This morning's revelations

[iWALK18]

I don't know if it will last but I had some crazy revelations today at the range.

First, I really flattened out the swing plane on the back swing keeping the left wrist flat... but that's not what I really want to talk about.

The Symptoms
I'm struggling with shot shape consistency, especially since I just switched to less forgiving irons. I play a draw with my driver and irons, but lately I've noticed that my body aims way left and the ball starts WAY right. This is fine if the ball draws, but I've been pushing a lot of shots dead right. I strengthened my grip but started hitting big hooks. If i think about swinging from the inside to get a draw, I end up with a push, push slice, or hook.

Diagnosis:
The biggest problem with my setup is ball position. Everything is played from the middle of my stance, with wedges and short irons back even more. This is makes the ball start right, and makes it hard for me to square the face in time. I end up flipping the wrists at it producing the hook, or I'm late and I push/slice.

My solution:
Today, I reassessed what I was doing in my set up to influence my shot shape. I should let my set up shape the ball, instead of making a conscious effort to alter my swing path.

1) Keeping my hands on the inside of my left thigh at setup produced a straight shot if i just used my normal swing. This put the ball a lot further forward than I'm used to, but sure enough, it worked great. Straighter flight path, and the ball starts more where my body aims.

2) To draw I put the ball back just a touch, and a bit farther from myself.

3) To fade I put the ball a touch closer to me and moved it up.

That's it! Making those changes and just trusting that my swing would produce the desired shape worked wonders. So simple, but that ball position was just way too far back for me with all shots in the past.

I had to share... think it'll last and work on the course?

[osean79]

i've been having the same problem! My normal shot is the draw, and i've noticed that most my shots start way right of target and draw back in. Sometimes it's a push, and mostly a strong draw bordering on a hook. I tend to set up irons to the middle, and shorter clubs slightly back.

I tried to fix this probelm by trying to take away as straight as possible on the back swing and swing more upright. This kind of worked a little bit, but i lost some good distance and wasn't hitting the ball as crisp.

I will definitely try your solution, by positioning the ball to the front of middle and see if it can fix the initial flight path. I've been always afraid that having the ball forward will make me hook even more... but we'll see how it goes tonight. Thanks for sharing!

[shortstop20]

Moving the ball up in your stance should make the ball start straighter toward you target. You may have to adjust to get rid of that slightly closed clubface though unless you don't mind playing the big draw. It will start out straight and then draw over to the left.