Last updated: August 19, 2026
Club path is the direction your club head is moving through impact, measured in degrees left or right of the target line. It is one half of every shot shape: the ball starts close to where the face points, then curves away from the path. Zero is not the goal. A repeatable path you can aim is.
Club path is the horizontal direction the club head is traveling at the moment of impact, measured in degrees relative to the target line. For a right handed golfer, a positive number means the club is moving in to out (to the right of the target). A negative number means out to in (to the left). Zero means the club is moving straight down the target line at impact.
Club path is measured at impact, not across the whole swing. Trackman defines club path as the in to out or out to in movement of the club head's geometric center at the time of maximum compression, and it keeps a separate parameter, swing direction, for the arc as a whole. The club head traces an arc, so the direction at the exact moment of contact is its own number, and it is the one your monitor reports.
Club path is one of the "club delivery" numbers, alongside face angle and angle of attack. Together they describe what the club was doing when it met the ball. Club path and face angle combine to produce the shot shape. Attack angle influences launch and spin but does not directly curve the ball left or right.
The ball starts predominantly in the direction the face is pointing at impact. It then curves away from the path, toward the face. The relationship between face angle and club path determines every shot shape.
The older lesson book line, that the ball starts on the path and the face curves it, does not survive launch monitor data. It is the other way around: the face dominates start direction, and the path's job is the curve. If the face is open to the path, the ball curves toward the face side (a fade or slice for a right hander). If the face is closed to the path, the ball curves the other way (a draw or hook).
Do not look for a specific percentage split between face and path for start direction. What stays constant is the direction of the law: face governs start, the face to path gap governs curve.
Here are the nine ball flight paths you will hear named most, described for a right handed golfer. Two more exist, the push slice and the pull hook, where the ball starts to one side and keeps curving the same way. The face column sets the start line. The path column, read against the face, sets the curve.
| Common name | Where the face points | Where the path is, against the face | What the ball does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Straight | At the target | Matches the face | Starts at the target, no curve |
| Played draw | Right of the target | Further right (face closed to path) | Starts right, curves back to the target |
| Played fade | Left of the target | Further left (face open to path) | Starts left, curves back to the target |
| Straight push | Right of the target | Matches the face | Starts right, stays right, no curve |
| Straight pull | Left of the target | Matches the face | Starts left, stays left, no curve |
| Slice | Near the target | Well left (face well open to path) | Starts near the target, curves hard right, finishes right |
| Hook | Near the target | Well right (face well closed to path) | Starts near the target, curves hard left, finishes left |
| Pull slice | Left of the target | Even further left (face open to path) | Starts left, curves right across the target line |
| Push hook | Right of the target | Even further right (face closed to path) | Starts right, curves left across the target line |
Face and path definitions from Trackman. Shot names vary by teacher; the geometry does not.
Every one of the golf shot shapes comes from the same two variables: where the face points at impact and which direction the path is moving. Once you know the law (ball starts close to the face, curves away from the path), every combination maps to a named shape.
Straight: face and path are both aimed at the target. No gap, no curve.
Push: face and path are both right of the target (for a right hander) by the same amount. The ball starts right and stays right. No curve because there is no face to path gap.
Pull: the opposite. Face and path are both left of the target. The ball starts left and stays left.
Fade: the face is slightly open to the path. The ball starts near the face direction and curves gently left to right.
Draw: the face is slightly closed to the path. The ball starts near the face direction and curves gently right to left.
Slice: a large gap between face and path, with the face well open to the path. The ball curves hard left to right. This is the exaggerated version of a fade.
Hook: a large gap the other way, with the face well closed to the path. Hard right to left curve. The exaggerated version of a draw.
What determines the amount of curve is the face to path gap, not the absolute direction of either one alone. A 3 degree in to out path with the face 1 degree right of the target is a gentle draw (a 2 degree gap). The same path with the face square to the target is a stronger draw (a 3 degree gap). The path did not change. The gap did.
There is no universal good number. Chasing zero is chasing the wrong thing: what you want is a side you can pick, repeat, and aim for.
On Trackman's own club path page, one of its Master coaches, Christoph Bausek, writes that he prefers path numbers inside a 3 to 6 degree range on whichever side matches the shape the golfer wants to play, and that he does not like to see a path of zero, because with a zero path the slightest face error curves the ball away from the target. That is the honest frame: pick a side, make it repeat, and aim for the shape it produces.
As working guidance (not laws), these spin axis bands from the spin axis explained page describe what a given amount of curve plays like.
0 to 2 degrees of spin axis tilt plays straight. 2 to 5 degrees is a playable fade or draw. 5 to 10 degrees means you are fighting it. Past 10 degrees is costing real fairway width. Ball speed scales the damage: the same tilt curves a 108 mph drive much farther offline than a 90 mph one. Working guidance, not laws.
My own measured 7 iron path runs about 5.6 degrees in to out, while my driver runs 0.8 to 3.3 degrees the other way. So I never talk about "my path" without naming the club. And my Uneekor Eye Mini Lite reports no face angle, so my face read is inferred from spin axis against path. That is a real constraint. I know the curve and the path, but I cannot separate face contribution directly from the monitor.
The practical question is not "is my path good?" but "does my path repeat, and can I aim for the shape it produces?" If your 7 iron path scatters from 2 degrees out to in to 6 degrees in to out across ten shots, the path is not your problem. Consistency is.
You need ten or more shots with one club. A one way curve plus a consistent start line pattern is the signature of a path issue.
Look at the group of shots as a set, not individually. If every shot curves left to right and starts left of the target, that pattern is consistent with an out to in path and a face open to that path. If the curve is always right to left and starts right, the path is in to out with the face closed to it. The consistency of the pattern is what makes it a path issue rather than noise.
Check strike quality first. Gear effect from heel and toe contact tilts the spin axis and twists the face even when the delivery is neutral. A scattered face and path readout at higher handicaps is usually one contact problem, not six swing problems. If you see a wide spread of face angles and paths with no consistent direction, the culprit is probably strike location, not the swing itself. Foot spray (the pattern on the face) is the cheaper truth than an estimated impact dot on a screen.
Path stories from ball flight alone are weakly inferable. Several causes can fit one signature. A left to right curve could be an out to in path with an open face, or it could be a heel strike adding slice spin through gear effect on a swing that was otherwise neutral. So offer yourself one named hypothesis plus a check you can run (like ten shots with foot spray on the face to verify strike), not a list of five possible causes. One check narrows the field faster than five guesses.
Not all launch monitors report club path, and the ones that do use different methods. Some measure it directly, some model it from radar data, and some require add on hardware or paid unlocks. Here is what each unit actually provides.
Trackman 4 and Trackman iO measure club path directly, radar plus camera. Trackman's parameter definitions are the ones this page uses.
SkyTrak Plus measures club speed, club path, and face angle thanks to its added radar. The original SkyTrak measures no club delivery data at all and works club speed back from ball data.
Uneekor EYE MINI and EYE MINI LITE measure club speed, attack angle, and club path only with the club stickers applied. They never report face angle at any setting. Without a face angle, you cannot build a direct face to path story from the monitor alone. You infer the face from spin axis against the measured path. The bigger EYE XO and XO2 deliver full club data, face angle included, with stickers on the club face.
FlightScope Mevo Plus base unit measures attack angle and spin loft, but face angle and club path require the Pro Package add on.
Garmin R10 models (estimates) club path, face angle, and attack angle from radar data: hints, not measurements. Credit where due, Garmin is the one maker that publishes accuracy tolerances at all (ball speed to 1 mph, club speed to 3 mph, face angle to 2 degrees), but it does not classify club path in either bucket.
Rapsodo MLM2PRO puts club data behind the Premium subscription tier.
Foresight GCQuad wants club markers for club data. GC3 and Bushnell Launch Pro put club data behind a paid unlock. Foresight's own sources disagree on what a single club marker returns, so check what your specific unit actually reports.
GSPro is simulator software, not a launch monitor. It measures nothing and displays what the connected monitor feeds it.
For a complete device by device breakdown, see the free launch monitor accuracy tool.
Use a repeatable loop. The goal is not to find the perfect drill on the internet. The goal is to make one change, measure whether it moved the pattern, and confirm next session that it stuck.
This loop works whether your monitor measures club path directly or only gives you ball data. You are tracking the output (curve pattern and start line), not the input number. A monitor that reports club path lets you see why the curve changed. A monitor that does not still lets you see that it changed.
Disclosure: I'm the founder of Fore-ward Thinking. I built Chip, our AI coach, to automate the remember and recap part of this loop. It reads your launch monitor data across sessions, remembers what your path and curve pattern looked like last time, and tells you whether the fix held or drifted. It does not analyze swing video and it does not replace a lesson. It makes the data side of the loop automatic so you can focus on the feel side. Free to try (3 messages, no card), $19.99/month after.
What is a good club path number?
There is no universal good number, and zero is not the goal. A repeatable path you can aim is. As working guidance: 0 to 2 degrees of spin axis tilt plays straight, 2 to 5 is a playable fade or draw, 5 to 10 means you are fighting it, and past 10 is costing real fairway width. Ball speed scales the damage: the same tilt curves a 108 mph drive much farther offline than a 90 mph one.
What is the difference between club path and swing path?
In casual speech they are the same thing, and the number on your screen is the impact one. Club path is the direction the club head is moving at the moment of impact, measured in degrees left or right of the target line. Trackman keeps a separate parameter, swing direction, for the arc of the swing as a whole, because the club head can be moving on a slightly different line at impact than the arc would suggest. When someone asks about their swing path, the fix conversation is almost always about club path.
Do the ball flight laws mean the ball starts where the face points?
Close, but not exactly. The ball starts predominantly in the direction the face is pointing at impact, not along the club path. It then curves away from the path toward the face. So if the face is 2 degrees right and the path is 4 degrees right, the ball starts right and curves left (back toward the face relative to the path). The face is the dominant factor in start direction.
Which launch monitors measure club path?
Trackman 4 and Trackman iO measure club path directly. SkyTrak Plus measures club path and face angle with its added radar. Uneekor EYE MINI and EYE MINI LITE measure club path only with club stickers on, and never report face angle. FlightScope Mevo Plus needs the Pro Package for club path and face angle. Garmin R10 estimates club path from a radar model. Rapsodo MLM2PRO puts club data behind Premium. Foresight GCQuad, GC3, and Bushnell Launch Pro require club markers or a paid unlock for club data. The original SkyTrak and GSPro measure no club delivery data at all.
Can I fix a slice without a club path number?
Yes, but you are working with less information. If your monitor reports only ball data, you can still read the curve: a consistent left to right shape (for a right hander) with a leftward start line is consistent with an out to in path and a face open to that path. A heel strike can print the same curve through gear effect, so check strike with foot spray before you blame the path. You can use the ten ball baseline loop to test a fix and track whether the curve pattern changes, even without a direct path number. The fix loop works the same way. You just cannot separate face contribution from path contribution as precisely.
Keep going:
What the tilt number means, the slice and hook thresholds that matter, what it can't tell you about strike, and the ten ball loop that brings it down.
Pick your launch monitor and setup to see which numbers it measures, which it estimates, and which you can safely coach off, with the maker's own accuracy figures where they publish any.
Clear definitions for every number your monitor reports: smash factor, club path, spin, face to path, angle of attack, and more.
A plain English guide to reading the ball and club flight numbers your launch monitor feeds into GSPro, and what "good" looks like club by club.
A measured loop of baseline, work, retest, and log, with beginner, intermediate, and advanced versions and a printable session template.
How to build a dispersion picture from your carries, why the spread decides which gaps are real, and why the tightest pattern of the day can still be the worst one.