[FASTLARRY]

How to Cure a Hook

The first thing you have to do is get your current hook hitting the fairway. Stop aiming down the middle of the fairway. Begin now aiming down the far right and give yourself the entire fairway to work with. Once you tame the hook you can go back to aiming normally.

Also temporarily let’s adjust your feet making it harder to hook. Let’s put you into a slice stance. A hook stance has the ball back, let’s move it up, forward even with your toe. The right foot is back inside the left, let’s move it forward, so it’s a little in front or over the line of the left foot. Think of a baseball park, you are now probably now swinging across the impact line towards left or even right field. Try and hit to right center field.

We now have your body pointing a little left and you hitting right to produce a straight shot. The two cancel each other out.

This is not as crazy as you think. Lee Trevino won a bunch of majors doing just this. He would go into a slice stance and then do a full release of his hands for power and there was no way he could hook the ball. It went straight with just a slight fade. He won all those majors by hitting a lot of tight fairways and keeping the ball in play.

Let’s now mentally try to swing into right center. I like to cure a slice by learning how to hook, and cure a hook, by learning how to slice. Once you know how to produce these bad shots on demand, you will then understand how they happen and you can then control and cure them. To hit a big hook you hit to right field and roll those wrists, to slice you hit to left field and hold the roll over into a block punch hit.

Being able to hit a wicked duck hook or a big banana slice is helpful when you are in the woods and have to bend the ball around a tree to get back in play. Learning how to work the ball should be your goal.

You'll often hear from veteran golfers and professionals that a golf slice is easier to "cure" than a hook. I definitely disagree and believe that the reasons for a slice and hook are very similar, just opposite.

A slice occurs when the club face is open at impact, and is often accentuated by an out-to-in swing. The result is literally a "slicing" through the ball. The more of an out-to-in swing, the more the ball trajectory first starts out on the inside of your body and then spins and fades away. The hook is the exact opposite. The club face is closed at impact, and is often coupled with an in-to-out swing, causing the ball to first travel away from your body, and then hook back around.

First let's concentrate on the club face at impact. Most hooks whether subtle or severe are caused by a closed club face. The reason is most likely due to premature wrist rotation. Your bottom thumb turns over too soon often before the club face makes contact with the ball/ground. This may be just due to turning your wrists over too soon, not following through with your hands to the target, or, in more severe cases, opening up your hips too soon.

The first step to curing a hook is to make sure your hands and wrists are in the correct position at impact with ball/ground. You absolutely must be sure your wrists are not turning over too soon. You can practice this by chipping. Use a high iron; try a 7 or 8 iron. Start by taking your normal chipping swing/motion. If your ball is hooking, you're most likely turning your wrists over. Practice with this same club until your chipping swing motion results in a straight trajectory.

Now it is time to concentrate on your body and weight shift. Using the same club, try a full swing. Still hooking the ball? The likely culprit is that your hands are leading your swing instead of your hips and legs. Your hands are coming through on your downswing too soon, instead of letting your hips and legs lead the way.

The best drill to correct this problem is to take a very slow back swing, exaggerate as much as needed, even come to a complete stop at the top of your backswing. This will make sure that on your downswing your hips and legs lead your arms. It is kind of like a chain reaction; your legs and hips start on the downswing, and naturally your hands and arms follow. You can let yourself sway, or move back or to the right on your backswing. Think of moving into a wall and you brace or stop using the right inside of your right foot. Your upper body coils and you move into the wall. Don’t stay in one place and just turn around your head. You lose the power of having your entire body move into the shot.

The downswing begins by pushing off the inside of that right foot, firing the legs, driving the legs into the shot. The hands here get a free ride, just let them drop naturally into the hitting position, or you can use only the left fingers to pull the club straight down and then at impact the right hand comes into the shot and the wrists roll over. The hooker needs to learn how to delay this and clearing the left side and holding the hands longer in the hit position is the answer.

Practice the slow backswing repeatedly. Start off with a half swing at first, and absolutely make sure that your wrists are kept straight, that they do not turn over before striking the ball/ground, and that your hands follow through to the target instead of around your body (like a baseball swing). With enough practice you will begin to feel the difference between your "hook swing" and a swing that results in a slight draw or better yet a straight trajectory.

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