Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
If you're struggling with a ball flight that flies right to left in the air so you're hitting a hook, we're going to look at three ways for you to cure that. So a hook is just a golf shot where the ball starts on the right of the target and it swings right to left during its flight and finishes missing the target on the left. And the main reason for this is due to the club face, the club face is actually close so that as you're hitting the ball, the club face is aiming to the right of the target but it's aiming to the left of the line you're swinging along. So we've got to make sure that the line you're swinging along is the target line and that the club face is pointing down that target line. If you're hitting a hook what will tend to happen, is as you swing the club back, that you're swinging the club from too much on the inside. So if you're matching the white line here's the target line, your club head's approaching from the inside of that and then swinging across it. But the club face is pointing left of that movement of direction, but to the right of the target. So to correct this let's get you swinging straight at the target with a direction of movement and get the club face aiming in that way. A great deal to do that is if you take nine golf balls and place them just there about four inches on the far side of the target line and the inside, put the first pair of balls a foot to the left of the ball that you're going to hit next pair of balls opposite the ball you're going to hit and the ones on the right again a foot to the right. And just work on swinging the club head straight down that channel keeping the club face pointing at the target.
If you're hitting a hook, you'll tend to hit this ball first so the inside right ball, and then maybe swing across and catch the far left ball. So just work on swinging nice and straight down that channel, and keep the club face pointing down the channel as you do that. So that’s straightening the shots up nicely. Okay the second way we can work on improving your hook, is if we haven’t got the golf balls in, but we've got a similar idea, of we need to block this area coming into the shot on the inside, so take your head cover and place it in a position which is just on the inside of the target line but to the right of it by about a foot okay. So I can swing my golf club back quite nicely but if I drop too much on the inside and approach from this direction I'm going to hit this hard cover. So again I'm just going to work on swinging around the head covers as I swing back and then back in around the head cover. I'm making sure I'm keeping my clubface pointing on the target as I do that. And the final way we can improve the hook, if we take an alignment pole place it in to the ground on the left hand side of its so it's coming out of the target line but an angle about 45 degrees back towards me. Again I'm going to work on, I'm going to swing so that as I swing through I'm travelling along my target line so I'm just in front of the pole but I'm working on keeping my club face pointing up at the sky. If I'm hooking the ball my club face will be pointing down the floor in this position. So I'm just going to use the alignment pole to make sure that as I swing through I keep the club face pointing up at the sky, I keep my right palm pointing up at the sky rather than allowing my right palm to rotate over my left and the club face to point down at the floor. So if you work on any of those three tips, it will help you square your club face up to the target and get you swinging along the target line to hit much straighter shots. 2014-01-13 Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
If you're struggling with a ball flight that flies right to left in the air so you're hitting a hook, we're going to look at three ways for you to cure that. So a hook is just a golf shot where the ball starts on the right of the target and it swings right to left during its flight and finishes missing the target on the left. And the main reason for this is due to the club face, the club face is actually close so that as you're hitting the ball, the club face is aiming to the right of the target but it's aiming to the left of the line you're swinging along. So we've got to make sure that the line you're swinging along is the target line and that the club face is pointing down that target line. If you're hitting a hook what will tend to happen, is as you swing the club back, that you're swinging the club from too much on the inside. So if you're matching the white line here's the target line, your club head's approaching from the inside of that and then swinging across it. But the club face is pointing left of that movement of direction, but to the right of the target. So to correct this let's get you swinging straight at the target with a direction of movement and get the club face aiming in that way. A great deal to do that is if you take nine golf balls and place them just there about four inches on the far side of the target line and the inside, put the first pair of balls a foot to the left of the ball that you're going to hit next pair of balls opposite the ball you're going to hit and the ones on the right again a foot to the right. And just work on swinging the club head straight down that channel keeping the club face pointing at the target.
If you're hitting a hook, you'll tend to hit this ball first so the inside right ball, and then maybe swing across and catch the far left ball. So just work on swinging nice and straight down that channel, and keep the club face pointing down the channel as you do that. So that’s straightening the shots up nicely. Okay the second way we can work on improving your hook, is if we haven’t got the golf balls in, but we've got a similar idea, of we need to block this area coming into the shot on the inside, so take your head cover and place it in a position which is just on the inside of the target line but to the right of it by about a foot okay. So I can swing my golf club back quite nicely but if I drop too much on the inside and approach from this direction I'm going to hit this hard cover. So again I'm just going to work on swinging around the head covers as I swing back and then back in around the head cover. I'm making sure I'm keeping my clubface pointing on the target as I do that.
And the final way we can improve the hook, if we take an alignment pole place it in to the ground on the left hand side of its so it's coming out of the target line but an angle about 45 degrees back towards me. Again I'm going to work on, I'm going to swing so that as I swing through I'm travelling along my target line so I'm just in front of the pole but I'm working on keeping my club face pointing up at the sky. If I'm hooking the ball my club face will be pointing down the floor in this position. So I'm just going to use the alignment pole to make sure that as I swing through I keep the club face pointing up at the sky, I keep my right palm pointing up at the sky rather than allowing my right palm to rotate over my left and the club face to point down at the floor. So if you work on any of those three tips, it will help you square your club face up to the target and get you swinging along the target line to hit much straighter shots.
