Fairway woods - hitting low hooks only

[1garyo]

I have been playing golf for over 40-years and I am currently a 4-handicap. In the last 6 to 12 months I have had a horrible problem hitting fairway woods. I have a tendency to take a divot anywhere from 3" to a foot behind the ball, and I either roll the ball or hit a low smothering hook. The divot path is from the inside to the outside. I think the reason is that my swing has become too inside/out, but I just can't fix it. I also do this occasionally with my long irons and my fairway woods off the tee. The rest of my game is fairly solid. Any drills or fixes anyone can recommend? Help!

[TeachingPro]

Re: Fairway woods - hitting low hooks only

Welcome to GTO! I'm one of the teaching staff linked to the site. We'll get your problem solved.

It could be that your swing is too far inside/out which means you don't have room to swing through. One of the only things you can do to make space is 'dip and turn left' which will send your club into the ground and then drag it left. The other is to lift up to make space but having good golfing skills, good hands and 'golfing brain' your immediate reaction is to make contact (at least) so you don't lift, you rather dip towards the golf ball.

That is one possibility.

The other is that your angle of approach is too steep, like an over the top movement but you maintain your good inside/out swing path. Again, good golfing skills and hands will get the club inside, even under dire swing circumstances.

Of the two, I'd say the latter as an educated guess. It is typical if it also happens your long irons and driver. It won't happen so much to you short irons because the angle of approach is steep anyway.

Either way, the solution is fairly simple. You need to shallow out your swing a foot before impact and a foot after impact. If you can do that, the rest of your body will follow - you have the golfing skills to get everything into synch fairly quickly, especially off a 4 handicap.

Right: drills to shallow up your swing:
1. Tee the ball up higher than normal with your driver or fairway wood. Put a tee in the ground, so it sticks out a little, about a foot behind the ball. Do the same now with a tee in front of the ball. Now, take easy swings making certain you brush the back tee on the way back, again on the way into impact and brush the tee forward of the ball. Repeat the drill over and over again until the feeling of hitting in to the ball from a shallow angle becomes natural. Then take the visual aids away and hit away for 10 shots or so. Put the tees back and hit 5 shots with the tees. Then repeat the 10/5 process until you have your timing back and can you do without the visual aids.
If you use an iron for the drill, tee the ball up a bit and push the visual aid tees into the ground, just sticking up through the grass.
2. Setup to the ball and create a solid triangle between your forearms and shoulders. Feel that triangle and ingrain that sensation. Now swing back keeping that triangle, the club goes straight back for the first foot and then inside and then up. Swing to 3/4's and back down again, regrouping the traingle from when the club reaches right hip height again. Your should feel almost the same at impact as it did at address. This is a great drill to do in front of a mirror or pane of glass. Make sure the traingle gets back to the same position everytime.
3. If you have a friend who can practice with you get him to hold a club a foot or so behind the ball with the grip end facing you. The grip should be a an inch or so higher than your hands and a bit outside them at address. Now hit some golf balls using a 75% power (but a full length swing) conciously making certain your hands pass under the level of the grip on the way back and the way into impact.
4. At the driving range, setup and take the bucket and put it a foot or 2 in front of you but outside the line. Now take a short club and rest it on the bucket with the shaft & grip encroaching a little bit into your area of vision. The objective of the drill is to try and hit the ball under the level of the shaft. Take a fairway wood or long iron and hit a few shots conciously trying to hit the ball under the level of the shaft. With your skills, your brain and hands know the shot must go low, which will execute the correct movement with a shallow approach, a lot like hitting into the wind but with a full swing.

Okay? If you need help with the drills, post again.

You might not need drills in fact. If think of trying to shallow out your swing, I'm sure you can click into a swing thought quite easily.

[1garyo]

Re: Fairway woods - hitting low hooks only

Thanks for the tips - I'll give them a try.

[Ian Hancock]

Re: Fairway woods - hitting low hooks only

Also try Greg's bench drill, this is very good.


It can be found in the Photo Gallary on this site.


Ian.