Shanking at The Range

[Papaferri]

This year I really decided to get back into my golf and I played 50+ rounds on 23 different courses in the north west of England. My average score (to par) was 8.4 and my best round was a 73 (+1) at Pike Fold in Manchester. Now winter is on the way and the weather has turned I thought I'd move from the course on to the range, which I'd never previously done, and just keep my swing ticking over until spring. I got there, got my PW out, hit my first shot fairly solid and then preceded to stone cold shank the next 25 shots in a row. And, I know no shanks are good, but these were horrific. They were so bad in fact that I could hear the young lads in the next bay laughing. I literally couldn't get the ball in the air. I just couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong.

The next day, in a panic, I went for a round at my local club to see if I had a problem. I shot a pretty good 81 in tough conditions and, other than a couple of slightly heavy wedges, I didn't really hit any bad shots. So, full of renewed confidence, Friday night I went back to the range. And, it happened again. Shank, after shank, after shank. It's so weird.

Has anyone else had a similar problem or does anyone have any thoughts on why this might be happening? I've never been a big fan of mats but not to the extent that I can't hit the ball off of them. My only theory is that the bays at the range are quite enclosed and I'm not swinging freely as, subconsciously, I think that I may hit the wall/roof. I guess I can just be thankful that I'm doing it this way round: shanking at the range rather than the course.

I did the very same today and have done before.
The wind on the range was strong left to right. I his 30 shots to dial in my 40 yard chips with 52 degree wedge. All shots were fading 7 feet.
Aiming left improved my dispersion to above 80%. But the first warning was ignored. I hit 5 pitching irons with confidence to distance, but with 20 foot fade. Instead of just aiming left or abandoning practice of that club, I niavely thought I could fix the slice with my limited skill set. I immediately shanked the ball at an angle of 30 degrees and proceeded to do it another 5 times, no matter what fix I adopted. After much reflection I concluded that the more I thought about avoiding a shank, the more my body or arms made the wrong adjustments. It's purely subconscious and never repeats itself on the golf course.
So, I do intend to go to the range.
But work with my natural fade tendency and within my skill set.
Only someone who can choose a fade or draw shape could fix what I was experiencing. Happy golfing !

 

[Papaferri]

After suffering the same fate, I remembered my pro telling me to do something that sounded counter intuitive to me in his lesson to find club center contact.
So I set up in my normal stance, but with the heal of the club forward of the ball. Then I pulled the club towards me until the centre of the club face aligned with the centre of the ball. I trusted that I would find the ball purely by focusing on it as the target. It worked immediately, as I struck another 5 shots that were on target and 15 yards longer.
Sometimes I think I'm uncoachable...lol