Fairway Wood Help

[camforreal]

Haven't posted on here in a while. Work, school, and fiancee have been taking up alot of my time. I have been working really hard on my swing for the last few months, and I finally broke 80 for the first time this season this weekend, and I shot a really easy 37 this morning. If I hadn't missed a few easy birdie opportunites I would have been in the red. But here's my question.

I have been taking lessons, joined a club, and am playing a whole whole bunch. I have the driver under control. I have the irons under control (except for 3-4 but I don't think many people ever really dial those in.) But I cannot hit a fairway wood.

I have flattened my swing and am playing a draw and it works great on irons and driver, but I don't know if its the way they are weighted or the shaft in them or what but fairway woods seem to magnify my flat inside out swing to the extreme. Driver I aim right edge of the fairway and draw it back in. Irons I aim a certain amount right depending on the loft of the club and how much I can turn it. 3 Wood I might as well aim 40 yards into the right woods because it turns left really really hard.

I wouldn't classify it as a snap hook, because it still goes 250-260 and it's got a nice trajectory, but it just turns sooo much I can't control it.

I have tried weakening my grip some, even to the point of a hogan style right forearm above the left style, and tried combining with a steeper backswing and more down the line or even across the ball type of path, and it just doesn't work.

When I try to make it not hook I either push it or hit it straight left. I would prefer to hit it straight or hit a baby draw but I can't find any sort of middle ground with it. It's either a 75 yard hook, or a completely unpredictable push or pull.

It doesn't make sense because even at some of my worst ball striking periods I was always fairly confident with the 3 wood. Now I am hitting the ball as good as I have in my adult life probably and it's the worst club in the bag for me. I'd rather have to try to fly a 3 iron to a small green with water in front and ob behind it than to have to try to hit a 3 wood into a 250 yard wide fairway.

And here's my scorecard from this morning which I wanna show off just because I am excited to see all my hard work paying off. Played from the silvers.

And as always any advice is appreciated.

[RangePro]

I started to do this very same thing at the beginning of the season. It was pointed out to me at address I was pressing the shaft, which in effect made me shut the face down at contact and created this large draw or hook. Once I addressed the ball properly it corrected itself. Just something to consider.

[camforreal]

  RangePro said:

I started to do this very same thing at the beginning of the season. It was pointed out to me at address I was pressing the shaft, which in effect made me shut the face down at contact and created this large draw or hook. Once I addressed the ball properly it corrected itself. Just something to consider.

Thanks for the tip. I tweaked my back today playing and I can barely walk or I'd go back out the range and try it. Def hoping its something simple like that. Ball position or forward press or something easily fixable. I'll try it and report back. Thanks again.

[mvmac]

Is contact in the center of the face or off the toe?

[camforreal]

Toe hits are my usual miss Mac but I hook with the fairway woods even on center hits

[camforreal]

Part of me thinks moving the ball back or forward in my stance might do the trick. Maybe its too far back and I am coming at it really hard from the inside. It starts on my target line for like 75-100 yards then exits stage left hard

[camforreal]

I play my driver like a half a ball off the inside of my left foot but i put the three wood a ball or so in front of the center of my stance. I hit a baby draw with my driver but my 3 wood looks like a reverse image of a a banana slice

[mvmac]

  camforreal said:

I play my driver like a half a ball off the inside of my left foot but i put the three wood a ball or so in front of the center of my stance. I hit a baby draw with my driver but my 3 wood looks like a reverse image of a a banana slice

I would recommend playing the fairway woods further forward than you do now, half a ball inside the left heel.  Without see your swing, here's my advice.  Aim the clubface where you want the ball to start, right of the intended target, aim the body at the target and extend the legs, squeeze the thighs together into the followthrough.

[camforreal]

Will do. Range tomorrow after work. I'll post my results.

[camforreal]

So I gave it the old college try and I must admit it worked pretty well. I also got a lesson at the same time and told him about the advice you gave me and he agree. He also tried to address the root cause as well to try to fix it. We dabbled with ball placement some, we tried steepening my swing (but that made just hit really bad shots,) and then he noticed my hips weren't clearing and I was kind of swinging around my body. I have mixed a slightly open face with focusing on the hips and it is a much better result. Still a draw but a much more controllable one. Thanks for the advice mac.

[mvmac]

  camforreal said:

So I gave it the old college try and I must admit it worked pretty well.

I get lucky sometimes