Eliminating Shanking and Topping

By Kim Jeong-kyoo

Korea Times Golf Columnist

You've just hit the shot off the tee far and straight in the middle of the fairway on a short part four hole. Your morale is highly boosted. You've got a rare, golden opportunity to make a birdie. You walk tall to the ball, pick up a favorite short iron and take dead aim at the flag.

Then, all of a sudden, tragedy emerges from nowhere. The ball shoots off the hosel of the club to the right of the target. You've shanked it.

Recreational golfers do not know how to prevent the shank. To obviate the shank, you need to know its cause: Your hands get farther from your body at impact than they were at address.

A variety of reasons make the room between your hands and body wider at impact than at address, but its number one reason is an overly flat backswing plane.

Setting up with the shoulders open and swinging back on an inside path cause your right shoulder to move outward toward the ball-target line at the start of the downswing. When that happens, the club is thrown forward on a path that is from overly outside to in with contact of the ball on the hosel.

To fix this problem you need to align your shoulders, hips and knees square to the ball-target line at address and swing the club up so that the butt end of the handle points to a spot somewhere slightly inside the ball-target line extended rearward on the ground at the halfway point of the backswing. It's essential to create a more upright swing.

Rolling the clubface wide open during the backswing causes your shoulders and hands to move outward toward the ball-target line on the downswing, driving you to hit the ball off the hosel.

To fix this fault, you need to cock your wrists upward so the club is not laid off.

Similarly, allowing your body to straighten up during the backswing results in creating an overly flat swing plane, increasing the chance of hitting the ball off the hosel.

To avoid this type of shank problem you need to keep the lump at the nape of your neck quiet during the swing. Make sure it does not move forward, backward, up or down during the entire swing.

Standing too close to the ball at address rids you of the room between your body and club through which your hands move. That forces you to swing the club out and away from your body going back and coming down, causing contact on the hosel.

However, be careful not to stand too far from the ball. That flattens your swing plane, increasing the chance of hitting a shank.

Allowing your shoulders and head to move forward to the left on the downswing can also result in the shank, as it causes your hands and club to move away from your body to the outside toward ball-target line on the downswing.

To fix this problem you need to keep your chin back stable so its tip is pointing at a spot behind the ball throughout the swing until well after impact.

You top the shot when the leading edge of the clubhead makes contact above the ball's equator.

What has to be done first to prevent topping is to heed your setup positions. Once you've set up correctly, focus on the rear-bottom quadrant of the ball during the entire swing for flush contact. You will return the club to where you're looking.

Importantly, avoid keeping your head down at address. That causes your chin to drop to your chest at address, leaving no room between your chest and chin. With no room to swing under the chin, your left shoulder drops toward the ball, causing your right shoulder to rise as your arms lift the club to the top. You make a reverse weight shift. When you swing down from that position by unwinding your shoulders and hips and allowing your arms to follow, the club comes over the top on an overly steep path, sticking in the turf behind the ball.

Also, when a reverse weight shift happens, your body will straighten up at impact, which, in turn, lifts the clubhead, thus causing the topping.

To correct this fault, you need to start with your chin up off your chest to provide room for your left shoulder to turn freely so you can make a full body coil and proper weight shift.

Recreational golfers tend to try to lift their irons into the air with a scooping motion instead of swinging down and through the ball. That causes them to fall away from the target through the ball, resulting in topping.

To stop scooping motion, grab a 7-iron in your left hand only and make some half-swings, trying to hit down and through. Then, relax and try to recreate the same sensation, thinking that the ball is merely in the way of the clubhead.

Also, holding the club in the palm of the right hand instead of the fingers results in topping. It causes the left arm to shorten and the clubhead to come up at impact.

Be sure to hold the club so that the handle of the club is resting against the fingers of your right hand. That prevents your right hand from forcing the clubhead to come upward through the ball, making it difficult to close the clubface too early, which is another cause of the topping.