How To Fix a Golf Hook – Develop Your Golf Game
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Physics is a harsh mistress, and this truth is made painfully clear in the game of golf. Often we try to perform what we hope is an accurate swing only to discover that we produce the exact flight of the ball that we were attempting to avoid at all costs. This is how most golfers develop a hook in their shot, a debilitating flaw that adds strokes to your game and tremendous fuel to your overall frustration level.
When you have a hook, you fail to complete your stroke with an appropriate body turn, striking the ball improperly and directing your shot too far left of your target. Fortunately, a golf hook can be corrected with a little diagnosis and some practice. Follow these simple steps, and you will be back to shooting straight on the link in no time. Here’s a brief guide for correcting your golf hook.
What You Will Need to Follow This Tutorial
Take a look at the recommended golf gear for fixing your swing.
- Golf clubs
- GPS watch (optional)
- Driving range
- Bucket of golf balls
- Golf rangefinder (optional)
The rangefinder is a handy device for more accurately gauging distances on the course or driving range, and thereby helping you adjust the power of your swing. They are also instrumental in diagnosing how much you are “hooking” your shots.
Step by Step Instruction
1. Checking Your Ball & Club Impact to Correct a Hook
The first step in diagnosing and correcting a hook is determining how far it is hooking to the left or right. A left hook means that your shot is curving in a right-to-left direction, indicating that the ball is spinning counter-clockwise off the tee. This rotation is caused by the club being swung too far to the right, as that forces the clubface to point slightly left. If you’re not sure, check your divot after a swing. A hook divot points right of the ball’s direction of travel, which will be well left of the divot. After you have checked your impact to see if that is the cause of your hook, it’s time to turn your attention to you grip.
2.Grip and Fixing Your Hook
Your grip actually does not affect the direction of your swing significantly, but it is directly related to where your clubface is at the point of impact. Grips also vary by individual: what straightens out shots for one player may cause another to hook or slice their shots. There are, however, several ways you can help yourself correct a hook with your grip. If you are a player who tends to turn their hands right on the club, you are more likely to strike the ball with the clubface pointed left and hooking the shot. The good news is that there is an easy way to see if your grip is off: when you are in stance with the clubface lined up square to the target, you should be able to glance down and see no more than a couple of knuckles on your left hand. If you can see three or four knuckles, chances are your grip is contributing to that hook.
3. Your Stance and Correcting a Hook
Many golfers who start hooking shots to the left try to compensate by aiming more to the right to compensate. As we know from step one and the anatomy of the hook though, this only makes the hooking motion in your swing even worse. Here’s what you need to do: double check that your aim isn’t too far right, particularly with your shoulders. One way to do this is drop a club on the ground to parallel your sight line for aiming the shot in order to verify that you aren’t overshooting the target with your shoulders. Keep your feet, knees, hips, and shoulders parallel to that club on the ground in order to keep your aim straight along that target line.
4. Practice, Practice, Practice
If you have developed a hook in your swing, you are going to need to correct it through retraining your muscle memory. Go over these three steps for correcting a hook over and over again slowly, then spend some time with that bucket of balls on the driving range to work out those bad hook habits. You will find that you are back to hitting straight shots very quickly, particularly if you are ensuring your strike, grip, and stance are all on point.
Conclusion
You are now ready to fix that hook in your swing and start taking strokes off your game. These simple steps will guide you on your journey to a better golf game, and you will find that are getting more out of every session on the links in terms of both accuracy and enjoyment. Did you enjoy these helpful tips for correcting a golf hook? Check out this video for additional practice tips and techniques for fixing your swing. Good luck, and happy golfing!
