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What causes these horrible things and how do you fix it?

Can't remember where I heard it, but

"fast hooks are created by fast swings"

You're probably trying to kill the ball and not swinging very smooth with a good tempo.

I have found that most hooks, especially duck hooks come from too strong of a left hand, seeing too many knuckles. Return you left hand grip so that the back of your hand faces the target.

snap hooking

Many golfers snap-hook under pressure or when trying to hit the ball harder. More than likely you have rotated the left hand on the grip enough to see the knuckles. Here's how to correct it: Place the back of your left hand against a wall. Place a grip across the palm, with the clubface against the wall. Now the back of your left hand and the clubface are pointing in the same direction. In this position, you can hit as hard as you'd like with your right hand and not hook the ball

A duck-hook is commonly caused by two things -- swinging the club inside and behind your body, and a reverse weight-shift. Practice swinging the club straight back so that when the club is parallel with the ground, the butt of the club is pointed at your target. At the same time, you should feel like your weight has begun to coil onto the inside of your back leg. From there, continue coiling onto your back leg, then uncoil your body onto your forward leg. You should be balanced and facing your target at the finish. Practice aiming slightly to the left of your target and hit 10-yard fades.

Gary is correct in that an overly strong left/right (depending on which side of the ball you are standing) hand grip will result in a closed clubface at impact. However, be aware that you are not releasing the lower body (spinning the hips) to early in the downswing. By spinning out early you create a sense of urgency with the arms. Often the result is one of two scenarios: you will hold the release through impact causing a push slice or you will flip the hands at impact in an effort to catch up to the hips causing the dreaded hook.

It seems that my grip had gotten a tad stronger than normal (about half a knuckle or so). The new grips on my woods are one size larger and I may have subconscously made an adjustment in the beginning when it was a little tough to turn the ball over. Once I had gotten used to the grips, I've been hooking it like a madman. Thnx for the tips!

Also it seems to me that a hook is one of the nastiest things that a golfer than fall prey to. Much worse than a slice IMO. Is this the reason some of the pros like Vijay open their drivers up to 5 deg?!?

Some pros have an open club face because as good as they are at striking the ball, they know that with an open clubface they can pretty much swing as hard as possible and not hook or in your case snap hook the ball.

A snap-hook can be attributed to an OTT (over the top) swing with a closed clubface. Do you ever have a dead pull shot?

I have an OTT swing. But I have always had it even when I was hitting fades/slices. My last move at the top of my backswing to get a little more rotation tends to rotate my left wrist towards the right.
Dead pull shots - not any more than before.
Mostly,
I'm snap-hooking 50% of my driver and 3 wood shots (i just put midsize crosslines in these). About 25% I'm hooking a good 20-40 yards left. And the rest 25% of the time I hit 5 to 10 yard draws. The thing that makes me think it's the large grips is that my irons are okay as I have the same old std tour velvet grips on those. I rarely ever have the ball launch to right or even to the left. It's almost always center (or near center).

I'm 95 % sure that an OTT swing with a closed clubface causes a dead left pull...not a snap hook. A snap hook is a ball that more or less starts off straight or slightly right of the target and quickly curves left of the target. An OTT and a closed clubface would not allow this type of ball flight.

The snap hook is caused by a closed club head and contacting the ball on the upswing in most casses.

Think of a lighter grip, like a surgeon performing heart surgery. This will put the club more in the fingers (this first feels like you have no control), but it will help keep you from closing the clubhead. Once the club is not closed then there is more surface area on the face of the club for the ball to contact causing a higher straighter
shot.

Your hips and legs may be overactive. Make sure your arms pass through first.