Open stance

[Benadams1993]

Just wondered if anyone could help me, I struggle with a big hook in 50% of my iron shots, they go way left. I went to the range today, After reading up online, 1 person suggested opening up my stance, keeping my shoulders square, and purposely trying to swing left to produce a fade/slice, this some how worked a dream and I’d hit my irons as straight as you like with solid contact. Has anyone got any reason for this and also any reason why I shouldn’t always set up like that? If it works for me, I also hit some draws with my stance open when I’ve been told an open stance favours a fade, how am I drawing the ball?

 

thanks for your help

[MarvChamp]

@Benadams1993, far be it from me to give suggestions, but I have had similar experience. I found that when setting up, I would put my RIGHT toe forward, pointing toward the ball. I thought this gave me a square alignment. When I went back to basics, LEFT toe forward, buckle a little left as part of setup/alignment, I hit the ball straight (mostly). Best, -Marv

[Patch]

Try your old stance, address position, but open your club face a little, and see what that does to your ball flight. You might even try weakening your grip a little, if you are now using a strong grip. 

I went through what you are discribing. I even opened my stance like you did. It helped, but was a short term fix for me. 

My gamer swing went south on me. After I had time to see what I was doing wrong, I found a couple of things. One was I started putting the ball more forward in my stance. This allowed the club face to close more than normally. The other problem was I let my grip get stronger than normal. I also allowed my club face to be more closed than normal at address. Pulls and hooks we're the results.  

 Don't know why I let these issues creep into my swing. I guess I got complacent, and stopped paying attention to little details. 

Just a quick add on here. You might want to google "hooking golf iron shots" and see what comes up. Then compare your hook shot with the info given to see if anything matches what you are doing. 

Then again, if your open stance fix stays consistent, go with it. 

Edited May 13, 2018 by Patch

[billchao]

2 hours ago, Benadams1993 said:

Has anyone got any reason for this and also any reason why I shouldn’t always set up like that?

It really depends on what actually causes your hook. There are a number of ways to produce a hook miss and it's hard to tell what you're doing without seeing your swing.

2 hours ago, Benadams1993 said:

I’ve been told an open stance favours a fade

Not necessarily, no.

Plenty of people hit draws with an open stance and some people can swing further right just from opening their stance because they instinctively know their target isn't left where their feet are pointed.

[Benadams1993]

56 minutes ago, Patch said:

Try your old stance, address position, but open your club face a little, and see what that does to your ball flight. You might even try weakening your grip a little, if you are now using a strong grip. 

I went through what you are discribing. I even opened my stance like you did. It helped, but was a short term fix for me. 

My gamer swing went south on me. After I had time to see what I was doing wrong, I found a couple of things. One was I started putting the ball more forward in my stance. This allowed the club face to close more than normally. The other problem was I let my grip get stronger than normal. I also allowed my club face to be more closed than normal at address. Pulls and hooks we're the results.  

 Don't know why I let these issues creep into my swing. I guess I got complacent, and stopped paying attention to little details. 

Just a quick add on here. You might want to google "hooking golf iron shots" and see what comes up. Then compare your hook shot with the info given to see if anything matches what you are doing. 

Then again, if your open stance fix stays consistent, go with it. 

Yeah I’ve been googling it a lot recently, I also have tried opening the club face but feels so uncomfortable in my hand as if the weight of the club wants to come back round into my usual position, same as with my grip, I try weakening it but it doesn’t feel right so it just creeps back round!

[MarvChamp]

3 hours ago, MarvChamp said:

@Benadams1993, far be it from me to give suggestions, but I have had similar experience. I found that when setting up, I would put my RIGHT toe forward, pointing toward the ball. I thought this gave me a square alignment. When I went back to basics, LEFT toe forward, buckle a little left as part of setup/alignment, I hit the ball straight (mostly). Best, -Marv

@Benadams1993 and All : I was very tired when I wrote the above post and REVERSED what I meant to say.  When hooking, I put my LEFT toe forward, pointing toward the ball. The old basics setup is to hand the RIGHT toe forward, buckle a little left as part of setup/alignment. Then I hit the ball straight (mostly). Sorry for confusion. Best, -Marv

Edited May 13, 2018 by MarvChamp
Misstatement (again)

[Benadams1993]

40 minutes ago, MarvChamp said:

@Benadams1993 and All : I was very tired when I wrote the above post and REVERSED what I meant to say.  When hooking, I put my LEFT toe forward, pointing toward the ball. The old basics setup is to hand the RIGHT toe forward, buckle a little left as part of setup/alignment. Then I hit the ball straight (mostly). Sorry for confusion. Best, -Marv

 

Thanks, I’ll give that a try next time I’m at the range