Stop Hooking

Learning how to swing a golf club involves many adjustments to achieve an intended ball flight. In my opinion, golfers follow a similar trend as they progress:

1) They start golfing, and like most beginners, have an awful, uncontrollable slice
2) They tame the slice and hit more of a fade that only occasionally slices
3) They take a lesson or learn on their own how to hit the draw
3) They have been slicing for so long that they still slice some, but start to hit some draws
4) The draw becomes more prevalent and the slice rears it's head less and less
5) Most shots are draws
6) All shots draw, and some snap-hook
7) The snap-hook becomes uncontrollable
8) The golfer is forced to re-learn the fade in order to bring things back to neutral

So, how do we go from snap-hooking to re-training ourselves to fade the ball or hit the ball straight? Here are my tips:

A) Weaken the grip. Chances are that your grip is too strong if you are hooking regularly. Simply rotate both hands so that the thumbs are further to the left on the grip and the 'V' that is formed by the forefinger and thumb is pointing more towards your chin than your right shoulder or beyond. Also, make sure that there is more grip pressure in your left hand than your right. If there is too much pressure on the right hand (particularly the thumb and forefinger) the golfer will release the club too early and thereby snap-hook it. These simple grip changes will go a long way towards re-directing the ball flight.

B) Open the stance. A closed stance encourages an early release and a 'swipe' across the ball that will come from the left to the right (or inside to outside of the target line) and put counter-clockwise hook spin on the ball. Opening the stance will allow the club head to travel down on a right to left plane and put clockwise fade spin on the ball. Attack the outside half of the ball as the club comes down rather than the inside half.

C) Hang on a bit longer and assure you don't release the club too early. Resist having the right hand roll over the left through impact, or at least delay it.

D) Picture a bowler and the move that they make with their right hand if they want to put spin on the ball; they turn the right hand inward as they release the ball rather than if they were to roll it straight, in which case the hand does not turn inward. Have the thought "I'm going to roll the ball straight rather than spin it" as your club head travels through the impact zone.

E) Another good analogy is the tennis stroke; think "hit flat" instead of "hit with topspin." The move is very similar in golf (again, think of how the right hand turns over and inward on a topspin).

F) Make sure you are letting the club head release towards the target on the follow through. I see a lot of golfers 'hit and quit', in that they focus so much on hitting the ball that they forget that the swing doesn't end at impact. Let the club head travel down and through the impact zone and allow it to continue on down the target line as it releases. Snap-hooking is often the result of the club rotating around the body to the left too quickly after impact.

Try these tips out on the range and I guarantee you will stop hooking the ball.