Today we're going to master the controlled fade — learning to tone down your slice into a reliable, repeatable shot shape that you can trust on every hole.
We'll also continue practicing Hogan's powerful strategy of eliminating one side of the golf course. This single concept allows you to avoid trouble areas and play the safer side of every hole with confidence.
Double Your Margin for Error
Using this strategy can improve your margin for error by 100%. Here's how the math works: imagine you're hitting a shot straight down the middle to a fairway that's 20 yards wide.
If you play a dead-straight shot, you can miss up to 10 yards to the right — a very small fade — or 10 yards to the left — a very small draw. That's not much room to work with. You'd have to hit the ball remarkably straight.
The solution is to learn to shape the ball intentionally and eliminate one entire side of the course from consideration.
Let's say you're going to play a fade. If you eliminate the right side, you can now start the ball all the way down the left edge of the fairway and have a full 20 yards of width to work across before reaching the rough on the right.
You can hit anywhere between 1 and 20 yards of fade and still be in excellent position. That's a dramatically wider margin for error. It's far easier to play a 1-20 yard fade than to keep a dead-straight shot within a 0-10 yard window on either side.
This strategy allows you to hit significantly more fairways without actually hitting better-quality shots. You simply use the layout of the hole to your advantage.
Match the Shape of the Hole
You can also select your shot shape based on the shape of the hole. On a dogleg right, hitting a fade works the ball with the curve of the fairway — the ball stays centered as it fades around the corner.
Hit a draw into a dogleg right and your ball fights the curve, working away from the center and becoming much more likely to find the rough.
Playing with the shape of the hole — matching your ball flight to the course design — simplifies everything dramatically.
Today's drills will help you practice this strategy while refining both your fade and draw to tournament-ready consistency.
Day 7: The Opposite of Day 6
You'll use the identical drill setup from Day 6 — two alignment rods with a foam pool noodle on each one for maximum visibility.
Because we're hitting a fade instead of a draw, the alignment is reversed. Line up your ball and the drill so that a dead-straight shot would pass between the rods, barely missing the one on the right.
Lay a club on the ground parallel with the target line for reference. You won't align your body square to that line, but it shows you where a straight-shot setup would be.
When you get into your actual setup, you'll adjust your alignment according to how much movement you want on the shot — exactly as you did on Day 6.
If you want your shot to start 10 yards left of the target line and fade 5 yards right — ending up 5 yards left of the target — adjust your stance so your body points 10 yards left of the target in the distance.
This way, you only need to swing a couple of yards across your body and hold the club face slightly open to produce the desired fade. If you kept your feet square to the target line, you'd have to swing dramatically to the left — which is extremely difficult to do with any consistency.
From now on, simply adjust your feet to match your desired starting line. With your feet square to the starting line, you can let the ball work back slightly right or left depending on the shot shape you're executing.
The Controlled Fade Drill
The drill follows the same progression as Day 6. Start approximately five feet behind the foam noodles and hit a fade.
Align your feet about 10 yards to the left of the target, hold the club face slightly open, and swing a little to the left for a controlled 5-yard fade.
The key to this drill — and the key to eliminating one side of the golf course — is that you never cross the target line. Never allow the ball to land right of the target line when you're playing a fade.
Imagine a giant wall that starts just outside the right foam noodle and extends all the way to the target in the distance. Never allow your ball to touch that wall.
If your ball crosses that line, count it as one of the worst possible misses.
It's far better to miss 30-40 yards to the left and stay on the correct side of the course than to miss one yard to the right. That may sound counterintuitive at first — isn't a 1-yard miss better than a 30-yard miss? Not in course management.
One yard in the wrong direction can send the ball down a slope into an area where getting up and down is impossible, or land it out of bounds or in the water. Meanwhile, 30-40 yards on the safe side may leave you with an easy chip or pitch to the green.
Maintain that discipline as you work through this drill. Any shot that crosses the target line counts as a miss — period.
Execute the drill exactly as you did for the draw. Hit five shots from 5 feet behind the alignment rods, working on barely fading the ball. Then move back 5 more feet and play another five shots.
The farther back you go, the smaller your margin for error becomes.
From 5 feet behind the rods, you can start approximately 30 yards left of the target without hitting the left noodle.
From 10 feet back, your maximum starting point drops to about 15 yards left of the target while staying inside the left noodle.
From 15 feet, you may only be able to start about 5 yards left of the target — demanding extremely precise shot shaping.
As your consistency improves, move progressively farther back to increase the challenge. Complete five shots from each position and you'll be ready for Day 8. If you want to see your actual swing path and face angle on video, try a free AI swing analysis to get your personalized GOAT Score.
Watch part 2 now to see how you're moving your body in the opposite direction of the pros!
Improving the margin of error
Drill setup
Feet lined up 10 yards left
Imagine a wall
Make five shots each from 5, 10, & 15 feet
