So here's the story...

Played a lot in HS. Got to where I still wasn't great, but I was able to stay competitive when I played (usually shot low to mid 90s.) My driver of all things was one club I felt like I could usually get a pretty solid shot from (about 250-265 and on the fairway about 3/4 of the time.)

Took a break from playing during college due to work and school schedules.

Now I'm stationed out in Hawaii, working with guys that love to golf in an area with 6 I think great military courses to play. After going home a couple of months ago, I decided to bring my clubs back with me. Now...

My driver and my fairway wood are horrible. Im consistently hitting my irons well, which I never did before, but with the big clubs, it doesnt seem to matter if I hit of a tee or off the deck, it whips to the left and buzzes about 10 feet of the ground before rolling to a stop undoubtedly right against the trunk of a tree. Any advice for fixing such a problem?

Try moving the ball back in your stance- just inside your front foot. If you tee it too far forward the face of your driver is already closed at impact, and you will hit the ball thin keeping it low.

Could be as simple as your grip being too strong. If it's starting left, you're impacting it with a closed clubface, so maybe weaken the grip a little.

I had/have a similar problem.

It's probably your grip. Check your right habd and see if it is too strong (on top of the club). Move it to where the right palm is facing the target. It will feel weird of course for a while but this has really helped for me.

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Could be as simple as your grip being too strong.

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Bingo! I've been through this before. I used to hit a nice little draw, then suddenly started hitting a nasty, sweeping hook. my grip had gradually become way too strong.

I had this problem about 4 years ago. I was standing too tall at address. Instructor had me bend more at the waist and it was gone. $75 dollars for 5 secs. ehh, worth it.

SLOWWWWWWW DOWNNNNNN

Right pectoral muscle has a lot to do with this.

I have a strong draw hook problem. Used to have a slice, but it straightened out for years and now the SD/hook. This is harder than trying to fix the slice.

first, get your right hand out of the bottom edge of the grip.

If you don't grip like that then you really hav to get a visual of taking the right pectoral out of it. It is a strength issue. You are trying to hit it farther and combo correct with the right side.

I tried an experiment this year when a great older golfer told me about my right pectoral. Just forget about hitting it hard. I did and all shots that I did it on were remarkably straight, but less distance. Get back the distance without the right side pec influence.

It works, trust me and the older bad arse player that told me.


Now, I just have to follow it, time and time again.

It could be several things. Go buy hogans book and read it in order. He does several things to insure against the snap hook, which he earlier tended to do under pressure.

I don't think it's your grip if your irons are fine. I think you mentally have segregated your long game swing from the short, creating two different swings based on your beliefs about your game. Honestly, you're probably just over swinging your woods and your timing isn't back yet.

[This message has been edited by TennAg (edited 3/3/2010 11:11a).]

TennAg got it...that book is pure greatness

"If you wanna think somethin, why don't you think that roof back up on that barn?"-- Woodrow F. Call

What my Pro told me:

The biggest difference with driver and fairway clubs is the fact that you are supposed to play them middle to forward in your stance and with irons, you play them middle to back in your stance. Because of the placement of the ball, you want to keep your hands LEADING on iron shots. This is fine right up until you tee up a driver. Now, with the ball so far forward in your stance, if you try to keep your hands leading, you'll hit it with a closed face everytime. So what you have to do is let the clubhead go ahead and pass your hands little bit. This will keep the clubface open and (in the case of the driver) hit up on the ball just slightly. The fairway woods aren't as big a problem because they are more in the middle and you still want to hit down on them a bit.

So when you start snap hooking drivers, think about your hands in relation to the clubhead and the face. Also, make sure you're still swinging the club on the correct line (inside out for draw, etc.). Often with the ball forward in the stance, people start the club too far outside (which is fine for an iron where you only have to keep it going outside until the middle of your stance because that's where the ball is) and by the time the club travels that additional foot or so, you can't keep it going out and it pulls around your body. This results in the pull. This combined with closed clubface results in the dubious pull-hook.

Lucky you, it's an easy fix.

Just move the ball back an inch or two in your stance for your teed up driver. Sometimes we let the ball creep too far forward. The good news is that hooks are an easy swing fault to correct. Fixing slices can take forever.

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"Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their women."

Today was the most times I had ever had as many snap hooks in a single round. I figured that it was a set-up issue....the ball was too far forward in my stance and as my club came through, it had already started to close the club face and it resulted in a snap hook. It felt good when I finally realized what the real problem was and was able to pipe one down the middle of the fairway

Well, Im working on it. Its gotten better each time Ive gone to the range. I can now hit my 3 off the tee consistently straight and the driver is about 50 percent of the time. the last two weeks, Ive been driving with my 23 degree hybrid and getting straight shots about 190-205 consistently So Im going to stick with that for a while longer. Plus, it gives me more time to hit my mid irons during a round, so I'm taking it in as a good lesson in ball striking and course management.

Im doing the same with my 13 degree wood. I think the transition to a 9 degree driver is all in my head at this point and thats why i cannot get rid of the snap hooks

h1Ag,

There is a lot of good advice on this thread. I do have one thing to add. You said you played in HS and did not have this problem. Now you are older and along came the hook with the woods but not the irons. This may be as simple as having the wrong equipment. I am guessing your irons are steel shafts and your woods are graphite. Check the flex of your graphite shafts in your woods. You are probably a lot stronger now than you were in HS and have a stronger, faster swing speed now than in HS. With a week shaft (regular flex or even stiff) this will cause a whippy club and the quick dumpy snap hook you described. Get your swing speed checked out, because my guess is you may need a more stiff shaft in the woods (stiff or x-stiff). hth

Is it more of a pull snap hook?

Just by going what you said you were shooting it sounds like maybe this might be the case. In which you would be coming over the top with an extremely shut club face.

Its really hard to say without seeing your swing to be quite honest, we can all try and guess from what you are saying. I would suggest taking a quick lesson with you local pro.

He can tell you for sure what the problem is.

[This message has been edited by AggieC07 (edited 3/12/2010 4:36p).]

normally when I hit a snap its because my backswing is too quick. I have more of a slower tempo then alot of people. I normally just slow it down and I straighten it out. I actually have more of a problem hooking my irons than the driver.