So I went to the range yesterday

This happened to me recently and I found lining up the ball on the extreme toe of the club helped temporarily until I could really focus and get it straightened out

The shanks fricking suck.

Backing up a little and aiming for the bottom of the ball, putting more weight on your heels. Put a tee just above the ball and try not to even graze it when hitting.

There’s nothing more frustrating than the shanks and agree it feels like your whole swing is shite all the sudden. Sigh.

I played last week and shot 76.


I played yesterday and walked off after 9 holes of mishits and lost balls. I used to get these every now and again but haven’t had an outing like this in a few years.


My best strike of the day was thin and barely caught the grooves toe side. Was miserable.

There's hope.

Sometimes the lack of pressure of each shot on the range is a swing killer.

My range flaw is I try to kill every ball on the range. Tempo gets too fast, arms get too tight, swing falls apart.

If I get to the range and this starts happening, and I'm actually trying to work on something instead of just getting loose, I will start pitching the ball until I'm satisfied with good contact before moving back into full swings.

If you ask Ben Hogan, the putter stroke and the driver swing are the exact same, one just requires a longer backswing

I went through a period of shanks after not playing for a year and a half. I was cupping my wrist and early extending.

If you focus on a good backswing, keep neutral wrists at the top, keep lead arm extended, keep the right elbow connected, and rotate properly, they will disappear.

Most shanks with the wedge occur because of two things that are going on with the take away and downswing.

First, if you get too wristy and yank the club too much inside, the heel of the club is going to lead into the impact area. Result: hosle rocket.
To correct: take the club straight back away from the ball for at least 9 inches with no wrist action. This will cause your hands to rotate on the take away and thus allow you to come into the impact area with your hands rotating toward the target.

If that doesn't work, then one other thing that can cause the heel of the club to lead into the impact is that your right side is "diving" toward impact and yanking your left side up and out of the shot. Wedge shots and your short irons are not designed to be hit like the driver. Focus on keeping your spine in place and don't allow it to tilt back or forward at impact. Rotate the shoulders and keep the spine in place. Limited lower body action.

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Is there hope?

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You should take a few weeks off to forget, then quit…

I took a new role at work and have been extremely busy. Haven't gotten to hit a ball in nearly a month. Got out to the course today and played 18. I could tell on the range before it was going to be a fun one. I maybe had 5 solid strikes all day. I'm not great (13-14 hcp), but have been progressing and just needed to clean up some short game things to flirt with breaking 80. But I topped the ball off the tee like 4 or 5 times today. That never happens. Fat shots galore. Several so far on the toe I didn't even hit grooves. Putted like a champ because I've been playing on my putting mat when on conference calls . I knew I'd be bad today and never planned to take score. But it felt like day one picking up a club. Such an awkward feeling.