You’ve worked hard all week while looking forward to that Saturday morning tee time just to step up to the first tee and duck hook one into the weeds to start your round.
Is this a situation that you can relate to? If so, read on to find out how you can stop duck hooking and enjoy the game more!
How to Stop Duck Hooking
What is a Duck Hook?
A duck hook is a golf shot that starts straight but quickly dives down and to the left for a right-handed player and right for a left-handed player.
The golf ball quickly heads into the ground after impact making it an extremely frustrating shot style.
This shot type has its own name because it’s different from a regular hook shot in the sense that it’s far more severe.
Instead of a regular hook shot that travels far through the air while tailing sharply to the left throughout the flight, a duck hook snaps hard left quickly once it’s in the air.
Not only is it a frustrating shot, but it will also leave you out of position immediately on that hole because a duck hook shot does not travel far.
The odds are, if you hit a duck hook off of the tee, it will be unlikely that you make par on that hole.
If you’re an avid golfer or even a beginner to the game, you’ve likely experienced a shot shape like this in the past so you know how deflating it can be. After we discuss a few tips and tricks in this article, you’ll be able to escape this dreaded shot!
How Does a Duck Hook Occur?
Like all golf shot types, a duck hook occurs when the players club path and clubface are incorrectly positioned. For a duck hook, the face position is overly closed which means the clubface will strike the side of the ball which causes the ball to overly spin.
Another factor in this shot is the club’s swing path which is the path that the clubhead travels on during the swing. In this case, the swing path is too far from the inside to the outside.
When considering that, you may think that an inside to outside swing path would cause the ball to go to the right but not when it’s combined with the closed clubface.
The side spin created by this contact and swing path is why you see the ball snap quickly down and to the left instead of high and long. This distinct flight makes a duck hook easy to spot which means you will know how to begin getting your swing back on track once you see this occurring repeatedly.
How Do I Stop Duck Hooking?
Now that we know what a duck hook is and what all of the common causes are, we can begin discussing how you can work on fixing and avoiding them all together. Like any swing issue you will ever try to solve, this will take time and practice before you will feel confident that you will avoid this shot.
Grip:
The first and one of the most important aspects of any golf swing is the grip. In order to have accurate and consistent golf shots, you need to have a proper golf grip because your grip is the controlling factor of the golf club.
If you experience a duck hook, check to see if your grip is too strong because a strong grip is the most common cause of this problem. A strong grip leads to a clubface that closes too much.
When referring to a strong grip, that means your right hand (for a right-handed player) has rotated too far to your right side. In order to fix this, rotate back to a neutral position. Being in a more neutral position will allow you to square the club and create solid contact more consistently.
Swing Path:
Another important thing to focus on when you’re practicing is your swing path as we had mentioned earlier. The swing path has a massive impact on the result of your shot because an incorrect swing path will put unwanted side spin on the ball.
This spin is what creates hooks, slices, and more severe shots like a duck hook.
To determine what your swing path looks like, you can video your swing from behind the next time you’re on the range. This will show you clearly if you are coming from inside to outside of the starting position or from outside to inside.
Each of these swing paths will create a far different ball flight so it’s important to know if this is the cause of your specific issue.
In the case of a duck hook, we will assume that an inside to outside path is your problem. This type of swing path is common if your arms and shoulders are rotating through faster than your lower body. If you work on syncing these two movements, you will improve your swing path.
Drills to Cure a Duck Hook:
Before we begin working towards fixing a duck hook, we should determine where on the face we are making contact because that contact position will tell us a lot about the results of the shot.
This can be determined by spraying your club with some athlete’s foot spray before hitting a shot.
Once you have the entire clubface sprayed, hit a shot and take a look at where the contact was.
One of the main contributing factors when hitting a duck hook is making contact too far towards the toe so if that’s you, focus on centering your strike.
The next thing you can work on is your swing path. If you have an issue with coming too far from the inside to the outside, put a tee or club cover in front of and slightly to the right of your golf ball at the address.
Then, avoid hitting the object on your way through. This will help you keep the club path on the correct line.
Finally, another thing that you can think about is the position of your clubface during your backswing. If your clubface is pointed towards the ground when your making your backswing, that would mean that the face is far too closed. This leads to a duck hook.
Instead of pointing the face back towards the ground, it should be pointed out in front of you with the toe slightly leaning forward when your lead arm becomes parallel with the ground. It’s important to not close the face too much when making your swing.
Bottom Line
Now that we have broken down the causes of a duck hook and the various ways you can determine the issues with your swing, it’s time to practice the information we’ve discussed.
Head to the range and get a handle on your duck hook by immediately getting to the root of the problem. Videoing your swing is another useful way for you to quickly determine the root of your duck hook.
Whether it’s a closed clubface, improper strike position, or just a swing plane problem, you will now have a solution that will work for you.
Be patient and as you work to fix this swing problem and be appreciative when you hit one way right with a slice because that means you’ve overcorrected the problem and you now have to find the middle ground.
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