By far one of the most critical errors that my students make is incorrect Aim and alignment. It is certainly a catch 22. Do you slice it? If you’re right handed you have to aim left to hit it in the fairway but how do you hit a fade on purpose? you open your stance and aim left. Well if you slice and you aim left you’re always going to be doomed to slice. And if you hook, well it’s the same thing, more you aim right the more you hook.
However there’s no easy answer and in my experience it’s because it’s very difficult for our eyes to aim correctly standing so far away from the target line. It’s called parallax error. So obviously alignment sticks set up like railroad tracks when you’re on the driving range, helps. But you can’t take them with you on the course and the alignment looks different with every club since you’re farther away from the target line with a driver than you are with your sand wedge.
I believe you must aim your club face at an intermediate target. Get the inside of your feet parallel to the Square club face and go from there. I also think it helps to put an alignment stick in the ground on your target line 20 to 30 yards out towards your target. As a right hander you will see when you address the ball that that stick looks farther to the right than your intended target. That is parallax error. But it helps reconcile correct alignment.