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Well I went out Saturday morning to play a round with some friends. It was the most frustrating round of golf I have ever played.

I hit 11 of 14 fairways and shot 99. The main problem was I had....hold your breath.....the SHANKS. About 75% of my full iron shots from my 6 iron to my sand wedge were shanked and i don't know what to do. The only change I have made in the past month was standing a little bit further away from the ball with my driver and that has help me dramatically.

I would have shot par 4's where i would normally hit a 3 wood or hybrid off the tee to be between 100 and 150 years....and I would hit a driver and try to put it inside of 100 yards so I would not have to take a full swing with a short iron. Because when i didn't take a full swing i wouldn't shank it. But also my 40 to 80 yard shot is not a strength of mine.

So after my round I went out to the range with my camera and shot some videos of my swing.....CAUTION: You will witness some shanks, if you think you can handle it please view my videos.....but there are also some good swings in these videos but the thing is I don't know what i am doing differently not to shank the ball.

First is a video of me hitting my driver.....this was a major strength on this day.
YouTube - New driver video

This is a video of me shanking a 7 iron.....i didn't know this was possible.YouTube - 7 Iron YouTube - 7 Iron shank....how can someone do this?
Sorry for the show of anger

This is a video of me hitting a 8 iron.....first shot is a almost a shank (it goes straight right) followed by a beautiful strait shot.
YouTube - 8 iron shot

Sand wedge shank:
YouTube - Sand wedge shank

Sand wedge nice shot
YouTube - Sand wedge - good shot


I am hitting a 7 iron here hitting 6 different shots
YouTube - 7 iron shots
Ball #1 goes a little left
Ball #2 goes straight
Ball #3 is a SHANK
Ball #4 goes straight
Ball #5 is pushed straight right
Ball #6 goes straight and fades off right

Here I am hitting a 7 iron.....I hit it and watched it on my camera and I thought my backswing didn't look wide enough
YouTube - My swing from the side

In this one i made by back swing wider.....it looks better and i hit it good
YouTube - My swing from the side 2

Please let me know what ya'll think

Scott, SC

In the sxxxk video it looks to me that you are breaking your wrist's backward early in the backswing. I had this problem a while back. It's difficult to describe a feeling through a keyboard but try taking the club away to hip height keeping your left thumb more centered over your left forearm and not letting your right hand collapse backward too early. If you put your palms together now and bend your hands to the right then this is the move you need to try and eliminate early in your backswing. Also maybe do a search for one piece take away. I know all this sounds crazy but by not letting my hands collapse backwards early in my swing did help me and i hope it helps you too.

When you stop the 8 iron video at 29 seconds you can see what kevan is talking about..Your left arm is broke down a little and the toe of you club is pointing out toward your golf bag..needs to be more upright..im no swing coach or anything..but it looked like the times you shanked it..you kind of threw yur hands at the ball a little..but..i cant really tell without slow-mo..lol

It looks to me like you are about a ball's diameter closer to the ball with the good shot, than you are with the bad shot. Check it for yourself, measuring the distance between the ball and your right toes. You will need to experiment on the range to confirm that this caused you problems. If you find that this may have caused your problems, then you may need to come up with a better pre-shot routine to set your distance from the ball. It seems possible to me that you are not doing yourself any favors with the back-and-forth sliding of the club you have in your routine now. I prefer a vertical drop of the clubhead onto the ground to set my distance for myself, but you will need to find something that works for you of course.

I like the 2nd one better too. It looks like there would still be some room to get wider than that. You haven't 'overdone width' in the 2nd video.

The slow motion video of the 8 iron swings:
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Nice videos love the throw down club after the 7 iron shot!
Are you keeping the ball just off the inside left heal? Most
shots should be off the left heal , no matter what IRON you
use , just remember your stance is gonna be wider with a
3 iron then it would be with a 9 - 7 iron shot ! maybe have
a look at Ringers videos and adobt the one piece swing .
probably would help your case.

I will tell you exactly what is wrong. Your focusing on your hands way too much and freezing them up, not allowing them to rotate. Thus, the hossel is nailing the ball.

The hands are way too unreliable to control a golf swing effectively. Trust me, your brain knows how to square your hands up without you having to tell it. I can tell by your swing.

Also, you missed on your third shot because you had a great shot, then tried to make a greater one. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I had the shanks for about a week last month. My problem was trying to incorporate a one plane swing with a two plane swing. The release in the two plane swing requires timing of the hands while the one plane does not as much. You may want to look into that at

GolfDigest.com - My search for the plane truth

Your exactly right.......I went out yesterday and about 80% of my first 30 shots on the range were shanks. Then I hit a this one shank with my lob wedge and i was like man that felt weird.

My club face was open and i didn't know it.....then i went back to the thought of imagine the back of your left hand is the club face.....that and going more strait back on the take away instead of going outside the ball and BAM.....shanks no more.

So i left the range and went and walked 9 holes and shot 40.....with a double on the first and a bogey on the last.....and really.....there were 2 puts i should have made.

So i went from shooting a 99 where i hit 11of 14 fairways in arguably the most disappointing round of my life to shooting a 40 when I could have shot 38. Hopefully I keep it up

Thanks guys

Scott, SC

Keep us informed and let us know what you changed to correct your problem.

I feel your pain going through the shanks. I'm a 6 hcp but went through a period for 1 week after winter lay-off( Wisconsin) where I shanked every iron . Woods were fine. It can down to hands for me. After first shank I tried to over control the club head with my hands. A full swing is much to quick for me to get that timing right and I was all over the place. Army golf ---shank left---right--left.

For me I just had to remember full wrist cock and lag and drag.

If anything I thought you were way to close on ALL your shots. That will make you shank also.

I'm not a swing teacher but I noticed a bunch of flaws and would recommend seeing a pro instead of finding patches. The driver swing you were closed on your stance and open on the shoulders and your club came way across your target line on the end of your backswing. The irons I think as many that you may be a touch too close to the ball but you were layed of in the middle of the backswing taking your swing off plane which can cause all kinds of erratic follow throughs depending on where the club is on each swing which it didn't look the same from shot to shot. It looked as though the left hand was cupped and your spine angle is different at impact then when you started. You're trying to get to a good impact position but you are pulling up as you start through causing what looks similar to a casting move. Sometimes when pulling up or turning out of a shot one tends to reach a little further subconsciously which I think can be some of the reason for the shanks. When they don't shank they slice which says you are cutting across the ball at impact opening the face. Perhaps one of the instructors on here might tell you if I'm correct or at least lend some clues to what are the major flaws. I do know if you don't have solid fundementals you will spend a ton of time always looking for more patches as I've done for most of my life. Good luck and if you think I'm wrong then good for you because it definitely wouldn't be the first time.