Fault Fixing: Hook Shots

1. The Cause
o A hook is a ball flight that starts right of the intended target and then bends quickly to
the left in flight. It often produces a lower and longer flight than normal.

o A hook is commonly caused by an inside to outside swing path and a closed club
face. This puts a large amount of anticlockwise spin on the ball.

o If you tend to hook the ball, the 3 areas you need to pay attention to are your
alignment, your grip and your swing path. By focusing on these areas you should
be able to control your hook so that it becomes a nice draw, a straight shot or even a
controlled fade.

2. Check Your Alignment

o If you have a recurring problem with hooking the ball, this is the
first thing to check. At the range, or even at home, lay a club
along the ball-to-target line and a club along the line of your
toes.

o Once you’re sure your feet are parallel to the ball-to-target line,
take another club and hold it against your knees, hips and
shoulders to make sure they are square also. It can help having
a friend to look down the line and check your alignment as you
set up.

3. Check Your Grip

o A hook shot is often caused or exaggerated by a strong grip. Check that your hands
sit on the club in a neutral position.

o Check that you have no more than two and a half knuckles of the top hand
showing at address, and that the V you create between your thumb and forefinger of
your bottom hand points to your chin.

2 or 21/2 3 or 4 V points V points

knuckles knuckles to chin over right
visible when visible when shoulder
you look you look

Neutral Strong Neutral Strong

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4. Check Your Swing Path

o A hook shot is often caused by a club that swings too

much from the inside path, therefore starting the ball
too far to the right and relying on excessive hand
rotation to hook the ball back.

Too much on an ‘inside path’. Also

called an in-to-out swing path

Swing path that runs more along the

ball-to-target line

o If you feel that your swing is too flat and the club is too far behind you in the down
swing, try to encourage the club to stay in front of your body more during the
transition and throughout the downswing.

Swing 1 – notice how the club never breaks through the blue line? This is an ideal swing plane.

Swing 2 – here the club breaks through the blue line and gets very flat (particularly in image 4).
This will cause the ball to start too far to the right and encourages a lot of hand and forearm
rotation to bring the ball back left. The result is often a strong hook.

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5. Anti-Hook Drill #1

o Taking one of your mid irons, make some pitching-type practice

swings. Feel how your hands don’t want to rotate during the
follow through phase as much as they would for a full swing.

o Take the club through to hip height on the follow through and
make a note of the clubface position. Try to keep the blade of
the clubface aiming up to the sky and avoid letting the face roll
over.

o At the range you can make quite a few of these practice swings
before you hit any golf balls. It will help you to get a feel for
holding your hands off from rotating. You can then move on to
the drill below.

6. Anti-Hook Drill #2
o Start by setting up to a ball as
normal and then measure one club
length down the target line, and
place a ball at the end of this club.

o Next, place 3 balls alongside

about 4-6 inches apart (or the
width of a club head)

o Start by pitching the ball you’re set

up to over the furthest ball - this
should produce a big block shot
out to the right.

o Continue hitting pitch shots over the furthest golf ball until you feel you are
competent at this block shot

o Now increase the power and start aiming your shots over the second ball.

o Again when you feel competent, repeat the process with the next ball and then the
next ball. Each time increase the power and gradually increase the amount of
forearm rotation. You should feel that you gain a valuable education over how much
you need to rotate your hands and when they should rotate in order to control your
hooking tendencies.

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