I too have developed the dreaded sh***s

[envoy98]

I was reading the other thread but my problem seems to be a bit different, albeit the same end result.

Hit my driver fine. My 52 and 60 wedges have been about as good as ever.

I grab a 6, 7 8 or 9i and I hit the center of the face but the ball goes about 5 feet off the ground, flies 20-50 yards and makes a hard down and to the right motion into the dirt. Looks like a Johan curveball. When I do hit it well enough to not completely ruin it, I lose 40-50% of my distance.

This started about 3 weeks ago. I was going to the range 3x a week and working on my divots and straightening out the irons. I finally accepted that I was willing to hit a 7i 140 and dead straight instead of 160 with the high fade I've always had. That worked great for one round and all of a sudden, I can't hit an iron. I went to hitting a choked up or half-swing hybrid for my >150yd shots and I'll hit a PW and take a chip from anything short of that.

I'm not hitting it off the hosel, I can see on the face exactly where the ball is hitting and it is in the middle, or very close. Maybe softball ruined my golf swing? Like I said though, driver, hybrid and wedges are all being great to me.

What's wrong? I need help! (next week I'm going to see the pro at my local course) I was hoping to try and get the distance back once I fixed my high fade on my own. Now I'll be spending time trying to fix this instead.

What a humbling (see: frustrating) game. :)

[chaprichard]

Very common and extremely annoying. It's likely that you are swinging out to in, coming right across the ball and striking the ball off the toe with a closed club head. Does it feel like the club is twisting in your hand? If so a lot of golfers compound the problem but tightening their grip.

Try this - hold the club as a lightly as you can - 2 on a scale of 10...10 being the tightest. Then take a 3/4 back swing - and really focus swinging the club down the line of the target with a full follow thru. Always go back to basics when you suddenly start having problems.

[ripping_time]

Are you 100% sure the ball is not even "touching" the hosel?? I had a problem like this except it was for my wedges. My ball would hit the club face but it would also hit the hosel as well. It felt like a GREAT shot except my ball would take pretty much the exact same flight path as yours.

[chaprichard]

You might be right but usually hitting the hosel would result in an almost right angle shank and you would feel it in the club - it would have a really clunky sound / feel. You would get no distance at all

A shank is most likely to happen with your wedges - not 6,7 8 iron - which indicates you are not swinging through properly. He's how you can find out...

Put some chalk on your ball (or pen on your club face) - see where the chalk mark ends up on the club face after you hit it. Also - take a nice divot and see which direction it points to - my guess is it will be well left of target. Get back to me as I am intrigued now...

[envoy98]

I can see exactly on the face where it is impacting and it's in the middle. Seems obvious the clubface must be wide open but all of my "tricks" to close it seem to only make it worse. The swing feels good but I'm wondering if I'm not getting that wrist-roll from softball that is causing it. The more I turn my left wrist to try and force the clubface closed, the worse it gets. I could try a stronger grip and see if that will help. I'm trying to make a point to feel my wrists rolling over through the ball after impact as opposed to that left hand on top feeling you have with a bat.

I will be hitting the range tonight with a video camera to see what I can discern. It is just very odd to me that my wedges have been fantastic for me and my irons are in the tank. I've never been a great iron player but my distances were always consistent and I rarely top or hit the ball fat. Now I make contact and anyone within 45* of my stance is in danger of losing an eye.

Edited to say, I should probably video tape my swing with wedges first, just in case I fix the iron problem and it breaks my ability to hit my wedges. :)

[envoy98]

Very common and extremely annoying. It's likely that you are swinging out to in, coming right across the ball and striking the ball off the toe with a closed club head. Does it feel like the club is twisting in your hand? If so a lot of golfers compound the problem but tightening their grip.

I will give this a try. In some cases, yes, I can absolutely feel the club twisting in my hand. In fact, I made a comment to my buddy yesterday that I could almost feel it before I made impact. I can tell something is wrong with the swing, I just don't know what exactly. Appreciate the tips and I'll give them a try tonight.

[bunkerputt]

I will give this a try. In some cases, yes, I can absolutely feel the club twisting in my hand. In fact, I made a comment to my buddy yesterday that I could almost feel it before I made impact. I can tell something is wrong with the swing, I just don't know what exactly. Appreciate the tips and I'll give them a try tonight.

How high is the ball on the face? Did you go by impact tape? Take 5 shots with impact tape just to be sure. Dirt and grass and even scuff marks can be somewhat misleading. You need to find out not only where the ball is between the heel and toe, but how high or low on the face you are catching it. Does it err on the thin, or chunky side? etc.

[envoy98]

Heading to Golfsmith to see if they have impact tape.

[envoy98]

Got my impact tape but ran out of time to hit the range. Have to travel to Iowa tomorrow so won't be able to go until Monday over lunch or Tuesday after work now. Grr.

On a side note, I did try the loose grip with half swing that another poster suggested. I grabbed a select few irons from the demo rack at golfsmith and gave it a try. For some reason, the clubs that had the big white stickers on them allowed me to see the face a little better as I was practicing. It appeared (though at very high speed) that the club was coming from way outside but that seems counter-intuitive to a center of the face shankapotomous shot. I did hit a few crisp shots with the ball slightly back in my stance. I bet I hit 100 balls in the practice range with various clubs today. Almost like a free driving range. I should do that more often. :)

I have to say too, I hit the tour Burner TM irons and I really liked the feel and the sound. Also got a grin from the X-22 Callaways. They didn't have the XForged out or the new Mizunos so i couldn't try them. I did try the Nike CCI's too, not a fan. Too bad too since they were on closeout for $349.