Stop hitting shot into trouble on the left (I)

By Kim Jeong-kyoo

A hook is a shot that begins straight and curves to the left. It may start traveling slightly right and then curve left. If you swing your club on an inside-to-outside path with the clubface closed to your swing path, you will incur a hook. Typically, you will do away with your shots traveling left if you do the opposites of what you must do to avoid the shots flying right. Details of how to stop hitting your shots into left trouble will help you lower your score.

Grip your club properly

To stop hitting hooks, you must keep your clubface square at the top of your backswing. Or, you need to keep your left wrist flat at the top, with the face of your club parallel with your left forearm. The face of your club will rest at an angle of approximately 45-degrees to the ground. You’ll have a hook thrust on you if you leave your clubface closed at the top. This will happen if you grip your club too strongly.

Changing your grip can alter the direction your ball curves. To curve your ball from left to right, you’d better adjust your grip and have a weak grip. That way you can easily maneuver your ball to get out of trouble on your left. To this end, grip your club so that you can see only one knuckle of your left hand. Equally important is avoiding turning your clubface as you turn your hands to the left. Also, you need to turn your right hand as much as your left hand so that your palms are facing each other. Then, just do your normal swing. You’d better try to feel the heel of your club leading the toe of your club through the shot. That will further ensure you keep your clubface slightly open as you hit your ball.

Similarly, try to keep your thumbs pointing down toward the ground as you swing your club through the shot. That will slow down the rotation of your club, keeping your shots from curving left.

Avoid too loose a left-hand grip

Stay clear of too loose a left-hand grip. If you grip your club loosely with your left hand, your right hand will take control on the downswing. Allowing your right hand to dominate your downswing, you are liable to close your clubface. To avoid this, you need to grip your club firmly with your left hand so that your left hand dominates your swing. Also, shorten your backswing so the shaft does not dip past a parallel line at the top of your backswing. The longer your backswing, the greater the chance your left hand loses control.

Don’t stand too far from your ball

Avoid standing too far from your ball. That pushes you to swing too much around your body, closing your clubface too quickly. You will hit a hook. Also, you’ll have trouble keeping your balance. Stand more upright and let your arms hang straight down from your shoulders. You will swing your club on a more upright plane, which prevents the face of your club from rolling over too quickly.

If you start your backswing on too flat a plane, you will open your clubface quickly. If you do this, you’ll feel you must close the clubface just as quickly as you can on the downswing. That can leave your clubface closed when you hit your ball.

If you measure your correct distance from your ball, your right elbow will hit your belly when waggling your club.

Allow your left heel to come off the turf

Let your left heel rise slightly off the ground on the backswing. This ensures you make a full backswing turn, helping you increase your distance. More importantly, that allows you to swing your club back on plane and on the correct swing path. This in turn puts you in position to hit your ball toward the target rather than to the left.

How supple you are will decide how much you need to lift your left heel on the backswing. Just imagine you are a baseball pitcher poised to throw the ball toward the batter, your left foot off the ground. And you will let your left heel come off the ground properly. But still, you must avoid lifting your heel too high so that you can return it to its original position. Raising your heel too high can spell swaying or make it hard to time your downswing. This can push you to have inconsistent shots thrust on you including pulls.

To swing your club back on the desired plane, you’d better let your left heel rise as you swing your arms upward. You need to let your left heel come off the ground about waist-high if your body is not flexible enough. You need to do this to complete your backswing so that your left shoulder hits your chin or your back faces the target. To start your downswing correctly, replant your left heel into its original position, keeping your head rock-steady behind your ball. If you swing down correctly this way, you will feel that your left arm sticks to your chest and straightens automatically. Once you swing down correctly, you will naturally swing your club toward the target, not to the left.

SLOT IS SUPREME

No rocket scientist will tell you ignition is the most important part of launching a rocket, yet it is ignition that gets the public's attention. The same is true of the "ignition" of the golf ball ― impact. But all the important work must already have been done by that point for the swing to be successful; impact is a result.

The closer you get to impact, the less chance you have of adjusting for error, so while impact is the point at which the flight information is dumped to the ball, it's basically out of your control. The most important part of your swing is the slotting of the club because you can control how you arrive at this point. Slot the club correctly and you have to work hard to make a mistake at impact.

When your swing gets off, the first place you see its effects is in the transition from backswing to forward swing. The key is to make sure you give your club time to change directions and drop into the slot.

During the transition, your clubhead not only reverses its direction, but if you give it enough time, it will also drop down before it starts toward the target. This slight deepening of the clubhead just as you start down puts it in a perfect position to come at the ball from inside the target line, an approach that ensures a powerful striking angle.

Initially, instead of trying to focus on slotting at full swing speed, proceed in slow motion in front of a mirror. Seeing yourself slot the club as you tell yourself why it's so important will speed learning.