HEEEELLLLLP!!!!!!!!!!!SUDDENLY HOOKING!!!

Ok, so for YEARS I've either faded the ball or sliced it with my driver.  A few months ago, I bought a Taylormade Burner Superfast (Stiff Flex).  I liked the longer shaft and the design because I was able to slow down my swing and maintain the same amount of power, giving me more accuracy.  And for the past few months, that's what has happened.  Long, straight drives with complete control.  Only that control seems to leaving me.

I still slice a few, but suddenly I'm HOOKING the ball.  I've NEVER done that.  I was told that its actually a GOOD thing since it is usually a sign that you have the capability to shape your shots more (don't know if that's really true but whatever).

I stared to track the direction of every drive so the breakdown as far as drive DIRECTION from yesterday is 57.1% straight, 28.6% right, and 14.3% left.  Overall it breaksdown as 56% straight, 28% right, and 17% left.  Last YEAR my average was 45% straight, 50% right, and a mere 5% left (these were usually because I heeled the ball, but left is still left).

Obviously, the club face is closing at impact causing the ball to go left.  But why would that happen all of a sudden (especially with a driver which most people said INCREASE their slice tendency).  Any help is greatly appriciated.  I included a few other tendencies I do below just in case anyone sees a pattern that may be a part of the problem

3 wood- fades or slices, but fades 65% of the time

5 wood- usually straight, but I haven't used it in over a year (put in 2 hybrid rescue instead)

2 Hybrid Rescue- 50% straight, 50% fade (usually stays low though) (FYI, its a off name brand 16* stiff flex club with weight on the inside)

3 Hybrid (new club still figuring it out)

4-9 irons- Slice with the 4 (I think its b/c I take it and try to swing easy but don't grip tight enough in which case i usually FEEL the head spin on impact).  5-9 iron fades less as I get to the shorter clubs.  They are brand new Burner 2.0 irons, regular flex.

PW, AW, SW, LW-  I'd say 75% of the time they go straight, but they do fade occasionally.  If anything else happens (chunking etc...) I know its my fault because of head or body movement.

Putter- used to pull everytime, but I have since corrected that by adjusting grip.

What is the ball flight? Starts straight then curves left? Starts left and curves more left? Starts left and goes straight left? Starts right and curves left?

There are other threads about what is happening to cause those different ways to go left. Club face determines starting path of the ball. Swing path relative to club face determines spin and thus curving of the ball.

Share the flight of your left misses and you will get lots of good advise. Share video and you'll get even better advise.

My irons today are starting right and curving slightly to the left, curving varies, baby draw and nice draw.

Was even aiming alittle left now as i know there going to come back alittle.

enjoyed hitting the ball today.

Thanks...Just looked up the details on full shot shapes (thanks swingbyswing...and I HATE when ppl act like advertisers, but I happen to think that its awesome to get such detailed stats.  Anyway...)  Of all the balls that go left, the breakdown is as follows:

Draw (Straight then curves): 15%

Pull (Straight Left): 35%

Pull-Hook (Starts left and goes more left): 50%

Don't know if this will help, but when It comes to my drives right the breakdown goes like this:

Straight: 15% (up from 5% last year)

Fade: 50% (up from 30% from last year)

Push: 25% (Down from 35% from last year)

Push-Slice: 10% (Down from 30% last year)

Unfortunately I don't have a recent video.  I have one of my old swing, then a newer swing that I worked on with a friend, but not my most recent one.  The most recent swing I use with my driver has a slightly flatter swing path than my old ones.  And my OLDEST swing is long gone since, as my friend pointed out, I was slicing because my left arm was bending during my back swing.  My newest swing is flatter for 2 reasons.  1) The long shaft of the driver.  2) I had a HUGE wrist cock that caused a LOT of problems and by flattening the swing plane I have a better feel for timing it.

Thanks again for any help.

Oh...and I don't use tour level balls.  Not only can't I afford them, but they generate WAY too much spin for me to control.  I use 2 or 3 piece balls that are low to mid compression.  Currently I use Taylormade Burners, but when those are all gone I will probably go for either Bridgestone E6 or Top Flite's version of those (more bang for your buck).

Last, my swing speed with the driver was 115mph with my old driver, but with the Burner SF allowing me to slow down for accuracy w/o losing distance, my swing speed is between 100 and 105 mph, which I attribute to my increased accuracy and control with my driver.

I'm no golf pro, but these three ball flights are caused by three different swings. They may all go left, but the reasons could be very different.

Here's my stab at what is happening to me when I have those ball flights:

Draw -- Nice and my preferred ball flight for many holes is a baby draw. If it starts straight, I feel good about my club head being pretty square to the target but not square to the swing path. Path is in to out. Often my draws start a bit right and the draw back. The clubhead is right of the target and the swing path is even righter.

Pull -- The dead yank is my bad miss. I fear the dead pull. Over the top swing that simply squarers the face and path in a line left. The bad news is these often go very far. My flaw is that I start my swing with my arms/hands instead of my hips. And/or I get too close to the ball and need to come over the top to make contact. My desired swing is not a conventional swing so I don't like to have to clear my hips to get the club close to my body.

Pull hook -- the good news is these ducks are often so short the the stay on the golf course. The worst feeling swing I make. So much is going wrong when I do this, that I ignore it and hope it doesn't happen again. Kind of like the shanks -- I do not try and fix my shacks. I ignore them. The pull hook happens for me when I really try to kill the ball and hope it will be a moister long draw. Like a monster of the deep, I've never captured this swing on video and I hope it stays ask rare that I never do. If you are pull hooking 50% of your left shots, you've got to figure out what you are doing, or not doing. Or, don't figure it out beyond knowing it is not what you want, and work on the swing that does what you want.

When my drives start hooking, it's usually  cause my lower body gets too quiet and my swing gets too armsy.

This is interesting, although you have a load of detailed information (great stuff) diagnosing ball flight yourself can be tricky. In all your cases that the ball is going left, it could be simply that the clubface is too closed. Sure, path could be right/left, but this is not the issue here.

Actually, I would say the main problem is the consistency. It looks like although you now hit more straight shots, this is at the expense of opening up the left side. This is common, lots of people want to hit the ball straighter, but when they finally do hit more straight shots they open up a whole world of misses, both right and left. At least with your old swing, you knew where the miss was going. And that is how we play good golf,    by knowing where our miss will go and trying to limit it to just one.

So my advice is to try and work on a feeling that give your just that ONE miss again. Sounds like you prefer the fade, so I would work on a feeling that keeps the clubface more open through imapct MORE OFTEN

This could be a feeling of holding off the face, weakening your grip slightly and/or setting up with the clubface slightly open (and then gripping).

you are going to have more shots that go to the right, but at least now you can play golf again by aiming at the left side of the course. Make your mistakes work for you.

I am a professional golfer, I have 2 swings, my natural swing that I KNOW is going to more often miss left, and I also have an ANTI-LEFT swing, which is just what i described above. I use my natural swing more often, but use the anti left swing when there is danger on the left side. This is how good players play the game.

If you want a better technical diagnosis you are going to have to post a video of your swing. Just telling us the ball flight, all we know is that your clubface is closed when you hit that bad shot, we cannot tell or have an idea what the path is. Either way, if you find a way of making the clubface more open at impact more often through my suggestions, then you will hit less shots to the left and more shots to the right again, with the same movement. Maybe it is something you do only with your new club, not with the rest of them

Me too on those hooks.  My lower body static and the shoulders and arms flying. Result is usually straight to the far left. Often the first tee shot when am nervous.

Thanks.  I'm hoping to get to the driving range later this week (weather here on Long Island, NY stinks this week) and get a video of my swing.  I'm also really thinking about what you said about grip.  I took out my impact bag at home a few hours ago and my driver and noticed my thumb was on the side of the club and gripping WAY too strong.  I'm hoping to test out a slightly easier grip at the range.  I'll let all of you know after I go to the range...and hopefully get that video up.

And although I HATE advertising, the fact is the stats are completely thanks to swingbyswing tracking every shot with each club.

Either your trying to block going left and not getting your hips throw or you're getting too quick at the top and need to have a slight pause at the top.

Here is a link to that newer "old" swing.  The only real difference between this one and my current driver swing is that I stand a little further from the ball and flattened the swing plane (hence the reason I needed to stand a little further away from the ball).  Oh and the reason I kinda "fall" at the end, is because the mat was kinda small.

http://www.swingreader.com/video/view/zNZy8UMj

ok, with that grip there is no wonder youa re hooking - it is a little strong (hands turned too much to the right ont he club, 4 knuckles seen on left hand etc).

It is certainly possible to hit a straight shot with that, but ur going to ave to find a dramatic way to open the face through impact. I would suggest a grip change, although u have to be mentally strong for that, it can really be uncomfortable at first.

If you wont do a grip change, find a way of doin an ant-release (see arnold palmer, Jim thorpe etc) or whack open the face at address - not optimum but I deal with it a little.

Or try a combination of all three.

But really, there are many ways to open the face

aha!  I changed to a stronger grip because I always sliced!  So....i OVER compensated...go figure.  Oddly, I use the same grip with my irons and still manage to slice those...but I think that is because I bring my hips around too early with my irons...but that's a totally different thing altogether.

Thanks for the tip.  I'll post a video of my newer, flatter, swing soon, but obviously with a slightly modified grip.

I agree with Adam here, you have a strong grip indeed which doesn't need to be a problem, unless you start hooking it.  I have a strong grip myself but I switched over because of an injury and having a neutral grip caused me to push the ball.  So instead of trying to change your swing again I'd go to the range and get used to using a more neutral grip.  I also noticed you play the ball quite a bit forward in your stance, do you pull the ball lots (starts left then hooks even more left)

common thing

my progression as an ameteur was a slicer, (36 handicap)

then i learned to draw it, (20 handicap)

thought more was better and it turned into a hook. (12 handicap)

started to minimise it (4 handicap)

went to a fade again (scratch)

now play all shapes (pro)

I think this is the cycle of a lot of good players, it goes full circle. Completely unnecessary in most cases. Now i rarely fix someones slice unless they distinctly want to hit a draw, cos at the end fo the day you can play great golf with a slice, just work on minimising it and controlling it.

The real truth of whether you are a golfer or not is if you can control the clubface. It is a skill, a feeling, a co-ordination. Amost any swing path can work, if you get the clubface matched nicely to it. I alwasy (almost exclusively) work on clubface control now - on the range i will whack it 90 degrees open, then 90 degrees shut, then everything in between. then i spend the rest of the time calibrating a straight shot. Give me great feel, great ability to work the ball, and my instincts for fine controling a straight shot are much higher when i have been practcing these varying faces.

Sounds like a paradox, practice wild variances in clubface to get better at a straight shot - but it works. When you study learning and neuromotor conditioning and learning it makes sense though (dont bother, its boring, just trust me).

Actually it makes perfect sense.  Although not the same extreme, its the idea of not knowing peace without the existence of war (obviously I just began proving my history "geekness").  Thankfully, I rarely "banana ball" it anymore.  They are more like fades or pushes (which i know a push is totally swing path).

I do want to pull off a draw (since my regular 9 hole has 2 of them which I usually have to play over the dog leg) but I'd rather consistently hit it straight first lol.

And mosnas, I don't usually pull the ball so-to-speak.  I listed all the stats up above (I'm honestly just being lazy and not typing/looking them up again! lol).

So in an interesting update to the hooking, I played 2 times at my local par 31, 9 hole course, and did really well (42 and 41 respectively).  As far as the new dreaded hook, I didn't.  I modified my grip a little and focused on squaring the club face on address.  I did draw a LOT more balls with both my irons and my driver (50% of my shots had a draw), but I usually fade my irons and I was also trying a new swing (more arm triangle and wrist power, less lower body) so that could be to blame for the irons.  But with the driver, I definitely felt a difference.  And just the fact that I didn't hook or pull the ball, and just had a slight draw tells me its getting better since the ball flight is straightening out.  Now I just need to control the draw, fade, and straightening of my shots.