Aim right, hit left - how?

[Maninblack4612]

I am plagued by wedge shots which go left. At the range yesterday I was doing it & noticed that I was lining up to the right of target, hips, shoulders, feet, everything. So I made a conscious effort to line up on the target & all of a sudden I was hitting most of them straight. Even the ones which went left were only slightly left.

I have been told by a pro in the past that I go back too far inside & flip the club at impact. Have been trying very hard to correct this & just wonder if, when I line up right, that I'm subconsciously flipping the clubhead to bring that ball back on line.

Also, strangely, the steeper I get my backswing, a very unnatural feeling for me, the less I seem to pull shots.

Struggling to understand what is happening.

 

[fundy]

When I was fighting the hooks and saw Alistair Davies he made me focus on swinging left. Rationale was that I hit a hook, so to compensate I would aim further right (swing path), however with club face still aimed at target it would just create a bigger disparity between path and clubface leading to a bigger hook. Also because I was aiming so far right I would sub consciously flip it more with the hands to bringback to target.

So the argument was to learn to swing left to neutralise the path greatly and focus on keeping the clubface as square as possible (and obviously not flipping it)

Sounds totally counter intuitive but works (apart from the occasional double cross where swing left and flip the hands, dont bother looking for it lol)

 

[fundy]

also, check your ball position, the more my path came from the inside the more i shifted the ball position forward to give myself room to flip it, again this is counter productive as results in a clubface that is more closed than intended

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Bill, I was doing the same for a spell. My son pointed out that I was closed off and so my swing was compensating without me realising. He got me to open up, actually line up correctly but in my head it feels open, and suddenly they are much straighter. Not every time but much better. Funny old game.

 

[bobmac]

It's similar to the slicer aiming further left and slicing it more.
Aim straight or even a little left and maybe weaken the grip a touch and your subconscious won't want to flip

 

[patricks148]

It's similar to the slicer aiming further left and slicing it more.
Aim straight or even a little left and maybe weaken the grip a touch and your subconscious won't want to flip

What about sliding the hips Bob, could this be a cause too?

 

[bobmac]

What about sliding the hips Bob, could this be a cause too?

On the downswing you mean?
It could be one of several reasons.

 

[patricks148]

On the downswing you mean?
It could be one of several reasons.

Yes, its one of my faults when i hit a pull.

But like you say could be a number of things

 

[the_coach]

always a bunch easier to pull short irons & wedges

aimed a tad rightfield but wanting to hit straighter to target (as opposed to hitting a small draw shape)
easy for the subconscious to kick in with brain saying need to get this club more leftfield - so usually this means the upper body shoulders arms start transition so trail shoulder stays a tad high & arms pull a tad left - with short irons though it's still a ways easy to swing this way even to the 'magic 0º path' but if the face looks even a tad left the ball is goin leftfield all day

a flip could happen but usually that's down to not rotating hips/body through the shot
so stay a bunch square with a bit of a straighten up of posture - or in this case body/hips maybes even tad a rightfield at impact but then ways easy for the clubhead to then arrive prior to hands - not an 'active' flip but the player it's just the weight n' speed of the club head against a body that has not cleared any or enough so a flip type release - face looks left

if set-up rightfield with short irons folks then have to make an intended swing path along that footline so rightfield with the face angle looking a tad leftfield of path & then can hit a soft draw

much easier to hit a wedge 'straight(er) to target' with the lead foot flared to target a tad (instead of at 90º) & hip line just a tad open so the body the can rotate left through the shot this then sends the shaft club head down n'out to a 'square' impact - straighter shot - no pull

one other thing worth checking is with a short iron/wedge if the posture has got a tad 'over-bent' so hands low at set-up - something a ways easy to do with wedge set-up so the toe of the wedge is 'up' more than it should be

as if that is the case even though the leading edge may still look square to target line because wedges very short irons have a good bunch of loft - set-up like that low hands the loft on the face will be looking left - again you can swing 0º even +1º but that ball is goin left all day

important to wedge(short iron( set-up with a decent posture height - hands/handle held 'up' through using the proper club lie angle at set-up (so not low down lot closer to the legs with toe up)

 

[Maninblack4612]

Thanks for the replies, folks. This rang a bell:

so usually this means the upper body shoulders arms start transition so trail shoulder stays a tad high & arms pull a tad left -

With the longer clubs, my downswing thought is to start by turning the shoulders & upper body towards the hole, a la Jim "One Plane" Hardy. With the wedge I found myself starting the downswing with the arms, resulting in the right shoulder going onto the outside. When I do this with the longer clubs I get a pull or a slice. Easy to understand why this is a pull with the shorter clubs.

Works on the range, we'll see how it goes on the course this afternoon.

 

[the_coach]

Thanks for the replies, folks. This rang a bell:

Originally Posted by the_coach
so usually this means the upper body shoulders arms start transition so trail shoulder stays a tad high & arms pull a tad left -

With the longer clubs, my downswing thought is to start by turning the shoulders & upper body towards the hole, a la Jim "One Plane" Hardy. With the wedge I found myself starting the downswing with the arms, resulting in the right shoulder going onto the outside. When I do this with the longer clubs I get a pull or a slice. Easy to understand why this is a pull with the shorter clubs.

Works on the range, we'll see how it goes on the course this afternoon.

yep real easy with the shorter irons/wedges cause the swing length is naturally shorter to get a tad out of sync - trail shoulder stays high & moves out a tad - then the arms/club go leftfield some

but just takes a real small timing error to make what appears & feels to be a pretty good pass at the ball turn into a pull
why pulls with the full shots with short irons/wedges are pretty common out on Tour

hope you started to get it ironed out some

 

[Maninblack4612]

hope you started to get it ironed out some

So so today. Missed one 70 yard wedge shot 10yards right!