Snap Hooks will be the death of me.

[Sultan Gris]

I can feel your pain but I am guessing you are on the right track. Try initiating your down-swing by turning your right hip (slowly) towards the target. This will automatically force your right elbow to drop and get the club into the slot. It will not take long to get this into muscle memory and become automatic. There is NOTHING worse than standing over a ball knowing it will go left unless you manipulate your swing. You did mention your grip is neutral. I have seen many golfers you think they have a neutral grip yet they are only referring to their left hand. If your right hand is rotated to the right (more under the club) this can induce a hook. If you rotate your right hand to the left (over the club) it becomes virtually impossible to close the face prior to impact. Hope this helps.

[jmurder]

I suffer from periodic bouts of this as well. I squared my left foot up a little, and it helped. I also coach baseball and remembered a little saying"stand tall on the backside". When I remember keep my right shoulder "tall" and not dip down at the ball, I have a nice gentle draw.

[GixxerTed]

  iacas said:

Originally Posted by iacas

Or is it starting well left and then staying there, and traveling low but not curving a whole lot?

I have a buddy that is bad to do this.  Any advice i can give him on what hes doing here?

[iacas]

  GixxerTed said:

Originally Posted by GixxerTed

I have a buddy that is bad to do this.  Any advice i can give him on what hes doing here?

If it's not curving much, his path and face are both well left.

[The Gill]

I've fought the snap hooks before. For me it's all about the right elbow chicken winging on me (I used to play baseball and swung with a punchy right elbow). If the elbow came out early in the down swing I'd cast and slice. If it came out late in the down swing I'd get a snap hook. I can't see your video, maybe it's my browser.

[iceman777]

I was having a terrible problem with hooking on drives . I tried a more upright stance , and moved in closer to the ball , so there was about a fist sized space between the top of the club and belt  buckle . I also soled the club and positioned the ball half way between the center line on the face and the toe . Now I'm about 240 down the middle .

[Adam Young]

just find a way of opening that face up somehow..... Without seeing the swing it would be hard to tell. I would focus on impact first, doing practice drills and waggles coming in with the face aiming right to get a feeling of this (feel so me like my right palm stays facing at the target or slightly right of it for longer through impact). you could also try feeling like it is open as it comes down. Do a few pump drills for the downswing where you feel like the clubhead is facing 12 o clock, or even 1 oclock as it is around chest height on the way down (the left wrist should be quite cupped to produce this).

If all else fails, you could try a hold off release - I play very good golf with this (I am a shut face player thorughout the swing). as the club reaches parallel to the ground in the followthrough, the face will point, again, to 1 o clock more than straight up (more traditional release). But I will be honest, this has been more of a result of me focusing on keeping it open through impact which results in the followthrough.

After doing it enough, it is now automatic and I dont think about it. I no  longer hook like I used to and can quickly rectify it if it comes back

[hero12]

  Sultan Gris said:

Originally Posted by Sultan Gris

I can feel your pain but I am guessing you are on the right track. Try initiating your down-swing by turning your right hip (slowly) towards the target. This will automatically force your right elbow to drop and get the club into the slot. It will not take long to get this into muscle memory and become automatic. There is NOTHING worse than standing over a ball knowing it will go left unless you manipulate your swing. You did mention your grip is neutral. I have seen many golfers you think they have a neutral grip yet they are only referring to their left hand. If your right hand is rotated to the right (more under the club) this can induce a hook. If you rotate your right hand to the left (over the club) it becomes virtually impossible to close the face prior to impact. Hope this helps.

I struggled with the same issue a few years ago, and this grip change took care of it for me.  I rotated my bottom hand more on top of the club.  It felt weird at first, but it helped.

[Adam Young]

  hero12 said:

Originally Posted by hero12

I struggled with the same issue a few years ago, and this grip change took care of it for me.  I rotated my bottom hand more on top of the club.  It felt weird at first, but it helped.

yeah that could also work well, he said he had a neutral grip though. weakening the left hand is usually death, but there are lots of players with right hands on top, like hogan for example

[duffedit]

I was having the same problem my problem was my left wrist at impact

[parforpeta]

Guys, this is great reading. Just played in a tournament today and had to keep the driver in the bag, snapping hooking a 9.5 degree driver 220 yards 20' off the ground...I'm at whits end here as well. Typically before 2-3 weeks ago, hit a high draw 275-280. So why is it i can hit my 3 wood with great results, 250, high draw....driver is really in my head. Instructor wanted me to drop my right shoulder....reverse K...??? Feels weird. Figure I'll try bringing my right hand more over...BUT...currently have both "V's" perfectly at my right shoulder, so worried about changing that...thoughts...??

[Adam Young]

  parforpeta said:

Originally Posted by parforpeta

Guys, this is great reading. Just played in a tournament today and had to keep the driver in the bag, snapping hooking a 9.5 degree driver 220 yards 20' off the ground...I'm at whits end here as well. Typically before 2-3 weeks ago, hit a high draw 275-280. So why is it i can hit my 3 wood with great results, 250, high draw....driver is really in my head. Instructor wanted me to drop my right shoulder....reverse K...??? Feels weird. Figure I'll try bringing my right hand more over...BUT...currently have both "V's" perfectly at my right shoulder, so worried about changing that...thoughts...??

Obviously the face is too closed now compared to where it was when you were hitting the high draw. This is turning a driver into a snap hook, but the 3 wood you are probably getting away with as it has more loft. Sometimes it can be a little mental though, I have had it with certain clubs which tend to go a different way to my normal pattern, but I just dealt with it. For example, for many years I used stiff shafts in all my clubs except my 3 wood, which was regular. as a result, it tended to go a little more left than every other club in my bag - so everytime i held my 3 wood i just weakened my grip a little. This change eventually became automatic so that I didn't have to think about it, it just happened every time I go my 3 wood in my hands.

I know a lot of people may see that as overly complicated to have a different swing for every club, but to a certain extent, this is true of every player. We need a different path and face combo with every club in the bag, especially as you become a longer hitter. A +5 path with a +2 face will have massively different results depending on whether it was a wedge shot or a driver shot. Add to the fact that your shaft flexes are probably wildly varing throughout your bag, even if it is the same shaft with the same flex written on it, studies have shown it can vary as much as 2 flexes.

Just understand the rules for controlling ball flight, find some ways which are good for YOU to manipulate those, and keep on trying to calibrate a better ball flight.

In your situation, Maybe try aiming that right hand V at your chin. I certainly make that change when a draw starts turning into a hook. It may not work for everyone though, this is where you ahve to experiement and find out what will get the clubface open enough for you to get back to that baby draw.

As a side note, get a non perm market pen, draw a dot on the ball and hit it. Look on the clubface at where the mark is - hitting off centre with a driver can also have a massive influence. Check this before you start fiddling with the face

[parforpeta]

Adam...thanks for the information. Playing with my right hand grip seems to be a good place to start. I'm playing at Chambers Bay tomorrow (Home of the 2015 US Open, Hometown plug here) and will see how this works out.

Cheers.

[$2 Nassau]

So if his ball starts right of target and works back hard left, his path is far right of where his clubface is aiming.

Didn't mean to simply repeat what was already said, just thinking out loud here to try to solve my own hook.

My "typical" shot shape for years was slightly right to left.  My misses were usually big blocks.

Now the miss for the past couple years is a hook.

My hook is almost always very low.  It is what I would described as a smothered hook.  It never starts right of target, at best it starts on the target line (doesn't stay there long) but usually starts left of target, anywhere from a couple degrees to maybe 20+ degrees, and then turns further left, violently.

So for my hooks that start out on line with the target and turn hard left - my clubface is square to my target on those but my path is well right of the target. ..?

The ones that start left and go further left - my face is closed to the target and maybe I swung the club down the path of the target, or possible slightly left of it?

So do I have a clubface problem or a path problem?  I'm guessing both?

[Adam Bellaire]

  $2 Nassau said:

Originally Posted by $2 Nassau

So if his ball starts right of target and works back hard left, his path is far right of where his clubface is aiming.

Didn't mean to simply repeat what was already said, just thinking out loud here to try to solve my own hook.

My "typical" shot shape for years was slightly right to left.  My misses were usually big blocks.

Now the miss for the past couple years is a hook.

My hook is almost always very low.  It is what I would described as a smothered hook.  It never starts right of target, at best it starts on the target line (doesn't stay there long) but usually starts left of target, anywhere from a couple degrees to maybe 20+ degrees, and then turns further left, violently.

So for my hooks that start out on line with the target and turn hard left - my clubface is square to my target on those but my path is well right of the target. ..?

The ones that start left and go further left - my face is closed to the target and maybe I swung the club down the path of the target, or possible slightly left of it?

So do I have a clubface problem or a path problem?  I'm guessing both?

I would probably say both...but as i have heard from the 5sk guys before, if the face is shut enough you can still hit this shot with a slight in out swing. starting line is 85% clubface...which you could be swinging 'down the line' but your clubface is dead shut at impact (delofted, hence the lower trajectory).