2, path plus 5, face to path minus 3. The fade is the same with the signs reversed: face minus 2, path minus 5, face to path plus 3. A coach quoted by TrackMan on the same page gives plus or minus 3 to 6 degrees of path as a guide, depending on the curve.

TrackMan has worked out the curve for tour players: a PGA Tour driver with 275 yards of carry curves about 19 yards left at minus 2 degrees of face to path, a good 17 metres. A 6-iron curves about 8 yards right at plus 2 degrees (TrackMan, Face to Path). So with the driver a draw at minus 2 degrees is more than half a fairway: the same page puts a tour fairway at 30 to 32 yards. Started at the target, it ends 17 metres left of it. It has to start right to land on the target.

The hook: the slice mirrored

The hook has the same cause as the slice, with the sign reversed: at impact the face points left of the path, face to path is negative, and the bigger the difference, the more curve. Either the path comes strongly from the inside, plus 6 or plus 8, with the face at the target: the ball starts at the target and turns away left. Or the face sits at minus 4 on a path at zero: the pull-hook, which starts left and keeps turning left, often too strong a grip. With the driver the curve is bigger than with an iron: at 5 degrees of face to path, TrackMan gives about 44 yards of curve for a tour driver, in its example an open face curving right (TrackMan).

On TrackMan's blog, the coach Tom Stickney measured which of the two faults is worse, with the same driver for both. The hook came out flat, with 1,992 rpm of spin and a landing angle of 19.4 degrees. The slice rose high, with 5,218 rpm and 45.3 degrees. Big hooks usually carry less than slices but roll further: on soft ground the slice is the better miss, on fast ground the hook (TrackMan, Draw or Fade). The way out of the hook is the way out of the slice, mirrored: the face first, then the path, then hold the difference. The order is in Fixing a slice; for the hook you reverse every sign: a weaker grip, not a stronger one, a path less from the inside.

Push, pull and the straight misses

Push and pull are the two flights without a curve that still land off target: face to path is zero, but face and path both point past the target, right for a push, left for a pull. TrackMan puts a figure on the cost: over 100 yards, a ball at 1 degree lands 1.7 yards off the line, at 4 degrees 7 yards (TrackMan, Launch Direction). Over 150 metres, 4 degrees is a good ten metres from the flag. The fault is often in the alignment: feet, hips or shoulders aim where the ball goes. Check that with a stick on the ground before working on the swing.

Draw against fade: what a draw really adds in distance

Every golfer hears early that a draw goes further than a fade. The same post on TrackMan's blog calls that a myth: in one measurement the fade carried further than the draw at almost the same club head speed. In a second, the fade had 15 degrees of dynamic loft and 3,768 rpm of spin and carried 240.8 yards; the draw had 10.5 degrees and 2,643 rpm and carried 245.7. Just under five yards of carry. The bigger difference was the landing angle, 42.9 degrees for the fade and 28.8 for the draw, which gave the draw almost 20 yards more roll (TrackMan, Draw or Fade).

So the draw adds mostly roll, and roll belongs to the ground, not to you. On a wet fairway in November it is gone. What it costs is in the same article: a draw that comes out too flat loses carry because dynamic loft and attack angle fall out of range (TrackMan, Draw or Fade). Distance comes from loft and spin at impact, not from the shape of the curve. In the simulator you see carry, spin and landing angle separately, and after ten balls you know whether your draw carries or only rolls.

More on this: How many dimples does a golf ball have, and why?.

Ball position and the two drills

The club head travels on an arc around you: before the low point downwards and from in to out, to the right of the target, after it upwards and back in, to the left. Where the ball sits on that arc therefore affects path and attack angle; TrackMan names ball position as one of the factors behind attack angle (TrackMan, Attack Angle). For a draw the ball sits a little further back in the stance, the feet aim slightly right, the face stays at the target. For a fade it sits a little further forward, the feet aim slightly left. Move it only a little, and after five balls the club path column tells you whether the path has moved.

  • Drill 1: order the sign. Ten balls with a 7-iron, the goal: face to path between minus 2 and minus 4, start right of the target. Then ten balls at plus 2 to plus 4, start left. You look only at the two columns, not at the ball.
  • Drill 2: the nine windows. All nine flights in turn, on purpose, with the screen as the referee, from the pull-hook to the push-slice. It is not about pretty shots but about knowing the two numbers behind every flight. A miss you can produce to order no longer surprises you on the course.

For both drills you need a system that measures the club and shows face angle and club path. In the directory, 83 venues name TrackMan, 7 Foresight Sports and 4 Uneekor. Which venue has which system is on the TrackMan page and in the system comparison, how the systems measure is in Radar or camera, and what the other numbers mean is in Understanding launch monitor numbers. Book an hour, order ten draws and ten fades, and look at the two columns instead of the ball. If the signs will not come, a pro helps: 95 of the 126 venues offer coaching; the training page lists them.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a draw and a hook?

Both curve left for right-handers, because the club face points left of the swing path at impact. The draw starts right of the target and comes back with a small difference. The hook starts at the target or left of it, or it has too much difference: according to TrackMan, minus 2 degrees is already about 19 yards of curve with a tour driver, which is why a draw has to start right.

Does a draw go further than a fade?

Not automatically. A coach on TrackMan's blog calls that a myth: in one measurement the draw carried 245.7 yards and the fade 240.8, in another the fade carried further at almost the same club head speed. The draw's advantage was mostly roll, almost 20 yards, because of the flatter landing angle of 28.8 instead of 42.9 degrees.

What causes a hook?

A club face that is closed to the swing path at impact: face to path below zero. Either the path comes too strongly from the inside with the face at the target, or the face is closed on a neutral path, often through a grip that is too strong or hands that roll over. The fix is the slice fix with the signs reversed: the face first, then the path.

What is the difference between a push and a pull?

Both fly straight and still finish off line. In a push the face and the path point right together, in a pull they point left together. Face to path is zero in both cases, which is why there is no curve; what needs correcting is the alignment, not the hands.

How do I hit a fade on purpose?

With a path slightly from out to in and a face that is less far left than the path: face to path stays positive but small, about plus 2 to plus 4 degrees. The ball then starts a little left of the target and comes back. On the screen you watch that one difference and nothing else.

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