Here’s your self-help drill and on-course correction.
One day you are warming up on the driving range or getting ready to hit an iron shot from the middle of the fairway and – bam! – you clank one off the hosel and the ball goes sideways. If you do it once, you might shake it off and go on like it never happened. But what do you do when it happens again and again and again?
The first step is admitting you have a problem – you’ve got the shanks.
A shank is the result of the hands and, in turn, the clubhead being further from the body than they were at address. It’s typically caused by your weight shifting too much into the toes as you swing down. It could also be caused by standing too close to the ball at address, but that weight shift is the typical cause and a real issue.
To fix the shanks, first take a few deep breaths. This is a fault with two easy remedies. On the range, place two balls down side-by-side and address the one closer to your feet [above]. Your goal is to hit shots without hitting the outside ball. That should help keep you from drifting into your toes.
Obviously you can’t put two balls out on the course, so if you’re shanking mid-round, address your shots with your toes off the ground [feature image]. This sets weight more in your heels and makes it impossible to shift towards the ball in the downswing.
The thing to remember is that the shanks are usually temporary, so you should be able to fix them quickly. – with Ron Kaspriske
David Leadbetter is one of Golf Digest’s Legends of Golf Instruction.
