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Where to begin? It's all gone so wrong...!
Well, I used to be a pretty decent golfer... Official handicap of 15, often played to 9 or 10 in casual rounds and pretty consistent. I was a little wayward with approach shots and duffed the occasional shot here and there, but generally speaking I would make good contact with the ball over 90% of the time.
Over the last year or so it has been a steady downhill spiral towards the current sorry state where I shot a 97 on my home course (par 70) on Saturday. You name it, I did it wrong. Tops, fats, thins, slices but MAINLY awful pulls and some amazing low hooks...
I understand about the physics and mechanics of the swing and I KNOW that the only way I can be hitting the low shots is by delofting the clubface by getting my hands ahead of the clubhead, but can I stop it? I also know that I can only be hitting the hooks by having a closed clubface relative to the swingpath, but I still do it!
Several years ago, I used to suffer awfully from hooking almost every club in the bag. That changed over a few years to become a huge slice off the tee with a driver, but most other clubs were ok, but occasionally pushed to the right. Over the last two years, I have got to the point where I can rarely get the driver or 3 wood in the air and if I do, it could be anything from an enormous slice to a low duck hook. I am 6'5" tall and hit the ball a long way. I've had my Mizuno irons fitted to me (S400 stiff steel shafts) and lengthened by up to an inch.
I've managed to cope with not being able to hit a wood a lot of the time, because I can usually get the 3-iron off the tee to around 250 yards or longer. However, I occasionally play a longer course when I need the distance off the tee and I just can't hit the woods. I watch in frustration as 28-handicappers consistently hit the wood off the tee in the air, even if it goes high and right (as it ususally does!) as I am, by definition of my handicap anyway, a better player than them, yet something I'm doing makes me look like worse that a 28-handicapper off the tee.
The real killer (and is becoming the usual result off the tee now with the 3 wood - I don't even try the 1 wood anymore!) is the low hook. The ball starts off down the middle or slightly right of target line, gets to maybe 10 feet off the ground, then hooks viiolently to the left. Ocasionally if I do get hold of one off the tee, I hit a high push to the right or even more occasionally an enormous slice. I cannot comprehend how I can hit such a variety of awful shots unless I have a variety of faults.
I hit 'skyers' quite frequently, even from a low-ish tee setting, because I attack the ball on such a steep path, with woods as well as irons. I often take enormous divots with irons, but still get plenty of distance because I get the ball first.
There is a video of two of my swings side-by-side at 25% normal speed on the web at http://www.pigsgolf.co.uk/carl_comparison.rm if anyone wants a look at the true horror. The video shows two swings from the side that were about 25 minutes apart in the range session. The one on the left results in the ball being bludgeoned into the ground just in front of the tee (you can see the little puff of dust as it hits) - not a top, just a low hit - and the one on the right was when I was larking around at the end of the session and tried to do a "John Daly" overswing, which resulted in the ball flying over the back of the driving range on a glorious straight & high trajectory, so something is right in that swing! Be warned, the video is 2.16mb so don't download it unless you're truly interested in seeing how bad it can get!
Last week during a practise round with a friend, he had a look at another low hook off the tee from behind and pointed out that my feet were aiming a long way right of where I thought they were. I put a club on the ground to realign (the alignment felt awful - it seemed I was aiming WAY left) then tried again and hit a 320-yard drive down the middle. The next tee saw me align myself with a club across my thighs, once more feeling I was aiming miles left, and resulted in a 300-yard drive down the middle. Just before the light gave out, I played one more drive after doing the same alignment trick and this time hit a 350 yard drive, with a bit of fade and a soft 90-compression balata ball. OK, so the ground is hard at the moment, but these drives were with easy swings, just good timing, and I thought I'd cracked it. However, I was right back to square one on Saturday and even the alignment trick wouldn't work, so I must have been doing something else for the temproary fix!
Any suggestions or comments gratefully received!
Over the last year or so it has been a steady downhill spiral towards the current sorry state where I shot a 97 on my home course (par 70) on Saturday. You name it, I did it wrong. Tops, fats, thins, slices but MAINLY awful pulls and some amazing low hooks...
I understand about the physics and mechanics of the swing and I KNOW that the only way I can be hitting the low shots is by delofting the clubface by getting my hands ahead of the clubhead, but can I stop it? I also know that I can only be hitting the hooks by having a closed clubface relative to the swingpath, but I still do it!
Several years ago, I used to suffer awfully from hooking almost every club in the bag. That changed over a few years to become a huge slice off the tee with a driver, but most other clubs were ok, but occasionally pushed to the right. Over the last two years, I have got to the point where I can rarely get the driver or 3 wood in the air and if I do, it could be anything from an enormous slice to a low duck hook. I am 6'5" tall and hit the ball a long way. I've had my Mizuno irons fitted to me (S400 stiff steel shafts) and lengthened by up to an inch.
I've managed to cope with not being able to hit a wood a lot of the time, because I can usually get the 3-iron off the tee to around 250 yards or longer. However, I occasionally play a longer course when I need the distance off the tee and I just can't hit the woods. I watch in frustration as 28-handicappers consistently hit the wood off the tee in the air, even if it goes high and right (as it ususally does!) as I am, by definition of my handicap anyway, a better player than them, yet something I'm doing makes me look like worse that a 28-handicapper off the tee.
The real killer (and is becoming the usual result off the tee now with the 3 wood - I don't even try the 1 wood anymore!) is the low hook. The ball starts off down the middle or slightly right of target line, gets to maybe 10 feet off the ground, then hooks viiolently to the left. Ocasionally if I do get hold of one off the tee, I hit a high push to the right or even more occasionally an enormous slice. I cannot comprehend how I can hit such a variety of awful shots unless I have a variety of faults.
I hit 'skyers' quite frequently, even from a low-ish tee setting, because I attack the ball on such a steep path, with woods as well as irons. I often take enormous divots with irons, but still get plenty of distance because I get the ball first.
There is a video of two of my swings side-by-side at 25% normal speed on the web at http://www.pigsgolf.co.uk/carl_comparison.rm if anyone wants a look at the true horror. The video shows two swings from the side that were about 25 minutes apart in the range session. The one on the left results in the ball being bludgeoned into the ground just in front of the tee (you can see the little puff of dust as it hits) - not a top, just a low hit - and the one on the right was when I was larking around at the end of the session and tried to do a "John Daly" overswing, which resulted in the ball flying over the back of the driving range on a glorious straight & high trajectory, so something is right in that swing! Be warned, the video is 2.16mb so don't download it unless you're truly interested in seeing how bad it can get!
Last week during a practise round with a friend, he had a look at another low hook off the tee from behind and pointed out that my feet were aiming a long way right of where I thought they were. I put a club on the ground to realign (the alignment felt awful - it seemed I was aiming WAY left) then tried again and hit a 320-yard drive down the middle. The next tee saw me align myself with a club across my thighs, once more feeling I was aiming miles left, and resulted in a 300-yard drive down the middle. Just before the light gave out, I played one more drive after doing the same alignment trick and this time hit a 350 yard drive, with a bit of fade and a soft 90-compression balata ball. OK, so the ground is hard at the moment, but these drives were with easy swings, just good timing, and I thought I'd cracked it. However, I was right back to square one on Saturday and even the alignment trick wouldn't work, so I must have been doing something else for the temproary fix!
Any suggestions or comments gratefully received!
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