By David Clay
Director of Instruction,
Houston National Golf Academy

Have you ever hit a shank? This is when the ball hits the hozel (the part of the clubhead that the shaft goes into). The ball can go off at right angles for the right-hander and the opposite for the left-hander. It isn’t that rare of a shot, I’m afraid.

The real bad news is that it can happen to very good players, as well as the longer handicap person. If you aren’t sure what I mean, imagine you have hit one of your best tee shots and you are in the middle of the fairway with nothing between you and the pin except about 60 yards of green grass. You feel very confident and then hit it off the shank. The ball goes off at right angles and disappears into the trees. What looked like a certain par or better may now become a 6 or 7.

What’s the cure? There are several. The club as you come down on the downswing is too far behind you. It could also be that you are swinging too far outside the swing path. I’ve also seen people gripping too tight with the left hand which encourages the blade to stay open. Another thought, make sure you aren’t standing to close to the ball.

The quickest cure that I’ve seen was by my boss in England who had won The Open. He would get the student to address a ball and put a full-size house brick above the ball on the ground with the ball only far enough from the brick for the clubhead to miss the brick and hit the ball in the middle of the club. You can also get a similar result by putting tees in the ground on the far side of the ball about the length of a brick, and swing without hitting the tees. Whether you choose to use a brick or tees, you will find by having them there that the path of the shaft will square itself off.

One last thought, a gentleman came to me for a lesson to stop his shanking and said that he only shanked when he took a 6-iron off the 9th tee (a short hole). I suggested that he take a 5-iron and went 1/3rd of the way down the grip. He never shanked again.