I was at the range on Sat. morning around 10:00 a.m. Beautiful day. Start off hitting a few 100 yrd. wedge shots (56* Cleveland 588 RTG). About 4 shots in I hit a nasty S***K (SHANK..shhh). Anyway, I was "oh well" it happens.
Well, my next shot SAME THING! Getting worried now. I switched to my 7 iron. I couldn't believe it I was hitting worm burners or horrible hooks.
I was sooo glad that I didn't play that morning BUT in hindsight REALLY WORRIED now...
Has this happend to any of 'yall? I'm afraid to even go back tot he range to run through a bucket again..WHAT IS UP!
Yes, I know how you feel!..... last year: was playing in tournament and half way around the course I started shanking it(even on one hole in to someones head ...I yelled "fore" tho)
ended up shooting a 43 on the front and a 73 on the back......in the last couple of holes I used my 3 iron and just hit it along the ground lol
I went to the pro, and he told me to stand further back from the ball... so you don't hit the hosel..... it worked for me after going to the golf course and hitting balls like that, I haven't had one shank since
I once tried to help a friend out who had been shanking the ball for weeks. It was really frustrating him and he was about ready to quit the game (he was not and still is not a terrible player-shoots high 80s/low 90s most of the time but in one team event we were playing together I shot 85, we had 14 shots for our team and the score we posted was 71-no hole registered for him. He easily shot 130 or 140 that day ). Well finally on hole 12 of one of our rounds I managed to get him straightened out and hitting good solid shots with his wedges. On hole 13, a par 5 up and over a hill around 530, I hit a good drive, hit a second around 50-60 yards short of the green. I lined up my half wedge into the green, took my swing, and SHANK-straight right. Next shot-SHANK. By the time I finally holed out for 9 I think, I was kicking myself. The shanks must have come right out of him and into me. I fixed it by hole 16 but the round was ruined. Taught me to leave the shankers alone unless they are begging for help.
Happens to me all the time. A few rounds back I was threatening to break 90 sitting at 79 with two holes to go. Snow maned 17 and on 18 a par five toed three consecutive shots off the tee OB. Picked up and still went home feeling pretty good with my play before the melt down. Maybe the pressure got to me
I think fatigue is a factor. The last dozen or so balls out of a 150 bucket at the range are always the worse shots on my practice days too.
I do believe fatigue has something to do with it as well. I once got to #16 on our course at 1 under, threatening my best round ever. It was pretty dark but I was going along so well that I wanted to finish no matter what. I hit two poor shots, leaving me about 40 yards short right of the green. Three shanks later and I ended up with a 7, then followed it up with bogeys on the last two for a 76. Still not a poor round but the shanks just had to show up at the worst possible time.
Well, my next shot SAME THING! Getting worried now. I switched to my 7 iron. I couldn't believe it I was hitting worm burners or horrible hooks.
Probably swinging too flat/inside on the takeaway...go back to the range and try to take it back a little more upright...it'll probably feel like you're taking it outside the line but you probably won't be. Try to hit a little cut and be sure to accelerate all the way thru the shot.
If you're shanking you've got a severly outside in swing which is to steep. One quick fix is to stick a club on the ground facing paralell to your feet line and just swing without hitting the club, you have to not have a swing which is from the inside out or you'll hit your club. You may not make great contact at first but you wont shank.
Happens to me all the time. A few rounds back I was threatening to break 90 sitting at 79 with two holes to go. Snow maned 17 and on 18 a par five toed three consecutive shots off the tee OB. Picked up and still went home feeling pretty good with my play before the melt down. Maybe the pressure got to me
I think fatigue is a factor. The last dozen or so balls out of a 150 bucket at the range are always the worse shots on my practice days too.
makes me think of the time where all I had to do was make 2 double bogeys to have my first round under 100. Well I had to pee really bad but I was trying to hold it bad move. Never hold it when you are having a good round.
makes me think of the time where all I had to do was make 2 double bogeys to have my first round under 100. Well I had to pee really bad but I was trying to hold it bad move. Never hold it when you are having a good round.
To have a good long and accurate straight swing, the key is to "syncronise" your arms with your hips on your downswing. A lot of people think that if they want to hit the further, they need to hit the ball harder! That is wrong, cos' you'll just make your arms and body all tense and it'll rob you of distance! To get more distance, you need to generate more club speed and to do that you need to be able to twist your hips round fast and bring your arms down to hit the ball as fast too, but they NEED to be syncronised!
If you twist your hips faster than you bring your arms down, then you will most likely HOOK the ball. If you swing your arms down fast than your hips are coming round, then you'll probably hit a slice........SYNCRONISATION of hips and arms is the key! Trust me. Obviously, there's other factors too like a general good technique (i.e. good set up, good one piece take away, good weight transfer and swing through the ball etc.) but to hit a long and accurate ball, you must syncronising your hips with arms.
Try not to worry about it. Unless it is a repeating problem, it was probably one of those days where you just couldn't hold your swing together. I have them every once in a while. Just the other day, I was hitting everything fat. No reason, just was. It'll go away in a day or two. Its mostly just mental.
The easiest way to fix a shank is checking your distance between you and the ball.
Also make sure you aren't casting.
WAAAHHOO!! I went to the range yesterday and was back to hitting lasers out there. That was it! the club head was too close and thus was actually hitting my hosel. I realigned correctly and played the ball more toward the center of the face and BINGO! Phew! Anyway, yeah I agree also the when you get fatigued you start developing bad habits out there. Anyway, just got to keep remembering that not to get to close and always remember to setup properly.
Setup first...placement of the ball both back or forward and distance from you... and double check you aren't setting up with the ball already in the hosel area. You'd be surprised how many people actually set up with the ball right in front of the shaft of the club.
Clubface second.. Some people believe they are leaving the blade of the clubface too far open at impact, so they try to close it. What most people don't realize is that the clubface does not rotate around the shaft.. it rotates around the center of gravity which is closer to the CENTER of the clubface than the hosel. So if you close the clubface, you are still moving the hosel closer to where the ball will be struck making it possible to hit a shank with a closed clubface. The same is obviously true for an open clubface.
Path Third - Just yesterday I watched a guy shank 5 in a row while his buddy stood there jabbering away. Obviously the advice his buddy was giving him didn't work. I grabbed a tee, and put it just to the right of the ball by about an inch and told him to miss the tee. He hit it flush... but of course his buddy was so **** that it worked he pulled the tee out of the ground and went back to pontificating the finer points of the golf swing. Te sera sera... or however you spell it. The point is, make sure you aren't swinging to far OUT TO the ball. Nor should you feel you must make a steep swing to strike the ball, that would indicate you're too close to it. And do as I did for that gentleman. Put a tee just outside the ball and make sure you miss it. You could reverse that and put a tee about 1/2 inch to the INSIDE of the ball and try to hit both the ball and the tee. Both are about fixing the path. One final word about path... you should strike slightly to the inside half of the ball, not directly behind it. We're not talking a bunch, but sometimes people get so wrapped up in being directly behind the ball they make that OUT move and hit the hosel.
Last edited by leaguegolf : November 12th, 2004 at 03:23 PM.
Reason: inappropriate language
great points ringer !
but under pressure and in the middle of an important game i dunno if your allowed to place a tee in the ground beside the ball as you hit
even so , it would look kinda naff !
if your in panic mode and shanking everything id recommend hitting off the toe but take 2 extra clubs
thankfully ive only shanked maybe 7 times in my life
3 times when playing a hook but forgot to adjust my stance to closed
and the rest playing flop shots under pressure and took a peek
November 8th, 2004, 01:44 PM
...I yelled "fore" tho)
). Well finally on hole 12 of one of our rounds I managed to get him straightened out and hitting good solid shots with his wedges. On hole 13, a par 5 up and over a hill around 530, I hit a good drive, hit a second around 50-60 yards short of the green. I lined up my half wedge into the green, took my swing, and SHANK-straight right. Next shot-SHANK. By the time I finally holed out for 9 I think, I was kicking myself. The shanks must have come right out of him and into me. I fixed it by hole 16 but the round was ruined. Taught me to leave the shankers alone unless they are begging for help. 
Shade
bad move. Never hold it when you are having a good round.
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