Being able to curve the ball either way, in a controlled manner, is something that every golfer should try to add to his or her bag of tricks. Course designers often design holes to be played a certain way, and having the ability to shape your shots to suit the hole is a big bonus.

There’s not much to being able to hit a controlled draw or fade, but it’s much easier to accomplish if you have the ability to hit the ball relatively straight. If you have an uncontrollable slice, then you might have difficulty drawing the ball in a controlled manner, or even at all. The best bet is to kill your slice first, then work on draws and fades.

If you’re ready to tackle shot shaping for the first time, you’re probably going to be amazed at how easy it really is.

To produce a draw for a right hander, you simply address the ball aiming right of the target with your club face slightly closed, and take your normal straight-shot swing. For a fade, address the ball aiming left of the target with your club face slightly open and take your normal swing.

That’s all there is to it!

A good rule of thumb when trying to shape the ball is to align the club face at the target as you’re about to address the ball, but as you step into your stance, align your body where you want the ball to start it’s flight. So, to fade the ball, you’d aim the club face at the target, then align your body to the left of the target to allow the ball to start left and curve back at the target. The draw is just the opposite: your body would be aimed to the right of the target to allow for the ball to curve back left.

Some things to be aware of:

• Hitting a fade will typically cause the ball to fly a little higher and shorter with less roll, so plan on taking a little more club.
• In general, a draw will tend to fly a little lower with more roll, so plan on possibly needing a little less club.
• When you align the club face to the left or the right, don’t do so by rolling your hands open or closed, do so by spinning the handle of the club in your hands slightly. Otherwise, when your hands return to impact, they will return to a neutral position and you’ll lose the adjustment.
• The same goes for when you align the club face at the target and step into your stance, aligned either left or right. You don’t want to move the club face to be square with your aim line or that’s where the ball will go and end up.

Sometimes players have a difficult time getting the ball to curve the opposite direction from their natural tendency. Don’t be too concerned, because some great players have played the ball primarily one way or the other, with great success and never feel comfortable curving it the other way.

Nevertheless, it’s good to be able to curve the ball the other way, and there are some additional adjustments you can make to help you. Realize that the more modifications from your normal shot you have to make to curve the ball, the more room for error you leave yourself.

If you tend to play a fade and want to draw the ball, there are a couple of adjustments that will help.

• At address, drop your trailing foot back couple of inches, so that your foot line becomes more closed. This encourages your swing path to come more from the inside of the target line, putting you in a better position to draw the ball. Make sure that the rest of your body is aimed correctly, and not open to the target.
• Take a stronger grip. At address, if you have a weak or neutral grip, turn your hands around on the handle a little to the right (for a right hander). This encourages you to really get the club square or slightly closed at impact.

If you tend to play a draw and want to fade the ball, there are a some adjustments you can make, as well.

• At address, drop your leading foot back a couple of inches, so that your foot line becomes more open to the target. This helps keep your swing path coming a little less from the inside and more down the line or even across the line a hair.
• Take a weaker grip. For a right hander, this means turning your hands on the handle a little to the left. This will encourage you to keep the club face a little open at impact, letting you fade the ball.

These adjustments come in handy if you need to move the ball a long way one way or the other (to curve around a tree, for instance). But, in general, aiming your body where you want the ball to start and aiming the club face at the target is the least error-prone way to get the job done.

As with any shot in golf, experiment on the range a little before taking it out to the course for the first time. Use draws and fades in your practice sessions to spice things up a little. Before you know it, you’ll be moving the ball like a pro.

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