Golf’s Double Cross: What Is It and How To Fix It
You step up to the tee box and see that the hole sets up perfectly for your fade. You aim left and take a rip, only to see your ball start left then veer even further left. This specific variety of hook is known as golf’s double cross.
To hit that fade you envisioned, you must start the ball to the left (as a right-handed player) with a club face that’s closed to your target, but open to your path. A double cross happens when your club face is closed to both your target and your swing path.
How to Fix the Double Cross in Golf
Michael Breed, one of the most recognizable golf instructors in America, demonstrates two easy-to-follow tips for eliminating the double cross in the Titleist Tips series on YouTube.
If hitting the ball with your club face closed to your target and your path causes your double cross, then all we’ve got to do is address your club face issue. Breed points out that you need to hit the ball with the toe of the club trailing the heel, essentially keeping the face open to your path.
So, how do you do that? Breed offers two options.
RELATED: Golf's Ball Flight Laws: Learn From Every Shot You Hit
Grip Adjustment to Cure the Double Cross
Perhaps the easiest way to fix the double cross, which doesn’t require any adjustments to your actual swing, is to simply adjust your grip.
By weakening your grip – that is, rotating your hands to the left for the right-handed player – so your trail hand is more on top of the grip, you’ll prevent that club face from closing through impact.
“It works whether you’re right-handed or left-handed,” Breed says. “If you want to eliminate a side, rotate your hands to the side you want to eliminate.”
With a weaker grip, the toe of the club face will stay open through impact. The result? The fade you envisioned becomes the fade you hit.
RELATED: How to Hit a Fade
Adjust Your Backswing to Fix Your Double Cross
Another way to eliminate your double cross is to make an adjustment to your backswing. If you take your club away outside of the shaft plane at address, it leads to a more open club face through the swing and into impact.
This adjustment involves a change to your actual swing, but still eliminates that closed club face, and therefore, the double cross. When you make this move successfully, you’ll hit nice baby fades.
Fade the Double Cross From Your Game
The double cross happens when you try to hit a fade, but something goes wrong. Breed suggests favoring the fix that takes place before the club gets moving. If you can eliminate your double cross with the grip adjustment he demonstrates, you don’t need to worry about changing anything during your swing.
If you prefer to fix your double cross by altering your swing, that’s perfectly attainable as well. Implementing either move will keep your fades fading, and your hooks at bay.
Try these moves the next time you practice and see which is better at solving your double cross.