Fighting the dreaded hook

[jeffc]

Lately I have been fighting the hooks, mostly with my driver, 3 wood and rescue. Any tips out there? I know its tough but I have checked my grip, stance, alignment (all seem good) and there is something else going on.

[John]

I find I hit big hooks if i start with my back swing with any kind of "sway" backwards if you know what i mean, you also may just be bringing the club back more on the inside.

[goley]

If your clubface is square to the target and you are hitting big hooks you are underplane. Two things to try
1. a)Take a fairly large bath towel and roll it up and place it on the inside of the ball so the ball is a few inches away from it. Try to make the angle of the towel the same or as close to the same as the shaft sits at address with what ever club you are gonna use.
b) Rest the shaft on the outside of the of the towel between it and the ball. (give your self just a little bit of room)

If you hit the towel on the downswing on the inside you are swinging underplane or too far to the right. (assuming you are a righty) and hook city!!

2. Hit some drivers off the rug... almost try to slice them....

Hope this help

[3Jack]

Off the tee, try teeing it lower than you would with the driver. I found that this forced me to be more patient and made it hard to snap hook it.

[hoolio]

I've been fighthing it for a couple weeks now as well. I found that I wasn't setting the club at the top of the swing and that my arms were way ahead of the rest of my body. I'm sure every swing has different reason why the club gets into the wrong position, but I found that just the slightest of delays the let the club get to the right position at the top helps.

[leftylucas]

My problem was the same as Hoolios but since there can be more than one reason for hooks it is tough to say. I ended up going to see Marc Levac and oddly enough the problem was not what I thought it was. Not much help there Jeff but maybe try being a little more upright in the swing and see if that corrects it seeing your coming in square. A quick fix is to hold on to the club with your upper hand twice as firm as the lower hand.

[dbleber]

I get them when I start the swing with my arms instead of turning my shoulders over to the right side. Once I fire the hips the club seems to come in really closed and off to the left she goes. The drill that I have been using all winter and this season is to take a mirror, place a piece of tape down the middle and try to get my left shoulder onto the right side of the mirror. This helps get that feeling of turning the shoulders and stops the swaying. Marc Lacombe taught me this drill last year and it has helped my game big time. I do it during my practice swing before shots with my shadow too.

[nokids]

i couldn't hook the ball if i tried. i dont know how you guys do it.

[stevek]

Lately I have been fighting the hooks, mostly with my driver, 3 wood and rescue. Any tips out there? I know its tough but I have checked my grip, stance, alignment (all seem good) and there is something else going on.

With the weight set up on the TM 2-wood you sold me you must have been fighting this for a while. The first few shots I took really sliced on me and then I saw it was set up for a fade - which made my natural fade (uh controllable slice) into a slice that rivals my driver.

[Leejanzen]

I started hooking for the first time in years during my round at Les Vieux Moulins. I ended up fixing the problem by narrowing my stance a little, forcing me to swing a little more upright. I also moved the ball a little closer to the middle of my stance (I usually play it about 2" on the inside of my front heel) and raised my tee at bit.

[Hearzy]

I find I hit big hooks if i start with my back swing with any kind of "sway" backwards if you know what i mean, you also may just be bringing the club back more on the inside.

I was fighting the hooks for a while w/ my long driver 3w, and 3-4I. I got it pretty much fixed and it was because I was 'hanging back' on my swing towards the ball, I would keep my weight on my back foot too much.
Was the most frustrating couple weeks when I had it!

[rezadue]

Jeff, you have played with me enough to know you should ignore this post altogether but I tend to have hook problems. And for me, providing my fundamentals such as grip, alignment and etc. are correct, these are the three major causes for MY hooks:

1) This one has been happening a lot lately, and the longer the club, the worse it is. I tend to take the club in too far. This seems to trap the club behind me and the the result is a really nasty hook. If I look at my clubface at the top, it is completely shut to the point that the clubface is facing the sky. A check point here for me is to see where the club is pointing during takeaway, when the shaft is parallel to the ground. Inside of the target line is bad for me. Parallel to a little outside the target line is good for me.

For me, this seems to happen when I yank the club back with my right hand. Instead of a smooth clean take away where my arms and shoulders work together, the arms feel like they are out racing the body. I discovered the swing thought that works for me, is to try and feel like I initiate the backswing with the back of my left hand. That way the right arm does not dominate and everything is much more in tempo. I can't always seem to remember this though.

Sometimes when I have the hooks I am able to fight it off by keeping the face pointed at the target and sort of guide the ball. But unfortunately that usually means a push, and almost always I end up being short.

2) Gregg Foley calls this "too much Martin Hall". In this scenario, I tend to bend my right wrist so much that the left wrist is no longer flat. The left wrist is actually bent in...

3) Sometimes when I am not feeling confident, which happens often when I have the hooks, I tend to try to baby shots in the hope that I can get things going the right way. In those cases from time to time, I don't have a good weight shift and hang back through the shot. This usually feels like I am swinging around my body too much and the dreaded hook comes back. This was described by Hearzy in the post above too.

[Chieflongtee]

Jeff.
Take a look about midway through the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzNXplA6V8I