Steer badly, having awful consequences at the outset in fog (9)
I believe the answer is:
misdirect
'steer badly having awful consequences at the outset in fog' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'having awful consequences at the outset in fog' is the wordplay.
'having awful' becomes 'dire' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'at the outset' indicates taking the first letters.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'fog' becomes 'mist' (synonyms).
The first letter of 'consequences' is 'c'.
'dire'+'c'='direc'
'direc' placed inside 'mist' is 'MISDIRECT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for misdirect that I've seen before include "Aim incorrectly" , "Give poor travel advice" , "Divert" .)