Welcome back to this MyGolfSpy series where I take a hard look at the golf clichés you’ve heard a thousand times and find out if they hold up.
The goal is not simply to label each as true or false. It is to understand what has been simplified and returns to the lessons golfers should take from the council.
Then: “You can talk to a slice, but a hook doesn’t listen.”
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What does “you can talk to a slice but a hook can’t hear” mean?
If you’ve ever hit a slice and a hook, you probably understand where this is coming from. (It’s commonly attributed to Lee Trevino, by the way.)
A large slice can climb, lose distance and eventually fall from the sky. A hook may feel different. It moves left (for a right-handed golfer), lands with some speed and continues.
But is there something about a hook that makes it inherently harder to control?
Not really.
TrackMan’s rotation axis data shows that the curvature works almost identically in either direction. On an optimized 200-yard shot, 10 degrees of spin axis produces about 15 yards of curve, whether the ball is moving left or right.
So a hook no longer bends just because it’s a hook.
We have tried designs and fades before
This is where the cliché starts to make a little more sense.
In a previous MyGolfSpy test, 12 golfers hit 30 draws and 30 fades. When the data was normalized to 100 mph club speed, fades carried 222 yards and draws 224.
Almost no difference.
The total distance was a different story. The fades ended up at 249 yards while the draws ended up at 258. The draw group produced less spin and had considerably more rollout. These were controlled draws and fades, not hooks and slices. A lower spinning shot that lands flatter can continue to move after it hits the ground.
Spin rate and spin axis are not the same thing
“Spin rate” tells you how fast the ball spins. “Spin axis” tells you how the spin is tilted. This tilt is what makes the ball curve.
Ours golf ball test it helps to see the difference. In 2025, we used data from our robot test and FlightScope’s trajectory optimizer to see what happened when the spin speed changed, but the spin axis was the same.
Reducing the spin by about 300 rpm made very little difference in how offline the ball ended up. At five degrees off the spin axis, the lower spinning ball ended up just 0.3 yards closer to the center line. At 10 degrees, the difference was 0.6 yards.
So lowering the spin doesn’t suddenly make a hook curve more or less.
The axis of spin is controlling the curve. Spin rate has more to do with height, carry and landing conditions that determine what happens along the way and after the ball hits the ground.
The verdict
So is it true that you can talk to a slice but a hook can’t hear?
Not because a left curve ball behaves differently than a right curve. At the same spin axis, the amount of curvature is essentially the same.
Where the cliché has some merit is what happens after the ball begins to curve. Drawing patterns can produce lower spin and more rollout. When that draw turns into a hook, the ball may still have a lot of work to do once it hits the ground.
Play the form that you can repeat. More importantly, you know what happens when that shape gets a little bigger than you expected.
More golf cliche articles we’ve written:
- “It’s the Golfer, not the Club.” Is that even true?
- “You can’t buy a game of golf.” Is that even true?
- “Practice as you play.” Is that even true?
- “Fairways And Greens”. Is that even true?
- “Let the Club do the work.” Is that even true?
- “Never up, never in.” Is that even true?
- “Drive For Show, Putt For Dough.” Is that even true?
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