Left.

[Augster]

Cure it please!

All of my short iron shots, it seems, end up left of the target. Unless I get lucky and push it.

I have been messing around with various things this spring(setup, hipturn, staying inside, not letting the wrists break down) and now I am, seemingly, finally making better contact.

Unfortunately every shot is left of the target. I just hit 100 SW's to a target flag around 100yards away. I would say that about 15 were well left, and short, 50 were a little less left, maybe 7-10 yards (20-30ft), 25 were left between 3-20 ft (with the majority over 10 ft.) 5 were dead online, or just a little bit right of the stick (maybe 6 ft), 1 was skulled, 2 were fat, and two were, well, "hoselled".

Out of 100 balls, from 100 yards, I'd say I had 4 that would have been easy birdies (within 3 feet). The rest were mostly two-putters. Not very good from 100 yards from a lie on a mat.

I was working with firing my hip faster, restricting my hip turn, making sure I came from the inside, messing around with my takeaway path. Left, left, left.

The sad thing is that almost all the shots "felt good". I have been working on making better contact on the face, and with only 1 skull, I think I did that. Then I'd look up, and see it's not going at the flag at all. Frustrating.

Thanks for any help.

[Bravo]

Are you sure you are not aiming left?? Have you tried setting up on the range with a club on the ground infront of your feet to see if you are aimed at the target??

[Augster]

Yes sir.

I have my 3 iron at my toes online, parallel left. My grooves start perpendicular to that club and my heels, toes and shoulders are parallel also to the club. At least, they seem to be to me.

The sad part is that after I get sick of being left, 20 balls or so, I shift everything and aim 5 yards right of the stick. I still end up left of the stick. It's more of a seemingly incurable pull. Some worse than others.

My finish position (not at the top, 90* through) with the club is left. It feels like crap.

When I do the "L-Drill" from Tour Tempo I can hit it straight down the line much more often than with a full swing. I can keep my 90* through position (the finish position of the L-Drill) much more parallel to the target line. As a matter of fact, last weekend that's how I hit all my irons it was working on the range so well. But during the round, the lefts creeped into the L-Drill swings also. So not only was I using a bigger club, increasing difficulty, to get the same yardage, I was ending up left anyway.

Thanks for any help.

[Rockford35]

What shafts are you using? Perhaps you have shafts that are too soft for you. Which means you're getting the head through the ball quicker than you should be, resulting in a pull.

Maybe try a different shaft, see if that shakes it. It's a shot in the dark, but sometimes it's the simple things we take for granted that make all the difference.

Cheers,

R35

[bdcrowe]

Just to be nitpicky... But usually a shaft that is too soft will go left and too stiff will go right. For R handed golfers.

[Quentin]

I would look at two things.

First, when you set up is the clubface itself aimed at the target. You'll see a lot of the pros line up that way by first setting the club behind the ball and aimed at the target, then they set up to the ball. It may just be that your clubface is aiming a little left.

The other thing you want to do is follow through to the target with your club...don't pull it it to the left after contact, which could be causing this entire incident.

~QQ

[mediaguru]

Are they all dead straight left? Or are they starting out center and hooking left, or starting out way left and cutting back?

You may want to try to produce an inside out swing.

[Rockford35]

Originally Posted by bdcrowe

Just to be nitpicky... But usually a shaft that is too soft will go left and too stiff will go right. For R handed golfers.

Thanks. That's twice now I've done that here. Required changes have been made to the original post.

I think it's a Freudian thing.....or I'm an idiot....more than likely the latter...

R35

[bdcrowe]

Originally Posted by rockford35

Thanks. That's twice now I've done that here. Required changes have been made to the original post.

I think it's a Freudian thing.....or I'm an idiot....more than likely the latter...

R35

Let's just go with Freud. That dude was messed up wicked bad! Gotta admire that.

[Rockford35]

I bet he had a stiff shaft.

Take that for whatever you wanna read into it.

R35

[jc@bg]

I played for years with the same malady. Fortunately, not all of my short irons went left all the time, but way too often, they did. In my case, they were over-the-top, dead pulls. Oh, yeah! They felt great. Dead pulls are always flushed. This may or may not be the case with you, but if there's any chance that ott pulls are your problem, I eventually determined that *MY* problem was an over-active right hand that took over the club in the transition from backswing to downswing and got the club outside the swing plane. From there, the only way the shot can go (especially if you swing smoothly through the finish) is left. OTT pulls are particularly prevalent with short irons, because our swings tend to get more upright/vertical as the clubs become shorter.

Here's what helps me, and I'll warn you in advance, you may find it radical. If so, don't do it, but it works for me. I saw a segment last year with David Toms (or somebody) who said that when his right hand got over-active in the swing, he'd change his grip to a double overlap. That is, instead of just the "pinky" of the right hand fitting into a groove between two fingers of the left hand (the standard overlap grip), you place *two* fingers of the right hand into the grooves between fingers of the left hand. Heck, if you're strong enough, you could even do a triple overlap! When I overlap two fingers of the right hand (placing them on top of the finger grooves of the left hand), I instantly decrease right-hand control by about 60%. The right hand still is on the club enough (two fingers and a thumb) to reasonably hold the club on plane at the top of the swing and to provide all the power you need through the hitting zone--although the club may feel a little "loose" at the top to you for a while. This is a good thing, however, because feeling a little loose (as long as the club doesn't severely cross the plane at the top or fly downrange when you hit through the ball) really improves your ability to release the club through impact.

I get much more of a SWISH through impact with the double-overlap, definitely release the club better, and, because the right hand isn't pulling the club in strange directions just before impact, generally make much more solid contact. If you try it for a while and then the ball starts going right, you're probably not releasing the club sufficiently through impact, but you can always go back to your previous/favorite grip if you want. The pro who mentioned this grip adjustment said, I believe, that he occasionally practices with the all four fingers of the right hand resting on top of the left. I'm not sure I could make a full swing with just the left hand on the club (and the right thumb) without throwing the club down-range and beaning someone. But I'll tell you what: if you could practice that kind of left-hand control for a while, I'm sure it would do wonders for your swing plane. Left hand control rocks!

[Farquod]

You could check your swing path. Get a 2' length of 2x4, and set it up (standing on the 2" side) maybe 1-1.5" behind the ball. Like this:


==========
o

Change the ball placement depending on the iron, but never right of middle (for a right hander). This setup will tell you if you're coming over the top. You'll find you'll straighten your approach pretty quickly after smacking the 2X4 a few times.

NOTE: Be sure to ONLY USE METAL-SHAFTED IRONS for this drill. Don't ever use this with a wood.

[dave.]

Bad shots for good players invariably go left.There are many reasons,best to get a pro to check things out.There is absolutley no point trying to diagnose the fault of the internet.Although you could list the common reasons and using trial and error on the range try and narrow it down.

[Augster]

Thanks for the advice gents!

Double-overlap eh? I will give it a try, I can't get any worse.

I had thought I had cured it on the range yesterday. In another thread of mine, I mentioned that I had read a setup tip that says, "Your right elbow should be closer to your body than your left."

In my setup, it was just NOT the case. So I have been closing down the left shoulder, and closing it down, and closing, until it feels to me that my shoulders are pointing well, well right of the target. My right elbow is finally closer to my body than my left.

Then I start flushing everything on the range. 20 straight SW's I flushed right at the stick. Did the same thing with the driver. Deep with a nice draw. Cured.

So I go out for 9 today, and it's not exactly back. I was puring the ball, but there was too much hook on it. Much better than that stupid pull left I had been playing with.

I think I made a grip change also yesterday at the range, along with the setup change, and forgot to change my grip today on the course. I'll have to start writing all the crap I change at the range on a 5"x7" card so that when I get to the course, I can just check the card before each shot.

[Silver]

so basically you're correcting your pull by aiming way right? or are you just compensating?