Three Reasons you could have developed a Hook

Posted under Swing Improvement

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A few rounds ago I developed a hook in my golf game. Adding a massive number of shots to my game over the past three rounds. I decided it was worthwhile getting a lesson to cure the new part of my game that was proving harder and harder to control. There are three main reasons you develop a hook and three areas of your game you can look at to cure the dreaded hook.

The hook comes from one of three areas:

The Club face
The Grip
The Body Alignment

Getting your club face aiming down the target line is important and getting the ball completely lined straight with the ball can be difficult if you are getting frustrated with the ongoing bad shots. There are some easy ways that you can do this. Most golf balls have a logo or some form of writing on the side of the ball.

Take time to point the line or the writing on the ball towards the target you want to aim at. In a number of cases it will be easy to line up the club with the ball so it is facing in the right direction as you will be lining up the club face to right angles of the writing.

Two tips, if your club has a line on the top or an arrow this will be to the flat of the club so you can line this up. Second tip is if your ball doesn’t have writing along it you can draw a line along it.

The grip is the most important part, this is the only contact you have with the club so it is essential to get it right and have it in a good position. To achieve this get the left hand on the top face of the grip with your left thumb running down just right of centre, this produces a V shape that points somewhere between the chin and the right shoulder. Put the right hand in and cover the left thumb, you will notice that this also produces a V shape.

If it is your grip that is causing a problem you might well have your left hand too far over the top of the grip and your thumb too far over to the right of the club, you will notice that the magic V points in the wrong direction when you don’t have this correct. This causes the club face to roll and puts the spin on the ball that causes the hook.

Finally the body alignment are you square to your target line? If your body is slightly out of alignment and not square to the shot then you will not be striking the ball with a flat club face. Your hands just will not roll fast enough to get the club flat against the ball meaning there will be spin on the ball causing it to move in an unwanted fashion from right to left.

Use your club out in front of you with your hands shoulder width apart and the club in each hand, you have already lined up the ball to where you want it to go using the writing on the ball as in the first method once your feet are aligned you can line up the club face and the grip.

If you have been hooking the ball you could try slowing your swing down until you are comfortable with your position then you can take your time and build up your club head speed once you have the posture, grip and club face position correct. Good Luck

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