How To Stop Hitting Straight Pulls

Don,

Have been a follower for the last 2 years and wanted to let you know that from struggling with 90 last week I had 2 sub 80 rounds (at 2 different courses both in the 6300 yard range.)  Your instructions have changed my game. Proof - my playing partners say I have become a machine.

Like today's question - from time to time I also have an "out side / in side " stroke.  This can happen with the driver down through a 9 iron.  Can you recommend any drills to help minimize.

 Dan K

Hi Don-  I followed DJ at the Traveler's Tournament yesterday and was totally dismayed (as was, I'm certain, DJ) at his performance with his putter.  To see such beautiful tee and approach shots wasted with terrible putts was really heart-breaking.  It's obvious that unless he makes some immediate improvement with his putting he will be attending Q school at the end of the season.  He could easily have been amongst the leaders at the end of the day had it not been for this crucial problem--especially a 2'6" putt for birdie on the 17th hole.  Perhaps a new putter or a session or two with Ben Crenshaw might be the answer.  As one of his most loyal fans here in CT I certainly hope he gets this problem straightened out.
Ray Gawlak

Sounds like you're having fun. JIC you haven't picked up this ferrule tip yet. Have a cup of hot water handy, micro wave, or from a whistling tea kettle as I use. Just start the ferrule on by hand, dip the ferrule and shaft tip into the hot water 15-30sec, then immediately slide the shaft into the club hosel and the ferrule will set to the proper length on the shaft. No ferrule setting tool are needed.

Ah ha! Maybe that would explain why all of my shots (regardless of club) are going 15yds right of my target. I know my feet alignment is correct because I use the aiming sticks and I'm pretty sure my shoulders are also correct, so maybe I have the ball a tad bit too far back in my stance. I'll be checking that out real quick.

Mike, I with you there.  Like the ad says "good enough is NEVER good enough".  Getting better is not a sprint, it's a marathon.  Maybe that's why we're all here. ;0)

Steve, You've got "game".  I'm struggling for "hacker" status.  I told my buddy yesterday..."If I ever learn to putt as well as I sweat you're in big trouble." lol.  We walked 18 in 99* heat on a pretty much empty course.  Nothing more distracting than having sweat drip off the bill of your cap onto the ball as you're standing over a putt.  ;0)

Hey Dan K,

Welcome to the site. I have this problem a lot, and in my case it's from several issues. Not sure if any of these will sound familiar to you. First, I have a bad tendency for my shoulders to be slightly open to my toe line, and second I have a tendency to straighten my forward leg and get the hip turning out a little too fast as I come through. These together lead me to a lot of dead pulls (and in the past led me to aim right of the actual target, as noted in my video lessons Dave Seeman did). I've taken some of the action "back to the drawing board." I had gotten away from my daily drills in front of my full-length mirror, but I'm getting back to them and focusing on drilling in the proper lateral left shift of my lower body in the bump. I tend to both move the hips laterally and begin to turn them at the same time. I'm also just being more careful with setting my shoulders square to the toe line, which is easily achieved by making sure the right elbow is drooped as in the master setup position in the video lessons.

If the cut stays where it is at Even DJ's birdie on the last hole was big.

It may be a band aid solution but something that I do on holes where a pull with the driver means disaster is to focus more on the " in the mitt " part of the FUS.  This seems to help me to better time the lateral bump followed by the turning of the hips and keep my shoulders more  parallel with the aiming line through impact.

Great tip T. I'll use that one in the future. Meanwhile I did stumble on the heating them up idea using the heat gun and clubhead to slide them on to correct spacing.
Guess everyone learns by a combination of trail and error and hopefully the help of a few good mentors.
Wishon and Maltby have been great help to me(have several books) along with lots of online videos.
I do hope to go to one or more of the 1-3 day clsses held by folks at Golfworks and or others.I will need to invest in shims as a few were slightly loose in their heads. As I said, I am having fun and do consider this all part of the large learning curve.
Some day I'll get the tools to measure swing speed and other swing and shaft characteristics. It's all about $$ for tools. Any more tips on tools and methodes are welcome. Thanks Terry (and anyone else that has experience:)

Edit;
BTW, good work on your 39's. I've gad fewer lately and more in the 40-42 range. Too many "what the heck!" shots with a variety of clubs. Sometimes it feels like another golfer has taken over my body! Lol :)

Great tips as always Surge....Thanks so much!!!  jgary

Robert, one thing I would suggest for your club making endeavors is to invest in a friction cut off wheel to fit a 6 inch grinder. I bought mine from Golfworks and it makes cutting both graphite and steel shafts a breeze. You won't regret it.

Steve, I can find where it squares up.  Can you help me find the extra 15-20 MPH?  ;0)

Surge, great video, this is definitely my problem, but still hitting the ball better & better, but all my good shots are left about 5-10degrees. It's not alignment as when
I'm on the range I use a club on the deck for that, not ball position because I use
another club at right angles to the other, not the grip as I've checked my knuckles,
not my follow through even though I aim slightly right to compensate, the ball flight
is either going dead straight or slightly left. So it seems the only thing left now to
check on a video is "club coming over slightly" or "shoulder alignment" or "hips to
active". Will report back later, LOL and if that doesn't work, then hopefully Greg
Macdonell will sort it out when I come over in August.     

D is that Dan?
Thanks for the tip. I will look at that cut off wheel. I appreciate and consider all good tips.

The main problem is your standing too close to the ball, after youv'e hit, LOL.

DJ's off to a decent start, One bog and one bird. Sits even par after 5 holes. Go Deej! Let's play well this week.

Try as I might, I cannot get the driver to launch a ball up in the air.  I started with at 10.5 degree driver and was able to hit it square last year.  This year, after a bout with tendinitis in my right arm (I am right handed) my tee goes further than my ball. HELP!!!

Actually it's Dale, I keep forgetting to sign. The cut off wheel is thin and flexible. I usually just zip through the shaft tips. On the butt end, I enter the cut then rotate the shaft against the tool rest. I always tape the shaft to mark the length and keep the graphite from fraying, but with the friction wheel there's less likely hood of that.

Dale

 Yea, I'll take some of that extra MPH too! I'm tired of always being the first to play their second shot. It sure would be nice to hit mid irons to the greens on par fours.

Thanks for the reminder. And, they have live coverage online of the 15th and 17th holes.

When I hit my drive it goes straight, but when it comes down and hits the ground it rolls to the left into the rough.

Robert;

Working as an industrial mechanical maintenance man for 30yrs, I concur with D for Dan on the versatility of abrasive cut off wheels and 4" grinders. I have use one frequently on all sorts of objects from bolts to pipes. I do not use one for golf, as I have a small compound miter saw and abrasive wheel on it which I use.

PS; EDIT; You probably already know this, but graphite can have a way of fraying when cut. I use a wrap of plastic electrical tape before cutting and also hit or bevel the cut edge very slightly on my bench grinder after cutting to smooth the edge. I also do this on steel shafts to get rid of the sharp edge cut line.

Wouldn't ball too far forward in stance cause a pull?

The only bogeys I complain about, are the gimmes, because I missed a very short par putt. I always figure I'm going to make a few pars a side, so nothing worse than a bogie is wonderful to me. It's those doubles and triples that are the killers. Especially when they're from a 3-putt or more.

Without seeing your swing in action, this would be a very hard problem to figure out. Have you taken video of your swing? I think a face-on view would be most useful for this problem. Are you having difficulty with any other clubs, or just whacking the tee out from under your ball?

T, I know the feeling.  A friend and I have a match play competition twice a week and he's easily 50 yards beyond me off the tee.  He's hitting wedge second shots to the green and I'm hitting hybrids.  It does get old.  If I'm on that day from 100 yard in I hold my own, otherwise I'm toast.   I won the last 2 times out so over the past 5 months he is one up.  The short game is definitely where it's at.  ;0)

Find a course with more right-sloping fairways. ;-)

Okay Terry, here's an update on the adventures of an amature club fitter. I'm having fun. It is more work than I anticipated. Boy do I have alot of respect for Lynn and all other accomplished club fitters. So yesterday I recieved the laser FLO finder and it was go time. First I removed all of the clubheads from Cindy's clubs and from two of my own. The plan was to use the same heads but with more appropriate shafts (low bend point and L). That went well. I have Maltby's shaft extractor and a heat gun (yes the one I burned my thumb with last week). That was last night. Then first thing this morning I took all the shafts (which I had already spined and marked) I then set up my vice and the laser on the first club. Interesting, as I went through them several actually had the flo point and spine at the same place on the shaft. Others were anywhere from 20-45* away from the marked spine location. One was nearly completely on the opposite side 70-80*. So I maked the line where the FLO points were. Of course all done on a strip of masking tape on each. Backing up a few hours I also had already removed the grips (to re use her nearly new grips)by air compressor and then measured and carefully marked the new uncut shafts to correct lengths then cut them this morning with my handy hack saw. All done carefully and precisely as possible.Okay,so after cutting,spining,FLOing I then Began the painstakingly slow process of preping the tips, making sure the farrels were a fit , then without epoxy, making sure hosels fit and were clean and ready. Then positioning clubhead with FLO point at 3 oclock then again on the pre taped masking tape marking a dot on the shaft and a dot on the head(hosel) aligned for instalation.Then preped epoxy and long story short attached head to shaft. Repeated this on all 12 of her set then on three of my own. This all took from 9am till 8:30 pm. Understand, 90% of this was a first time ever for me. Back hurts and I'm prone on the couch now. Tomorrow I will re-grip all 15 and hopefully in the afternoon take Cindy to the range with her clubs and my lie board. We'll do a dynamic lie fitting and then it's home and adjusting all her lies as needed.Then we hope to hit the golf course for a late ahfternoon round of golf and test out her new sticks along with my 3 wood, hybrid and new 8 iron. All three of those clubs are from my original set from last years PPGS fitting. Hoping I can hit the three wood with this new shaft. Same for the Adams hybrid. The Vega 8 iron is a ditto replacement head and with the same shaft. I broke the original 8 iron head a few months ago. Story for another day.
All in all it has gone fairly smoothly so far:)

My problem is a hook.  The ball starts out at the target and then hooks to the left.  What would be the cause of this?

Hard pull fading back definitely screams out-to-in swing, which is probably a result of Steve Smith's favorite thing to remind us all about--swinging AT the ball FROM the top. That's the big no-no that kills a lot of otherwise good swings, as it leads the body to do all sorts of bad things. This is where something like the Towel Drill or Ernest Jones' old drills with the penknife on the end of a kerchief come in handy. The pendulum motion required to make those drills work well is the same as you need to use for the swing, drop and swing up, don't swing down.

Hit my irons solid.  Also having trouble with 3 wood.  My former golf teacher used to tell me that it was the same swing for every club.  That is why I am wondering why I can hit irons but I can't seem to make decent contact with driver or 3 wood.

 Fully agree. Do a club fitting.

To hook the ball, the face of the club has to be pointed left of the path of the club. Double check your grip on the club to be sure that you're not holding it with the face closed.

Have you measured the clubs? There's a good possibility that they're just too long for your body to swing vertically properly.

I totally agree. I had two gimme's yesterday within 6". One for a 4 par, and the other for birdie on a 5 par. Both shots from around 85yds with my G/W.

I have little problem keeping the ball in play now a days, but without some level of ability in the short game arena I'd never be able to compete straight up with most of my crowd.

I had low score yesterday on the front, another 39, but kind of fatigued myself to a 44 on the back, which still tied for second and gave me the low for all 18. Heading out for my Thur morning league shortly and hope to do well. One of these days I must get some range time in. I do however use the SwingRite and SwingTech Plane Trainer indoors from time to time.

Still too many 3 putts also. Some greens are just tough to putt.