The Crookshank

[Howling Coyote]

I invented this name -and by the sound of it- it is not good.  But I think I can learn something from it.

I have shanked a lot of balls.  When I do, contact does not feel good, the club vibrates a certain way and the ball flies 45 degrees (or more) to the right of the target.  It typically does this without a curved flight.

 

Impact tape has shown that I come close to shanking every shot!  However, because I tend to slice this problem might be getting covered up—the ball must be rolling away from the hosel, toward the toe, thus picking up a lot of spin that leads to a slice—and one’s attention is drawn away from fixing a poorly centered strike to fixing a slice.

As a ubiquitous slicer, I know that when I hit the ball (in the bad slicing way) it either goes left of my target without a curve (just straight left), or it goes straight for the target and then hangs a right turn once gravity starts to pull the ball down.  Both of these 2 hits have the same outside-in path.  The only difference between these 2 flights is the clubface.  The straight left path occurs because the clubface was lined up with the club path.  The slicing case, the clubface was pointed towards the target, and right of the club path so the ball went right.

However, recently something odd has been happening.  Sometime the ball goes right, like a shank, except contact still feels good and there is no odd vibration.  These have been occurring more as I try to get more weight forward, inside-out club path (to draw), and getting the clubface over.  In other words I was working at getting the draw to work.  Then it occurred to me.  On a slice the ball rolls away from the hosel but on a hook the ball rolls toward the hosel.  What if it did not hit the hosel at impact, but came really close and then began to roll toward the hosel and then bounced off it like a shank?  Maybe this would explain the lack of vibration?  Wouldn’t this be a hookshank?  But it goes right not left, so I will call it the Crookshank.

So today I put a second ball down (on the driving range matt), so that I had 2 balls in front of me with a 1-inch gap.  My drill was to hit the nearer ball and not touch the second ball.  With this in place I began to work on hitting that draw and to my amazement had enormous success.  With the 8, 7, and 6 iron I could draw the shot.  Had trouble with the 4 and 3 hybrids.  Once I struck both balls, so I still am crookshanking on occasion.

In conclusion, I have a ball striking weakness—poor control of impact centeredness.  So I want to drill impact control.  I want to be able to hit the ball on the center, or on the toe, or near the hosel, all on command.  Maybe that should be one of my 2016 goals.

[SavvySwede]

Totally OT but the title reminded me of this.

Bobby Cruikshank (great golfer name right?)

Quote

Leading by two strokes in the final round of the 1934 US Open, Cruickshank came to the 11th hole at Merion Cricket Club, its green guarded by the Baffling Brook. His approach shot came up short, but hit a rock in the creek and bounded up onto the green. Elated and relieved, Cruickshank threw his club in the air – then staggered and fell as it came straight down and hit him on the head. He recovered enough to par the hole, but a string of bogeys followed and he wound up losing by two shots.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Cruickshank

[natureboy]

4 hours ago, Howling Coyote said:

Sometime the ball goes right, like a shank, except contact still feels good and there is no odd vibration.  These have been occurring more as I try to get more weight forward, inside-out club path (to draw), and getting the clubface over.  In other words I was working at getting the draw to work

Are you sure it's not just a straight block / push with a really in to out path?

[iacas]

19 hours ago, Howling Coyote said:

However, recently something odd has been happening.  Sometime the ball goes right, like a shank, except contact still feels good and there is no odd vibration.  These have been occurring more as I try to get more weight forward, inside-out club path (to draw), and getting the clubface over.  In other words I was working at getting the draw to work.  Then it occurred to me.  On a slice the ball rolls away from the hosel but on a hook the ball rolls toward the hosel.  What if it did not hit the hosel at impact, but came really close and then began to roll toward the hosel and then bounced off it like a shank?  Maybe this would explain the lack of vibration?  Wouldn’t this be a hookshank?  But it goes right not left, so I will call it the Crookshank.

The ball doesn't move on the face very much. So no, that's probably not what's happening.