Shanks....

[Todd Ruggere]

Sorry to say the ugly word, but at the end of the last 2 years i have gotten the Shanks on my chips. Am i getting my body in front of the ball? It would only happen with my wedges. Even on 130 yard par 3's id be afraid to swing> Anyone know what causes this?

[Gordon McTavish]

I used to shank the hell out of my chip shots early last year.  Eventually I realised that (for some unknown reason) I was reaching out for the ball, which naturally presented the hosel before the club-face.

Can't remember exactly what I did to resolve it, but I find that focusing my eyes on the ground about an inch in front of the ball rather than the ball itself allows me to execute a much better shot.

[B-Con]

You are coming down a path that's outside of your take-away path. For me, this can be when I simply set up too close to the ball. For some reason I think that for shorter green work, like short pitches and chipping, I need to be standing very close to the ball. Since I'm not thinking about altering my swing path, I'll swing along the normal one and end up outside of the ball, with the hosel making contact with the ball. Aside from stance, the other things I've found is that an over-active right arm is to blame for a lot of bad chipping and pitching in general. The right arm is a passive stabilizer, you want the actual driving motion to come from your big muscles in your torso. If you try to swing with your right wrist or push out with your right arm, you will probably shank it. Try chipping with just your left arm (assuming you're right handed). Do you stop shanking it?