Pete Finch – PGA Teaching Pro
If you try to fix your hook or you’re happy with the overall feeling of your hook shape as you’re hitting the shot, then you need to understand how to live with a hook shot. Now there’s no issue if your hook is consistent. So if you’re consistently moving the ball 30 yards in the air from right to left, that is something that you can learn to control. It will obviously have its limitations. For example, if you manage to find yourself on the right hand side of a hole with trees tight to the right and the green is cut further around to the right hand side, you need to move it left or right in the air. Hitting the hook in that situation is going to be very difficult, because you’re just going to hit it into the trees. However if you still can’t get that control, you still can’t hit that fade, how can you start to live with the hook?
Now the first thing to do is actually measure how far you’re turning the ball in the air. Now a good thing to do here and if you have access to this it will be fantastic. If you have access to a launch monitor that will give more concrete information about how far the ball is moving in the air. If no you can do visual on a driving range, you can start to pace out from where it started to where it’s finished. But whatever you do, get a concept and get an understanding of how far that ball is moving. Then what you can also do is learn to adapt your stance and learn to adapt your range around that hook shot. So for example, if you by using launch monitors, by using just you visual representation on a driving range wherever it may be. If you understand that you’re hooking the ball between 20 to 30 yards right to left in the air, then you can start to adjust your aim 20 to 30 yards to the right of the target. Whatever it will do, whatever it will be you just need to make sure that the resulting shot is aimed towards a center of the grid. If you start really firing at pins and you start aiming straight at pins with a big hooked ball flight you’re asking for danger. If you’re using that hook then you need to adjust your aim appropriately to make sure that ball is coming back to target. So if I’m going to be using a 20 yard hook here, what I’m going to be doing is picking out an aim point and an aim-line which is 20 yards off to the right hand side. I’m going to get myself settled in; I’m going to be focusing on that aim point. I’m going to be focusing on getting my body aiming to that direction and then my last look is at the target. Now if that’s the case then my hook is a consistent one, then the amount of right to left movement in the air will bring the ball back to the left-hand side and then get somewhere near my target. So if you’re hitting a hook, there are ways to live with it; but you’ll have more advantages and you’ll be able to hit more shots if you work on trying to fix that problem of ball flying. 2016-10-26If you try to fix your hook or you’re happy with the overall feeling of your hook shape as you’re hitting the shot, then you need to understand how to live with a hook shot. Now there’s no issue if your hook is consistent. So if you’re consistently moving the ball 30 yards in the air from right to left, that is something that you can learn to control. It will obviously have its limitations. For example, if you manage to find yourself on the right hand side of a hole with trees tight to the right and the green is cut further around to the right hand side, you need to move it left or right in the air. Hitting the hook in that situation is going to be very difficult, because you’re just going to hit it into the trees. However if you still can’t get that control, you still can’t hit that fade, how can you start to live with the hook?
Now the first thing to do is actually measure how far you’re turning the ball in the air. Now a good thing to do here and if you have access to this it will be fantastic. If you have access to a launch monitor that will give more concrete information about how far the ball is moving in the air. If no you can do visual on a driving range, you can start to pace out from where it started to where it’s finished. But whatever you do, get a concept and get an understanding of how far that ball is moving. Then what you can also do is learn to adapt your stance and learn to adapt your range around that hook shot. So for example, if you by using launch monitors, by using just you visual representation on a driving range wherever it may be.
If you understand that you’re hooking the ball between 20 to 30 yards right to left in the air, then you can start to adjust your aim 20 to 30 yards to the right of the target. Whatever it will do, whatever it will be you just need to make sure that the resulting shot is aimed towards a center of the grid. If you start really firing at pins and you start aiming straight at pins with a big hooked ball flight you’re asking for danger. If you’re using that hook then you need to adjust your aim appropriately to make sure that ball is coming back to target. So if I’m going to be using a 20 yard hook here, what I’m going to be doing is picking out an aim point and an aim-line which is 20 yards off to the right hand side. I’m going to get myself settled in; I’m going to be focusing on that aim point. I’m going to be focusing on getting my body aiming to that direction and then my last look is at the target. Now if that’s the case then my hook is a consistent one, then the amount of right to left movement in the air will bring the ball back to the left-hand side and then get somewhere near my target. So if you’re hitting a hook, there are ways to live with it; but you’ll have more advantages and you’ll be able to hit more shots if you work on trying to fix that problem of ball flying.
