Americans More Interested in Slice Fixes than Hook Fixes, According to the Data
My fellow Americans, we are a nation of slicers, at least according to the data from Google.
The search giant collects mountains of information every day and makes some of it publicly available on trends.google.com. That site is a quick and easy way to see what people are searching for — and where those people are — for just about any topic you choose.
The graphic below (see the original here) shows search interest from Jan. 1 2004 to Nov. 4 2022 for "slice fix", hook fix", and other common search queries related to correcting bad golf shots. The states in blue are the ones with the most searches for ways to fix a slice and ways to fix a hook. The states in gray have searches too but not enough to crack the top eight. You can see that slice fixes (in blue) dominate and hook fixes are nowhere to be seen:
The states, in order of total search volume, are:
1. Michigan
2. Ohio
3. Illinois
4. Pennsylvania
5. Texas
6. Florida
7. New York
8. California
Here's what the map looks like if we limit it to only fixes for slices. The darker the blue, the more searches there are:
We can do the same with hook fixes. According to Google data, Florida golfers are the ones most in search of fixes for hooks. Here's what the map looks like when we remove slice fixes:
Searches on YouTube show a similar pattern. Here's the map for slice fixes vs. hook fixes on the video service from 2008 to today:
There are many ways to fix a slice and we can't let you go without mentioning at least one. Here's a quick tip from Martin Hall to hopefully help you the next time you tee it up: