9 Handicapper pulling EVERYTHING left. Could it be my grip?

[sharpljp]

Hello Everyone,

Virginia was blessed with great weather this weekend and I took full advantage. 

I've been working hard on my game through the winter and have made improvements. Went from a 12 handicap to 9 in 3-4 months but played plenty. I've worked on the "one piece takeaway" and am making much better, consistent, strikes on the ball. But.. EVERY round I will always lose balls to the left. My good rounds will typically only have just a few of these. But recently it's been even worse. I've video recorded my swing multiple times. I know I struggle with going over the top so I shortened up my backswing pretty significantly and that did help. I shot 36 the next day (previous day, same course, shot 44). But the miss left is worse now. It almost always stays very low (sometimes my drives dont get over 5 feet) and begins to the left with draw. It's a very uneasy feeling to tee off with trouble on the left. Yesterday, I played and struggled going left again so I shortened up majorly. I STILL was pulling it left. It was smooth, easy, short swings too. Even the Pitching wedge was pulled. I was so puzzled. Everything felt so natural and easy, I was just befuddled how it was going that far left. I hit it solid too. 

 

After marinating on that salty round, it hit me. Could it be my grip? I feel like im coming through so easy and my timing/tempo is fine. My right hand is not really on top of the club though and I've recently read that it could be that. Has anyone every experienced this type of feeling before that could relate? All my shots stay low, go left, and draw to different degrees. I do have a strong grip. Thank you all SO SO SO much!

[Club Rat]

56 minutes ago, sharpljp said:

Could it be my grip?

Pulls are typical when transition of swing change (shortened backswing) as you mentioned.
While a short backswing will become a more repetitive swing, you will need to also work on "squaring at impact"
Most likely you are just out of timing sequence a tad early, the club is reaching the ball before the weight shift.
Arms swings faster than the body turns, give it time to work out. Slow motion practice will help.

Start a "My swing" thread by posting a few videos.

[sharpljp]

Little background info on me since i am new but am excited to be here! I am 25 and very limber. Played baseball growing up, football in college, and now go to the gym a lot. I'm a strong guy and feel like i should be able to swing the club with some speed. Timing doesn't seem to be the issue. I've timed the ball perfectly, swinging easily on the range, to be shocked to look up and see the ball fly left. I try to work on my game everyday, literally. I need/want a swing that allows me to swing the club, in control but with speed, to play at my full potential. The slow motion practice is what I tried.. But.. When i feel that "perfectly squared club face" I STILL pull it left. That's what makes me think that grip could be the problem. I think that if I keep my grip and work on squaring my club face at impact.. I may achieve hitting it straight a portion of the time. I don't want to square the face AT impact, I want to square the face THROUGH impact and I don't want to be thinking, "Boy if i don't square this up perfectly.. it's gone left." That will surely bring negative thoughts and therefore negative results. Does this make sense? Thanks again for the feedback! I'm going to collect some videos and start a My Swing tonight!!

 

[DaveP043]

On 3/1/2017 at 0:31 PM, sharpljp said:

Little background info on me since i am new but am excited to be here! I am 25 and very limber. Played baseball growing up, football in college, and now go to the gym a lot. I'm a strong guy and feel like i should be able to swing the club with some speed. Timing doesn't seem to be the issue. I've timed the ball perfectly, swinging easily on the range, to be shocked to look up and see the ball fly left. I try to work on my game everyday, literally. I need/want a swing that allows me to swing the club, in control but with speed, to play at my full potential. The slow motion practice is what I tried.. But.. When i feel that "perfectly squared club face" I STILL pull it left. That's what makes me think that grip could be the problem. I think that if I keep my grip and work on squaring my club face at impact.. I may achieve hitting it straight a portion of the time. I don't want to square the face AT impact, I want to square the face THROUGH impact and I don't want to be thinking, "Boy if i don't square this up perfectly.. it's gone left." That will surely bring negative thoughts and therefore negative results. Does this make sense? Thanks again for the feedback! I'm going to collect some videos and start a My Swing tonight!!

 

Timing is always a major part of the issue.  The face was square before you started your swing, but there are a million moving parts before you get back to impact.  Timing will relate to your hips rotating, shoulders rotating in comparison to the hips, left arm crossing past your chest, right arm lengthening as you extend your elbow, hands rotating the club in relation to your left arm, so much happens that must be coordinated properly (timing) to both hit the ball solid, and hit it with the club pointing the right direction.  The club going left means the face is pointed left, but we can't tell you what happened to make it point that way.  As @Club Rat suggests, one great way to get some detailed guidance is to post a video of your swing here:

https://thesandtrap.com/forums/forum/13-member-swings/

Refer to this thread as far as getting the right camera angles, so that the guys who have the expertise to help you get the information they need:

https://thesandtrap.com/b/playing_tips/filming_your_swing

Edited March 14, 2017 by RandallT
replaced an erroneous link that he corrected later in thread

[Kalnoky]

Not a 9 HC by any stretch, but I also pull my irons. A high speed video (taken by my pro) shows I am lining up to the right and swinging out to the right. I am compensating by closing the club face right before impact. If I get the timing wrong, the result is a shank. If I get the timing right, the result is a fairly powerful pull.

I guess my main point is, a high speed video is very helpful.

I'm glad you're able to enjoy some nice weather. We're really getting punished this year. 

[golfintheworld]

As a simple suggestion, since you changed your backswing and its timings coming down, maybe the ball is now 1/2" or so too far forward in your stance. You might have changed the squaring point at the bottom of the swing. You can check that simply  by using "Let Me See What Happens If I.." at a range by moving the ball back 1/2" and seeing the results.

[MrDC]

A lot of things can cause the clubface to be closed at impact, but I've had this issue in the past and it was caused by standing too close to the ball, it's easy to miss, try giving the ball a little space, it may work for you, it helped me.

[DaveP043]

5 hours ago, DaveP043 said:

  As @Club Rat suggests, one great way to get some detailed guidance is to post a video of your swing here:

http://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/Handicapping/handicap-manual.html#!decision-14379

Refer to this thread as far as getting the right camera angles, so that the guys who have the expertise to help you get the information they need:

https://thesandtrap.com/b/playing_tips/filming_your_swing

Please ignore the first link in my previous post, I was obviously not paying attention.  The right forum is here:

https://thesandtrap.com/forums/forum/13-member-swings/

 

[bm85]

My guess is that you are rotating the trail arm through impact.

Best thing to do would be film a video, and see what's really happening.

 

[sharpljp]

So happy with all the feedback. Didn't expect this community to be so helpful (no offense!) but that's awesome.This weekend I'm DEFINITELY getting my swing properly recorded. I played yesterday.. Shot 39. My home club is only 9 holes and no driving range so you always have to go cold turkey out there (hate that) but I focused on making sure the clubface was square and i had only 1 maybe 2 pulls. I was getting about a 3-5 yard fade and hitting my clubs good, not great, but good. And i was so happy with the 39. 3 Boges 6 Pars, few looks at good birds. The clubface being square though.. you guys were right. Is there any drill or any mental notes to make that would help with this? My driver did slice 20-30 yards once or twice but also hit some nice solid drives.

[DaveP043]

4 minutes ago, sharpljp said:

The clubface being square though.. you guys were right. Is there any drill or any mental notes to make that would help with this? My driver did slice 20-30 yards once or twice but also hit some nice solid drives.

Its going to be different for every single player.  If you can post good videos, I know you'll get some good advice.

[sharpljp]

Videos are posted in my swing!! Under my swing (sharpljp). 

[Hacker James]

I recently started pulling everything with a new driver I bought which has an offset. Paying attention to squaring the club face has helped as well as ball placement, teeing a bit higher, and pre-setting with a slight negative shaft lean to hit up on the ball.Good results. This was a little difficult for me as it just did not look natural since normally I tee the ball a little lower than some.

[Lihu]

6 minutes ago, Hacker James said:

I recently started pulling everything with a new driver I bought which has an offset. Paying attention to squaring the club face has helped as well as ball placement, teeing a bit higher, and pre-setting with a slight negative shaft lean to hit up on the ball.Good results. This was a little difficult for me as it just did not look natural since normally I tee the ball a little lower than some.

I always thought that a straight pull is a tendency of coming outside in, and not so much shaft flex or offset?

Path and face are aligned, then it pulls. I think if path and face not aligned usually gives you a slice or fade?

[Hacker James]

9 minutes ago, Lihu said:

I always thought that a straight pull is a tendency of coming outside in, and not so much shaft flex or offset?

Path and face are aligned, then it pulls. I think if path and face not aligned usually gives you a slice or fade?

well yes. But since I was hooking everything only after changing to the offset, all it took was to align up more carefully. In the past I was coming outside in but I more or less took care of that by proper set up that would encourage a swing path that was in to out  and when I changed to the new driver, It just exasperated  my former "correction". The offset clubs also have a face that is a little closed.   Ying and Yang, Newton's law, e.t.c.

Edited March 6, 2017 by Hacker James

[Lihu]

29 minutes ago, Hacker James said:

well yes. But since I was hooking everything only after changing to the offset, all it took was to align up more carefully. In the past I was coming outside in but I more or less took care of that by proper set up that would encourage a swing path that was in to out  and when I changed to the new driver, It just exasperated  my former "correction". The offset clubs also have a face that is a little closed.   Ying and Yang, Newton's law, e.t.c.

Does it push when you open the face as well?

I think the driver is supposed to be open at setup. Erik had me open the face up to the point where I push a lot of drives. The net result is a much more consistent shot pattern.

[Hacker James]

21 minutes ago, Lihu said:

Does it push when you open the face as well?

I think the driver is supposed to be open at setup. Erik had me open the face up to the point where I push a lot of drives. The net result is a much more consistent shot pattern.

It could. Erik is right. the differential between club face and path is what determines ball flight. Open or closed will heavily influence initial or start direction. In my case with the offset driver, it does not push.  If you look down the shaft with an offset face, you can see that it is more closed. So knowing that, and making the visual of a squared face, and perhaps "lazy susan" my stance to the right a little, helps control the direction. Younger players usually have an easier time coming from in to out, proper side bend, e.t.c.  "open" is a relative term. 

I should add that some consider using a club with an offset is a band-aid to compensate for a swing flaw. I  do acknowledge that it could create problems for some that are able to achieve a better swing, that the offset face will then become troublesome.  

 

 

Edited March 6, 2017 by Hacker James

[Lihu]

25 minutes ago, Hacker James said:

It could. Erik is right. the differential between club face and path is what determines ball flight. Open or closed will heavily influence initial or start direction. In my case with the offset driver, it does not push.  If you look down the shaft with an offset face, you can see that it is more closed. So knowing that, and making the visual of a squared face, and perhaps "lazy susan" my stance to the right a little, helps control the direction. Younger players usually have an easier time coming from in to out, proper side bend, e.t.c.  "open" is a relative term. 

I think this has to do with core strength. I've noticed a lot of good older players coming OTT, but in their younger days had really nice swings. So, that's kind of in line with what you are saying.

However, one almost 80 year old guy still has that in to out path, but he hits a lot shorter. He gets a 7i out to about 130 yards with roll, but leaves little piles of balls at 130 yards when he uses the range. He has tiny rust spots in his clubs right in the sweet spots. On the course, he's deadly accurate. Of course, he's been playing for over 70 years.

My friend teaches Pilates in HK/China and she's certified to teach the instructors. She noted that older people have to work harder to maintain or even harder to develop their core strength. She also said that even though it takes a lot more effort, they can still do it with a lot of perseverance. If they don't give up, they usually can do it.

She is also an avid golfer, but her target market is not for golf. It's more for health and injury prevention.

 

This is veering off topic, and to the OP. It looks like he has a neutral grip. IDT that's a problem. . .?