Re: the dreaded shank

It's brutal your problem, no doubt about it, first of all you did not mention if this is happening on full shots or short shots ?? I'm not saying that the following is a "cure" but I'm hoping it may help, so here we are. My playing partner had this problem on short approaches ( 60 yards and in ) and believe me it was torture to watch. I was most eager to help him so off to the practice range we went, first of all I noticed he was crowding the ball (too close) secondly on his takeaway he was fanning the blade open so this is what I did. I came prepared with a small piece of duct tape and a marking pen ( no laughing ) I put the duct tape on the face of his 8 iron and drew a smiley face ( no laughing ). The object of the exercise was for him to take the club away with the smiley face always looking at the ball and the smiley face kissing the ball at impact. Think about this, with this method, as silly as it may seem, done properly you can't fan the blade open, try standing a wee bit further away from the ball, just slightly and imagine a smiley face on the face of your blade always looking at the ball. It certainly helped my pal and hopefully it may help you, so good luck. By the way, if you try this you will probably find yourself pulling a few shots until you get the idea, start off with short shots, make sure you follow through and finish your swing.

Re: the dreaded shank

a shank is usually when you hit the ball off the hosel, although you can get a toe shank. in most cases swing path is outside to in. Putting your weight back on your heels is a quick solution, but the long tem cure is to correct your swingpath.