How to Stop a Duck Hook. Get into your setup position and make your regular backswing turn. So here is a little tip of... – VOTED #1 GOLF SITE! To spin the ball counter-clockwise, the club has to swing more to the right with the clubface pointing slightly to the left. Or have a friend check your alignment. Repeat the drill. But aiming to the right will cause the swing's circle to be too far to the right, exacerbating the hooking motion. You should be able to lay a ruler underneath the face of your wristwatch and have it touch both your arm, and the back of your hand. How to Correct a Hook With a Fairway Wood After Teeing Off. GOLF.com and GOLF Magazine are published by EB GOLF MEDIA LLC, a division of 8AM GOLF, Golf tips: Hook-proof your swing in 30 seconds, This science-based stretching routine can stop golfers getting injured in cold weather, Four 15-minute warmup routines approved by low-handicappers, Women’s golf tips: This advice about how to nail your aim and alignment was the year’s most-read. There are also numerous videos on how to correct a hook available on YouTube; you can search there for more. A hook is the last stop on the road to a good golf swing, and you're very close to hitting consistent, powerful shots. HOW CAN I STOP HOOKING MY HYBRID CLUBS VIDEO - LESSON BY PGA PRO PETE STYLES >> Quite a common shot for a lot of better players with the hybrid golf clubs is they often turn the ball from right to left and hook the ball a bit too much. If set-up and swing path are okay but you’re still hitting a hook, you need to next look at the clubface … Unless you change one or all of the above, your hook is not going to get fixed. If it’s pointing close to the horizon or to a spot on the ground on the target side of the ball, your turn was too flat and/or you swayed. Grips can be very individualized. There’s a couple of reasons this is happening. How to Stop Hitting Snap Hooks? If your right hand grip slips underneath your left hand on the downswing, the only way to square the clubface at … Either way, you’re set up to hit it thin, push it or hook it. Open Up On Short Irons. Hold a mid-iron across your shoulders as shown, with the grip end pointing toward the target. The way the ball flies gives you objective feedback about your swing. Root Cause. Editor's Note: This is one in a series of articles by instructor Roger Gunn on diagnosing the causes of different ball flights or mishits. Grip Club Path The first thing we need to do is check your grip. For the most golfers, there's only two really common ways that you're going to hook the ball. No moving off the ball to the right! If the lie is such that the toe of the club is upright or well of the ground when you make an impact, the chances of over-rotation of the face and the ball starting from the left are higher resulting in a hook. Here's the guideline: In your stance, with the clubface square to the target, you should be able to look down and see no more than two knuckles on your left hand. Steep and centered—the key to solid iron strikes. Consider getting the lie of your hybrid adjusted to a lesser angle. Offshore I like a lot of mono, casts further and less risk of the dreaded backlash stop in mid air line break watch your jig go sailing situation. The clubface should "open" on the backswing, relative to the target line. For hooking, the two basic flaws are a backswing that is going too much inside or around, or a counter-clockwise twist of the shaft, or both. If the ball is curving less to the left, then you're on the right track. https://www.golfchannel.com/video/golf-swing-drill-prevent-hooking-ball-irons Cart: 0; HOME; STORE. Another guideline is to look at the "V's" formed between the knuckle and thumb on both hands. To achieve this position, you may have to feel like the club is swinging a bit more up. This will also make that backswing too flat and too much to the inside. This should be done through softness in the wrists, with a feeling of letting the club swing. However, this natural opening is done with the turning of the shoulders and torso, not because of a twist in the hands. No effort to twist or hinge the wrists should be made. You can read the book and … Not bad, nice and predictable with a fade of about 5 yards with the driver and 2 yards with the irons. This is a classic hook. The good news about working on this, or any other problem for that matter, is that you already have the best teacher in the world with you: namely, the ball. Here’s how, in 30 seconds. Michael Breed, host of ‘The Golf Fix’ has a drill to show you how to stop hooking the golf ball. Checking your stance and grip can often eradicate any hook without changing the hitting motion at all. This swing direction will be a big part of spinning the ball counter-clockwise. Let the ball's flight be your guide. In other words, the back of your left wrist should be straight. To begin the downswing, make sure you start down with a weight shift to the front foot and a turn of your body. The locations and other information in this database have not been verified for accuracy. Many mistakes can cause a hook. The next important element of the backswing is the clubface position. With a good grip and stance, as well as a good backswing position, I'd be surprised if your hook is still here. However, there's a whole other side of golfers who hook the ball severely and can't stop hooking it, and don't understand why. This time, turn your left shoulder toward your chin and toward the ground—and do it without swaying. To recap, the pull hook is when my club is moving over the top, right to left across the target. Now, let’s stop them. When you get to the top, you can check for the proper position by looking at your left wrist. Stop at the top and note where the grip points. Subscribe to ALI TAYLOR GOLF for FREE now The pull hook is one of golf’s most devastating maladies because on top of the misdirection, a ball hit with right-to-left sidespin will run for days; plus, pull hooks fly low, so they roll even farther. For the ball to do this, it must be spinning in a counter-clockwise direction. When you are making your backstroke, just hold on to the club. I then purchased the impact zone and have really been concentrating on maintaining my lag (I was casting badly before). Imagine that the ball is on a peg, and that all it can do is spin one way or another. The grip has little to do with the direction of the swing, but everything to do with where the clubface looks at impact. Hi, guys. Take a Proper Stance for Golf. The Stance and Hook Shots. And the best way I know is to get your club in a better position on the backswing. when you do this and extend the club in front of you, your club face will be square. It certainly seems logical that if a golfer is missing often to the left, … Let your chest and hips rotate forward until your shirt buttons and belt buckle point left of your target. If your hands are turned too far to the right on the club, it's much more likely to return with the clubface looking to the left at impact. Just make sure that your feet, knees, hips and shoulders are parallel to that club on the ground, and therefore, to your target line. You can hook the ball with any club, including fairway woods, which are generally used for second shots on long par-4 or par-5 holes. It certainly seems logical that if a golfer is missing often to the left, then before too long he or she would aim more to the right to compensate. On the course, the divot will often be pointing right, with the ball ending up well left of the divot's direction. And I want to talk about that today because it's a very simple thing to understand and fix when you understand what's causing it. Watch ‘The Golf Fix’ Mondays at 7PM ET. As seen on Golf Channel: Stop hitting shots on the toe by practicing this simple drill focused around your trail arm. This article is written from the right-hander's perspective, so lefties should reverse any handedness or directional elements in the text below.). He was named a Top 100 Golf Instructor by Golf Magazine. You should also feel like your head is steady in the backstroke. One is that the clubface is too closed at impact and is way to far left relative to your path. Ben Hogan had the right attitude on short-iron shots. The second is that you can get stuck underneath. Roger Gunn is the Director of Instruction at Tierra Rejada Golf Club in Moorpark, CA. Rules Guy: Is there a penalty for accidentally hitting a buried ball in a bunker? Here’s … Download our instruction app from iTunes or Google play Make sure the shaft is over your shoulder at the top, not too much behind you. Not until you curve the ball to the right have you closed the clubface too late! How to Stop Hooking your Hybrids. We’re talking about the pull hook again today. A duck hook is a shot that curves hard to the left of your target, if you are a right-handed golfer. Once, again, these options are; Change path (if you want to straighten out your hook) Change face (if you want to turn you hook into a functional draw) Change strike to limit gear-effect. Posture is conditioning yourself to hitting the ball correctly. This can often be confirmed by looking at the direction of your divot. Some practice should give you the feeling. To fix this issue, take a look at your backswing at the top. Let's first make sure you're clear on the different impacts that cause different shots. This combination produces a path that’s too inside-out, promoting hooks, thin shots and pushes—especially with the mid-irons. You’ve done it correctly if, at the top, the grip points about three feet beyond the ball. WATCH THE MISS. While you are moving in this fashion, make sure you are tension-free in your hands and arms. These should point somewhere near your right shoulder and right ear, no more to the right. The 8-iron, 9-iron, and wedges are the control clubs, after all, so there's no point in trying to slug them. This is one of the more overlooked mistakes, simply because no one really talks … Two big culprits? Hook & Irons Co. is a fire inspired vintage apparel company. With golfers who hook the ball, this is usually the case. What that means is you get too much in to out which creates the extra curvature. Feel as though the club is dragging across the ball with an open clubface. Angle of Club Shaft. 3:41. In other words, too much along the ground. Until about 3 months ago I was a slicer. There are a couple things we need to address to stop the duck hook, but don’t get frustrated. With less loft, the 3-wood exaggerates these misses compared with irons and wedges. The biggest cause for hooking is the grip that is too strong for you. Jim Hardy, a Texas-based PGA professional and author of three books on golf, blames snap hook problems on loose right hand grips. Turning your shoulders horizontally to the ground as you swing to the top, and moving your upper body off the ball (that is, away from the target). there are two ways to stop hooking. BE AWARE, that [size="4"] [b]if you strike the ball with a forward leaning clubface, you will fade the ball... [/b] [/size] Stop at the top and note where the grip points. Your first port of call, obviously, is to check your alignment. A closed club face at impact and an inside-to-out swing can cause a duck hook. Unless you’re a … If you're a player who tends to hit a hook, first count yourself fortunate. You know that pure, euphoric feeling right after you’ve struck a ball dead-center on the clubface? (And How to Fix It), Hitting Golf Shots Right of the Target But On Straight Line, Mishit Tip Sheets: Fixing Common Faults in Golf, How to Fix Golf Shots Going on a Straight Line, but to the Left, The Hook Shot in Golf, and How to Use It or Lose It, 17 Quick and Easy Tips for Beginning Golfers and High-Handicappers, Explaining the 'Open Face' (or 'Open Clubface') in Golf, The Pull (or Pulled Shot) in Golf and What Causes It. 5 Key Swing Checks When You Need to Fix Your Golf Slice, Golf Shots That Curve Right During Flight, What Is a Slice in Golf? This movement will virtually guarantee that the club is coming from the right direction. Additionally, some players opt for different grip sizes on different clubs. Hooking your irons can be so destructive to your game, so in this video Ali will show you why that dreaded hook appears and how to simply change something in your set up to stop hooking your irons. Welcome back to The Hook series, time to get rid of the hook once and for all. You may be sure that the clubhead is staying open longer, but if the ball is still turning left, then you'll have to feel the club close later still. In other words, a case of the pull hooks must be dealt with and defeated ASAP.. A lot of times when the duck hook flares its ugly head, a player has a grip that is too strong. This was our most-read chipping tip of 2020. How to Stop Hooking and Pushing OK so now that you know the likely cause if you are hitting both hooks and pushes… it’s time to fix it! A duck hook almost always gets a golfer into some kind of trouble on the course. For a shot to produce a lot of side spin the clubface must hit the ball with an angle that is anything but square to the club path. If these first few areas check out, you're 90-percent of the way to curing your hook. In a golf shot, this is exactly what happens to make the ball curve across the sky in a hook flight. Get a Grip. If you see three or four, that could be contributing to your hook. How to stop hooking the ball: Main points. It’s not uncommon to find thicker grips in the wedges or short irons to prevent hooking or overswinging. You'll want to remember that you are improving if your 30-yard hook is now a 15-yard hook. You need to get steeper so you can attack the ball on a more neutral path and with the clubhead descending into impact. Fishing around heavy kelp for YT, we use about a 6-9' piece of #40 mono. Dropped my box here, we’ll get to that in a second. SIMPLE TIP: Don't look away IF the ball misses! Cuts the kelp if you hook one. The root cause of hook shots in golf -- shots that start right and move to the left -- is swinging from the inside relative to your target. A right-handed player’s hook is a shot in which the ball moves right to left because of sidespin created when the golfer hits the ball. If the ball still has a tail to the left, you can add this sensation: Try to get the feeling that the club is closing a bit too late. One of the biggest mistakes made by golfers who hook the ball is to turn the club counter-clockwise to begin the backswing. He said, "I want to be known as the man who hit them the straightest, not the longest." There are numerous backswing issues that can affect your impact. If it's flying straight or curving right, then your hook is cured. 1. learn how to strike the ball like a pro 2. open the clubface 5 to 10 degrees THEN grip it. Today. If it’s pointing close to the horizon or to a spot on the ground on the target side of the ball, your turn was too flat and/or you swayed. About the MRDS Mines Database: All mine locations were obtained from the USGS Mineral Resources Data System. You can lay a club on the ground, parallel to your target line, to check your aim. If your backswsing is too much to the inside and not enough up, then the club is going to approach the ball on an angle that is too shallow and too much on the inside. Rick Shiels Golf. A grip that produces a perfectly straight shot for one player can cause a huge hook or a slice for another. Grip. When the ball is hooking to the left, that means it's curving in a right-to-left motion across the sky. So, make sure that any change you make relates to one (or all) of the above. Double-check that your aim is not too far to the right, especially with your shoulders. Face check. The feel can trick you, but the ball won't. Our discussion of the grip, stance, and swing will revolve around the different elements that can cause this type of impact. But you can make certain generalizations about the grip regarding hooking. By GOLFTEC Digital. This might seem basic but … No matter how strange a new move feels, always listen to what the ball tells you. 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