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Can Loft Reduce a Slice?Why 9° curves more, and how far equipment can move it

Updated: Sep 29, 2026Contains affiliate links

You wanted distance, so you switched your driver from 10.5° to 9°. Then the trees on the right got closer. It's a common story, but it isn't necessarily your swing. Loft reduces a slice. And the less loft you have, the bigger it gets.
The reason is the ball's spin axis. For the same sidespin, the more backspin the ball has, the less the axis tilts. Through a gear nerd's eyes, I'll write how to sort out the cause by which clubs go right, and fixes in order of cost. When you've read it, you'll be able to decide whether to change your driver's loft.

Header image product photo: Rakuten Ichiba (ad) | PING G440 K Driver

How to reduce a slice with loft: bottom line

Count which clubs go right, and you can tell which side the cause is on

At the range, hit five balls each with the driver, 7-iron and PW. Write down, for each club, how many balls missed far to the right. You don't need any equipment.

1. Only the driver goes right. The irons are straight. If only the club with the smallest loft of your 14 curves, start with loft and the sleeve (the part at the base of the shaft, called the "kachakacha" in Japan, that changes loft and lie).
2. Only the irons go right. The driver is within what you can live with. Suspect a lie angle that's too flat (the tilt of the shaft when the club sits on the ground).
3. Every club goes right the same way. Equipment scatter doesn't explain it. It's the movement side.

There's one more check you can do at home: whether the stamp on your driver's sleeve is at the standard position on the maker's adjustment chart. If you bought it used, had someone adjust it, or remember turning it yourself, start there.

A slice is "face to the right of the path." It curves by the same physics as a hook

How a ball curves is set by two directions at impact: where the face pointed, and where the head was moving (the path, or club path). The plane those two make is called the D-plane, and the Trackman launch monitor puts numbers on it.

In Trackman's official explanation, the launch direction is mostly set by the face direction. What sets the curve direction is the difference between face and path, face-to-path (the face angle minus the path angle). For a right-hander, plus means the face is open to the path and the ball curves right.

An example from Trackman's official blog, "What is Face-to-Path?" (Sep 23, 2024). It assumes the average PGA Tour head speed and loft, with a center-face strike. With a different head speed or strike point, the curve changes too.

44 yards from 5°. A driver slice comes from a miss of just a few degrees.

A slice and a hook aren't different diseases. The sign of the difference is just reversed; the physics is the same. So, as in my article sorting out the duck hook, loft matters.

Another Trackman explanation lists swinging from out to in (left) as one reason for a fade or slice. But even with a leftward path, if the face points further left than that, the ball doesn't curve right. Is it the path to fix, or the face? I think you can't tell without looking at the numbers.

Reduce loft by 1.5° and the spin axis tilts from about 11° to about 14°

A ball curves by the amount it spins sideways. At the same time it spins forward and back. The more backspin, the less the axis tips sideways. PING specialty shop LB's explanation gives an example holding sidespin at 500 rpm and changing backspin: at 2,000 rpm the axis is about 14°, at 5,000 rpm about 6°.

So how much does backspin change when loft moves? Titleist explains officially that changing loft by 0.75° changes backspin by about 275 rpm. For a 1.5° step, scaled proportionally, that's about 550 rpm. I calculated with that. It assumes the same swing, with only loft changed.

My calculation. The baseline of 2,500 rpm backspin and 500 rpm sidespin is an assumed value. The change of about 550 rpm per 1.5° of loft is Titleist's official "about 275 rpm per 0.75°" scaled proportionally. Spin-axis tilt = tan⁻¹(sidespin ÷ backspin), the same idea as PING specialty shop LB's explanation. It assumes sidespin doesn't change when loft changes.

At 9° the axis is about 14°; at 12°, about 9°. The swing is exactly the same. Even so, the tilt differs by about 1.5 times.

You cut loft to gain distance. That's moving yourself onto ground where the ball curves more easily. An article by MyGolfSpy Japan also says that when spin loft (the difference between the loft at impact and the angle the head comes in at) is low, the spin axis tilts easily and the ball curves more.

Some top-ranking explanations say "more loft reduces sidespin." I see it a little differently. It's not sidespin itself; it's the ratio of side to back that changes. So loft that adds backspin is what works, in that order.

There's a weak point too. Adding loft raises the ball and adds spin. People whose ball is already high and balloons without going forward are an exception. For them, reducing loft makes sense, so it's better to have the movement looked at before the loft.

For a slicer, an adjustable hosel that adds loft works in your favor

On a sleeve where loft and lie are linked on one axis, adding loft closes the face. TaylorMade's Japan official handling manual (the 2022 STEALTH series) gives numbers by position.

TaylorMade Japan official "Loft Sleeve Handling Manual" (2022 STEALTH series). The mechanism differs by model and year, so check your own driver on its adjustment chart. The face angle here is the direction at address and is a different number from the face-to-path above.

The face closes by twice the loft added. For golfers with a duck hook, that was an awkward design, because the curve-reducing effect and the face pointing left cancel each other out.

For a slicer, the same design works the other way. Backspin rises, the axis tilts less and the face at address points left. Both push in the direction of less curve to the right.

One pitfall: you dislike how closed it looks, so you grip it with the face turned back to square at address. As The GolfWorks explains, turning the face back toward open adds loft, and toward closed removes it. If you re-grip to match the look, the ball won't come off as the number you set. The way to use this design is to set the sole on the ground and grip it with the head pointing where it points.

There are systems like Titleist's SureFit that move loft and lie separately. They let you add loft alone, but they don't help close the face. The maker's adjustment chart tells you which kind you have.

If only the irons go right, suspect a flat lie angle

When the lie angle is flat (too far laid back), the toe of the head drops and the face points right. How much depends on loft. I calculated the face tilt when the lie angle is off by 1°.

My calculation. Face tilt = atan(tan loft × sin 1°). It's a geometric value that only looks at the face direction at address; a real ball adds curve on top.

For the same 1°, the sand wedge is more than 7 times the driver. Fixing a driver slice with lie angle barely works.

My 7-iron goes 160 yards (measured). Even with a 7-iron 1° flat, the face direction alone sends it only about 1.6 yards right (a guide calculated from my own measurement: 160 yards × tan 0.6°, curve not included). A few yards right is lie angle's turn. Thirty yards right isn't lie angle.

Lie angle should be set by the shape at impact, not at address. If your hands rise at impact, the heel lifts and you hit on the flat side. That's why PING's official fitting puts tape on the sole before you hit. I wrote how in the lie angle section of my duck-hook article.

Before you replace the head, you can try 4 fixes, starting from ¥0

1. Check the sleeve stamp against the adjustment chart (¥0). If it's been turned toward less loft, go back to standard first.
2. Add loft with the sleeve (¥0). If it's a linked design, the face closes too. Set the sole down, grip it with the head pointing where it points, and hit 10 balls.
3. Switch to a head with different loft. If the right-side miss remains after you've added all you can with the sleeve, go one loft step up.
4. Have the iron lie angle checked (at a workshop). For those whose irons alone go right. If you've just started lessons, wait until your movement settles.

Both cost ¥107,800 on PING's official site (incl. tax, checked Sep 29, 2026). The SFT isn't bad. If 10.5° gives you enough height and the ball still goes right, the SFT's draw design can fit. Before you pay ¥100,000, do 1 and 2 above.

If every club goes right, separate face from path by the numbers

From here on I'll write only the commonly taught basics.

At a range with a launch monitor, there are two numbers to watch: face direction (face angle) and path (club path). If the path is well to the left, you're swinging out to in. If the path is near straight and the face is right, the face is hitting open. Same slice, different thing to fix.

You can't see your own path and face direction yourself. Once you've sorted it by the numbers, having someone look is fastest. Which comes first, equipment or lessons, is covered in my article on sorting by curve width.

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I haven't been to these places. I wrote only the prices published officially. For anyone who counted by club and found "only the driver goes right," I'd want you to try the sleeve wrench before spending ¥3,300.

For those whose slice won't go away even after changing clubs

People for whom it's worth rechecking equipment

• Only the driver goes right and the irons are straight
• You cut loft to gain distance and the right side got worse
• The sleeve stamp is on the less-loft side, or you don't know whether it's standard
• Only the irons go a few yards right, and the strikes are the same every time

Who is better off not switching

• Every club curves far right the same way (equipment differences don't explain it)
• It scatters both right and left (having the movement looked at first is faster)
• Your ball is already high and balloons without going forward (adding loft makes it higher still)
• You go to the range only once a month (you can't separate the effect of a change from how you felt that day)

Adding loft shrinks the curve. But the habit of hitting with the face open remains. What equipment can cut is part of the curve.

At your next practice, hit five balls each with the driver, 7-iron and PW and write down how many went right. At which club did your right side start?

Update history

• Sep 29, 2026: Published

About the writer and sources

Written by a gear nerd who studies golf equipment, averages a 72, and plays about 150 rounds a year.

I re-read the numbers against the sources below on Sep 29, 2026. Last updated Sep 29, 2026.

FAQ

Related reading

Is Your Club Causing the Duck Hook? Lie Angle, Weight and Adjustable Hosel
The same mechanism for those who curve left. The sleeve works the other way.

Driver loft, 9° or 10.5°? Angle of attack decides
On angle of attack and spin loft, to read before choosing a loft.

Lessons or clubs first?
Measure your curve width to sort out whether it's the equipment side or the movement side.

How to Read a Golf Club Spec Sheet
For the driver, total weight; for irons, bounce angle. The numbers to check first in the spec table.

Shaft flex: S vs. R
"S" runs 47 g to 82 g. Why to choose by weight, not stiffness.

Sources for this article

• Trackman official blog: What is Face-to-Path? (Sep 23, 2024. Driver +5° goes about 44 yards right; −2° goes about 19 yards left)
• Trackman official blog: 6 Trackman numbers every amateur golfer should know (Oct 21, 2024. Launch is mostly face direction; one reason for a slice is an out-to-in path)
• PING specialty shop Golf Shop LB: Seeing the Unseen, Part 4: Why the Spin Axis Tilts Less as Loft Increases (Jun 16, 2026)
• Titleist Japan official: How to Use the TSR Metal Precision Adjustment System "SureFit" (0.75° of loft ≈ 275 rpm of backspin; 16 loft and lie combinations)
• TaylorMade Japan official: Loft Sleeve [loft / lie / face angle adjustment] Manual (STEALTH series, 2022)
• The GolfWorks: Understanding and Fitting Driver Face Angle and Loft (relation between face direction and loft)
• MyGolfSpy Japan: A Special Way to Reduce Driver Spin (low spin loft tilts the spin axis easily)
• PING Japan official: G440 Driver (MAX 9, 10.5, 12°; SFT 9, 10.5°; SFT is a draw design; prices)
• CLUB PING official: the PING fitting process (hit with tape on the sole to see how the sole meets the ground at impact)
• RIZAP GOLF: Plans and pricing (golf skills assessment with a trial lesson, 60 min, ¥3,300)

Last updated: Sep 29, 2026

Specs and prices are the figures published on manufacturers' official websites and in press releases, and by media outlets (checked Sep 29, 2026). They were not measured by this site.