Driver Sick: Case of the Shanks

[lhshurdl3r]

All of last season, and still as of right now, I'm still shanking the driver every chance I hit it. I'm using a Mizuno MX-500 with a graffaloy prolaunch blue stiff shaft. Every time I tee off the ball takes a really low flight off the tee and immediate slice.

I was on a simulator yesterday and 2 of my drives didn't register b/c they hit the far outside of the screen. I've dialed in my 3w, hybrid and irons and have been more consistent with those... I just can't hit my driver anymore to save my life...

With that ball flight off the tee, what could I be doing wrong? I have a feeling I might be gripping too tightly...

[klaymon]

Same thing here. I can hit everything from LW to 3W with no problem, but my driver might as well not be in my bag. I've been "blading" mine (hitting really low on the club face). I've tried teeing higher, moving the ball around a little and nothing is helping. I'm playing this weekend and I'm probably going to pull mine from the bag so I'm not tempted. The other sickening part is when I get what feels like decent contact, I hit it shorter than my 3W. I have lost so much yardage with it.

[LeafsFanNL]

How long is your driver ?

[jambalaya]

I have had this problem before too. No fun. So obviously you are contacting the ball on the clubface near the hossel. I know when I was doing this I could see the marks on the heel of the club. I would suggest going through the fundamentals of setting up for the driver. Ball forward, shaft nearly straight up and down or slightly leaning back, stance wide but confortable, tee it up where top of ball slightly above top of clubhead at adress, spine tilted to the rear, etc. It is usually a combination of these things. When I was having my trouble I googled and watched lots of videos and read lots of articles just about driver setup. You need a different approach from all your other clubs.

[Pat007]

Check your driver length. You may be well served to choke down on it to see it you can then hit the centre of the clubface. I used to have this problem, and easily fixed it by adressing the ball on the toe of the club. So, instead of hitting the ball on the heel, I hit the sweet spot.

[osean79]

Shanking? Keep your chin up and your back straight. Fixes everything.

[Stacey_E]

It does sound to me like a case of tension. I had a spell on the range last week where I shanked 6 or 7 7 irons in a row. After the 3rd or 4th one I said to myself "self, I bet you can't shank one again". Yet I did. I would back off, get a drink of gatorade, go through my on course preshot routine and SHANK.

Finally I just took my grip and quickly got into a comfortable posture aligned on my intermediate target, waggled once and swung. Shanks cured. I was totally freezing over the ball apparently. It didn't feel like I was taking a lot of time, but undoubtedly I was full of tension. Now I'm trying to find my "release valve" when I'm over the ball and letting all the tension drain completly out before starting my swing.

And to address some of things said earlier about equipment, I agree that the driver shafts might be too long. Mine was down to 44" when I took it out of the bag this week. I played my first round without a driver in years. I swear I was 20 yards back maximum from my good drives. Plus I was better able to place my drives wherever I wanted. This was after not carrying a 3 wood for probably 2 years.

I can actually work the 3 wood a little off the tee. I can control the height of my drives with the tee height. And I can really aggressively roll my hands over at impact to avoid the right side if I need to. These things I could not do consistantly with the driver. Plus the flex on my 3 wood is perfect for me (regular). Contact just feels soooo sweet. OK rave over. haha

[Titleist Man]

stand further away and keep your knees bent or put most of your weight on your heels.

[Hidalgo]

  lhshurdl3r said:

Every time I tee off the ball takes a really low flight off the tee and immediate slice.

All of the above posts aren't taking into consideration the flight that you are describing. Without seeing your swing, I would have to deduct that you are swinging on a very dramatic outside-in path. This is NOT a "shank" because that's almost impossible to do with a club that has the hosel on the top. The club comes into the ball hooded over (causing the low trajectory) and the outside approach causes the slice. If I were to try to give you tips without seeing your swing it would have to be:

Relax and grip the club as lightly as possibly...and maintain that light pressure throughout the swing. Concentrate on hitting the INSIDE corner of the golf ball. This will open up the face (that's right...it's probably actually closed) and stop the low ball flight. And by trying to hit the inside corner of the ball, you'll probably get your swing path back to some resemblance of straight. If you can find a video of Fred Couples, watch it for a few minutes before you go to practice. Granted, none of us will ever have Fred's swing, but we CAN have his tempo. Slow down your pace...especially the backswing and through the transition. Remember...you can NOT hit the driver unless you have the clubhead under total control. Slow and steady is the way to find that control HTH.

[beachbreak]

Maybe you're taking the club back too far inside and the downswing is too in-to-out?

[TMO]

VIDEO tape your swing. That is absolutely your next step. There are only so many things that lead to a shank but if you video tape your swing you will probably see it almost instantly. If you don't, video tape your swing and send it to me.

[ks8829]

When I set the ball in reference to the driver head my ball is position near the heel of the driver, yes the heel of the driver. I have found that for some reason, I will hit the driver square when I position the ball starting from the heel. Have you ever noticed Vijay Singh ball position also, you will find that just before he hits his driver he aligns the ball near the heel also.

So, my point is if you know that you are consistenly shanking your driver you need to know how to compensate for the alignment of the ball in reference with the driver face and once you figure this out you too will hit the ball solid. I use a magic marker and align the mark with where I am going to contact the driver surface so that I can see exactly where on the driver I am making contact and then make the adjustment to start the golf swing, it might be at the heel or somewhere else but you will begin to hit the driver solid and in the middle of the face.

[kevntri]

  Hidalgo said:

All of the above posts aren't taking into consideration the flight that you are describing. Without seeing your swing, I would have to deduct that you are swinging on a very dramatic outside-in path. This is NOT a "shank" because that's almost impossible to do with a club that has the hosel on the top. The club comes into the ball hooded over (causing the low trajectory) and the outside approach causes the slice. If I were to try to give you tips without seeing your swing it would have to be:

I agree....

Never seen a shanked driver repeated. A shank comes from the ball hitting the round part of the hosel. Not real possible with the driver. My suggestion would be get to the range. Start with comfortable irons and work up to the driver. Start the driver with 1/2 to 3/4 swings very easy. Just try to hit it solid. Then move to very easy full swings. Remember to take the club back with the large muscles in your back (not arms). Lay a club down about a foot outside of the ball in the swing path of the club. Angle it about 5 -10 degrees to the outside.(making a line to follow with the head of the club). Work on the back muscles taking it away and follow the swing path. Finish high on the follow through. A lot of times the outside to inside swing can be fixed if you really work on finishing the swing up high and not like a baseball bat. Good luck........

[peoplesgolfer]

I thought u could only shank irons. Shanking means hitting the ball w/ your hosel w/ a closed club face.Put a piece of masking tape on your driver to see where u are hitting the ball and adjust your driver position.

[Big_M]

  lhshurdl3r said:

All of last season, and still as of right now, I'm still shanking the driver every chance I hit it. I'm using a Mizuno MX-500 with a graffaloy prolaunch blue stiff shaft. Every time I tee off the ball takes a really low flight off the tee and immediate slice.

  klaymon said:

Same thing here. I can hit everything from LW to 3W with no problem, but my driver might as well not be in my bag. I've been "blading" mine (hitting really low on the club face). I've tried teeing higher, moving the ball around a little and nothing is helping. I'm playing this weekend and I'm probably going to pull mine from the bag so I'm not tempted. The other sickening part is when I get what feels like decent contact, I hit it shorter than my 3W. I have lost so much yardage with it.

The key is to BUY a NEW driver... I would do this every few months just to ward off any posibilities of similar situations occuring in the future as well. New drivers always play much better than old ones.

in all seriousness... see below... and yes, without seeing your swing it is real hard to say what you are doing wrong.

  Hidalgo said:

All of the above posts aren't taking into consideration the flight that you are describing. Without seeing your swing, I would have to deduct that you are swinging on a very dramatic outside-in path.

[ks8829]

back to basic fundamentals

http://thesandtrap.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21680