The Nine Ball Flight Window

Golf instruction has long referenced a "nine ball flight window" — straight, push, pull, fade, draw, slice, hook, push-slice, and pull-hook. Laid out as a grid, it looks like a lot to memorize. Read through a face-to-path lens, it's just two simple questions asked about every swing.

Question One: Where Does the Face Point?

Face angle relative to the target line sets the starting direction. Pointed at the target, the ball starts on line. Pointed right, it starts right (a push family shot). Pointed left, it starts left (a pull family shot). This is the first axis of the nine-shot grid.

Question Two: How Does Path Compare to Face?

The second axis is the face-to-path gap. If path matches face, the ball holds its starting line with minimal curve — a straight, push, or pull. If the face is open relative to path, the ball curves right of its starting line — a fade or slice depending on the size of the gap. If the face is closed relative to path, it curves left — a draw or hook.

Building the Grid

Cross those two questions and you get all nine shapes: a straight shot needs both a square face and a matched path; a push-slice needs a face pointed right of target and open relative to path; a pull-hook needs a face pointed left of target and closed relative to path. Every combination in the grid is just those two answers stacked together.

Starting direction comes from the face. Curve comes from the gap between face and path. Every one of the nine shapes is built from those two facts alone.

Why This Simplifies Fitting

Once a fitter separates those two questions, "fixing a slice" stops meaning "change everything" and starts meaning "close the face-to-path gap without necessarily changing where the face points." That's a much narrower, more specific target — and it's usually solvable with loft, face angle, or shaft changes rather than a full swing overhaul.

The Takeaway

You don't need to memorize nine shot shapes. You need two numbers: where your face points, and how far your path sits from it. Everything else on the grid falls out from there.