What Causes A Shanked Golf Shot? (Video) - by Peter Finch
What Causes A Shanked Golf Shot? (Video) - by Peter Finch

What causes a shanked golf shot? Now a shank is a very dispiriting and quite a destructive shot when it’s actually encountered in the round. It’s a shot which is struck from the very hazel of the club. And what actually happens is when the ball hits the hazel it puts a lot of spin on the ball and it shoots out very low and off to the right hand side. It’s almost uncontrollable so you’ve actually no hope in actually controlling where the ball goes and once you’ve hit one then it can also get in your head a little bit and it becomes a little bit of a psychological problem as well. So they are best avoided.

Now there’s a couple of things that can actually cause a shank shot, it’s mostly to do with angle of attack and actual club path into the ball as well. The most common way of actually shanking the golf ball is when the path becomes very, very steep so you’re actually attacking down on the ball very, very steeply almost in a bit of an axe motion on to the ball and when you’re coming from very much on the inside. So you swing it from the inside to out and the hazel of the club is actually reaching the ball first and you’re going to get that crazy shot off to the right hand side. Now, a mistake that often people make is they believe that a shank could only be caused from the swing path. However, a shank can also be caused from an aggressively out to in swing path yet again coming down on a steep angle of attack and actually presenting the hazel of that club to the ball. Now this is the way to actually stop a shank, is to make sure you have a lot of room from the ball because you don’t want to be getting too close and then just swing it away and try and come into that ball on a much shallower and a much straighter pass. So by shallower, I don’t mean attacking it like this; I mean just bringing it and trying to scheme it along the ground actually through impact and also just trying to come out a little bit straighter into the back of the ball. So a shank golf shot it can be very, very destructive, it comes from the heel and is often caused by very aggressive inside or outside swing path, it’s not confined to one of the two. So, identify the problem, make sure you try and swing on a little bit of a shallow path and also that you’re into the ball a lot straighter and hopefully with a bit of practice those shanks can become a thing of the past. 2014-08-19

What causes a shanked golf shot? Now a shank is a very dispiriting and quite a destructive shot when it’s actually encountered in the round. It’s a shot which is struck from the very hazel of the club. And what actually happens is when the ball hits the hazel it puts a lot of spin on the ball and it shoots out very low and off to the right hand side. It’s almost uncontrollable so you’ve actually no hope in actually controlling where the ball goes and once you’ve hit one then it can also get in your head a little bit and it becomes a little bit of a psychological problem as well. So they are best avoided.

Now there’s a couple of things that can actually cause a shank shot, it’s mostly to do with angle of attack and actual club path into the ball as well. The most common way of actually shanking the golf ball is when the path becomes very, very steep so you’re actually attacking down on the ball very, very steeply almost in a bit of an axe motion on to the ball and when you’re coming from very much on the inside. So you swing it from the inside to out and the hazel of the club is actually reaching the ball first and you’re going to get that crazy shot off to the right hand side.

Now, a mistake that often people make is they believe that a shank could only be caused from the swing path. However, a shank can also be caused from an aggressively out to in swing path yet again coming down on a steep angle of attack and actually presenting the hazel of that club to the ball. Now this is the way to actually stop a shank, is to make sure you have a lot of room from the ball because you don’t want to be getting too close and then just swing it away and try and come into that ball on a much shallower and a much straighter pass. So by shallower, I don’t mean attacking it like this; I mean just bringing it and trying to scheme it along the ground actually through impact and also just trying to come out a little bit straighter into the back of the ball.

So a shank golf shot it can be very, very destructive, it comes from the heel and is often caused by very aggressive inside or outside swing path, it’s not confined to one of the two. So, identify the problem, make sure you try and swing on a little bit of a shallow path and also that you’re into the ball a lot straighter and hopefully with a bit of practice those shanks can become a thing of the past.