Low shots to the right

[Big Don]

My grip was pretty strong and I had a tendancy to hook the ball, most of the time acceptably but sometimes badly. I therefore changed my grip and made it much more neutral. This straightened up my shots nicely and helped make me generally more consistent.

However, I've developed an occaissional but frustrating problem of hitting some balls low and to the right since changing my grip. The shot looks almost like a shank, but it feels reasonably clean of the club face. Sometimes I'll hit 30 good balls on the range and then inexplicably I'll get into a pattern where I'll hit 5-10 balls low and right but then revert back to hitting properly for 30 balls.

This is really twisting my brain as I can't diagnose whats different when I hit the bad shots. Any suggestions greatfully received.

[Ringer]

Watch these two video's on the release and I think you'll figure it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8ckECXHu4U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvet1EmSS7Q

[Titleism]

Do you know if you're possibly making ball contact with the hosel at impact?

If not, I suggest paying attention to the amount of left hand pronation going on in the takeaway.

[Big Don]

  Titleism said:

Do you know if you're possibly making ball contact with the hosel at impact?

No I don't think the ball is hitting the hosel.

[ABPositive]

I had a similar experience. I hit those same low shots and figured the ball was climbing up the face, then hit the hosel. A shank, but it didn't leave as obvious a mark on the hosel as a "regular" shank. Clean your club really well, and look carefully after a low, right shot if you spot any white mark on the hosel. You could also use some marking product (tape, powder, etc.) to figure out where the club made contact with the ball. Put some of that tape on the hosel, that might reveal it.

[Titleism]

  Big Don said:

No I don't think the ball is hitting the hosel.

Were you hitting on a mat or on grass at the range? Tee'd up driver?...or iron? If a mat, you think you were hitting them fat?

To expand on left hand pronating, I tend to hit shots off to the right if I pronate my left hand too much on the takeaway. This means an opening clubface on the takeaway, and requires great timing to square the club on impact. If I try to keep the clubface a bit more closed on the takeaway (ie. more square to the swingplane), it straightens out my shots without having to worry so much about timing the release properly. During the takeaway when the shaft is parallel to the ground, an open clubface will have the toe pointed straight upwards. Try playing around with the amount the left hand turns to the right (pronation) on the takeaway vs not turning your hand at all (to varying extremes and see what happens). Also, if you're hitting on mats, it'll be more difficult to figure out what went wrong since there aren't divots to examine.