REALLY bad shot - ball violently taking sharp, near 90 degree right turn immediately after striking it with club!

I'm a hack who's been playing on and off for years.  Pretty much a bogey golfer at munis.  There is a very peculiar phenomenon which has plagued me for years now.  I'll be hitting the ball just fine (fine for me, i.e. straight enough and far).  This will go on for days if not weeks.  But then suddenly it ALL starts going wrong and I mean WAY wrong, and when this does happen, I can't ever seem to hit the ball straight again.  I have to quit for a few weeks then when I re-start I'm hitting fine again.

So when I saw "wrong" I am not talking about your garden variety slice.  I'm talking about the ball going off VERY SHARPLY to my right (I'm a righty) IMMEDIATELY off the tee.  It's as if it's going 90 degrees in the wrong direction.  I cannot figure out what is causing this!  Loose grip?  Keeping my weight back?  Club face flying open???  I've tried to focus on all 3 of those things and exaggerate by overcompensating, i.e. really tight grip, totally closing club face, etc, etc.  Nothing works!  I literally can't play golf when these shanks plague me cause the ball will end up killing someone...it goes that far off course.  Even if it doesn't, it's painfully not fun.

Any ideas???  I hate that I have to quit when this problem occurs.

Thanks!

Welcome to the forum. Hard to say what is going on with out seeing your swing.

Get a video camera and post a swing in the "My Swing" section. Create a new thread there.

tips on video taping your swing. For down the line view (towards the target). Set up the camera down your toe line, not the target line of the ball. This helps take out any sort of angle issues in trying to see your swing.

I recommend doing a down the line and face on view.

Also, I would recommend looking at the "Swing Thoughts" section of the forum. From there look at the 5 keys introduction thread, and then the 5 keys video thread. You will see that good golf swings do 5 things really well. Basically getting a better golf swing is just focusing on each key till you own it, and then move on to the next key. I recommend the "Good Posture" thread as well. Great start to really nailing a good balanced set up.

This will give you a lot of information, but it will get you started until you can get a video up.

Correct.  Pretty much just going directly to my right (or almost straight on in front of me as per the position upon addressing the ball at the tee).  It ONLY happens with IRONS.  Damn, I should've mentioned that in the opening.

To be honest I do not know if I'm hitting it off the toe.  That had occurred to me, and I've tried to adjust by standing super close to the ball but that didn't help.  Although perhaps I'm STILL hitting it off the toe even though I'm standing almost on top of the ball??? I just have no idea.  Might not even be a toe issue.

Does the info I gave about it only happening with the irons help you determine what the problem might be??

Thanks for the help btw.  Much appreciated.

Sounds like a shank to me (off of the hosel). Had that problem myself today I'm sorry to say. I think (fingers crossed) I might have it figured out now.

Look at your clubs and see if you can see any ball marks on the hosel.

Put a piece of masking tape on the clubhead. The ball will put an indent or tear the masking tape were it makes contact with the clubhead.

Could hitting the ball on the toe of the club cause such a violent deviation from a normal, straight shot?  And if so could a reason that I start hitting that way be due to me somehow pulling my hands in (closer to my body) on the downswing??

It could but my money is on the opposite and coming off of the hosel. Easy enough to find out (if it's still happening) by putting tape on the face like Matt said.

I do that sometimes in practice just to see if I am hitting the sweet spot on different kinds of shots and I have a tendency to be all over the place.

I love the masking tape suggestion.  Such a simple a great idea!

I played baseball for years, and I had a very compact and fast swing.  My hands were very close to my body in the swing.  Is this ok in golf too or is it more advisable to have the hands further away from the body on the swing (downswing)?

Some really good players have the hands pretty close to the body at impact and some farther out, so whatever works.

As one who also hit baseballs for many, many years the two biggest adjustments from baseball to golf for me are the fact that in baseball impact happens with back palm up/front palm down, and in baseball the diagonal path intersects the center of the head to the strike zone. Neither work well for golf.

Excellent point.  Hard to break that baseball swing habit.  lol

Depends on the golfer. Grip strength (weak versus strong) have a more effect on the swing than actual finger grip. It works for you obviously, but it isn't a generic fix.

The smarter ones above can confirm or deny this, but a slice like that means one of three things, shank, violent out to in path, open clubface. Video will tell for sure as well as masking or impact tape.