If you haven't been fit for your driver, I would start there. You could have the wrong shaft for your swing. For a quick fix, try weakening your left hand on the grip, in effect opening the face of your driver. This, if done properly, should add height to your drives and eliminate your hook. Spend some time at the range to figure out how much to weaken your left hand grip.

Matt,

There are many causes for a hook and without seeing your swing it is difficult to pinpoint the nature of the problem. One thing I would look at first is ball position. Is it positioned inline with your armpit? If the is is OK, then you might want to check how high your ball is teed up. Tee your ball high enough so half the ball extends above the top of the club head when the clubhead is resting on the ground behind the ball. A little higher is OK though. Also, assuming you have an average swing speed (around 100MPH), try to change your swing so you are hitting up on the ball at impact. Another thing that will straighten the ball out is to change the swing plane so you are hitting on a higher swing plane than your current swing. Try to position your hands a little higher at the top of the swing. Try to get hands above your head at the top of your swing. One other thing you can check is your grip. Position your grip so the V's formed between you thumb and index finger point toward your right eye at address (assuming you are right-handed golfer). I think if you experiment with some of these changes there's a good chance you will effect your ball flight so you're hitting more fairways. Finally, if none of this helps, try to bring the grip handle down pointing toward the ball from the top of the swing. Experiment by trying to hold the grip pointing at the ball for as long as you can, arms normally extended, before you finally release the clubhead.

Good Luck,

DV

I believe you have the wrong shaft (need one with a softer flex and higher launch angle) as a starting point. By getting fitted at a Titleist Fitter you will gain the confidence that you have the correct equipment for your game, then the rest is up to you with lessons and hard work! Good Luck!!

Going to a retailer and just fitting a club to what you bring in won't be as beneficial as a pro that can also make suggestions to make some quick corrections, be it gripping or swing plane, as well as finding the loft and shaft for your swing. Hooking may be releasing the club early so the face closes. But I'm not an instructor - see a well-regarded pro shop.

Matthew,

I had a very similar shot description earlier this summer. Without seeing your swing it is hard to know what is going on so I will describe what issue I had but not sure if it is relatable. For me, the undesirable miss was a combination of two issues, first, I was blocking my hips. I started this habit as a result of a slice that I had a few years ago. I strengthened my grip to straighten out a slice so now if I don't turn my hips and shoulders all the way through, I will release the club early with a strong grip creating a low hook shot shape. The second issue was a lack of unison in my hands. I am a right handed player that focused on my left hand to control the club face creating a lazy right hand. This resulted in me swiping up on the ball at impact which created undesirable top spin. I now focus on driving through the ball with the pad on my palm beneath my index and middle finger. These two swing thoughts (turn through and pressure with right palm) have really helped me drive longer, higher, and straighter. I am no coach and have got some good advice from others that helped me and am hoping this may help as well :)

Best of luck and happy golfing!

Justin

There are so many possibilities. As the guys have mentioned above, you have one of 2 issues, and in my opinion, you have a swing path problem first, a face problem 2nd.......As Justin mentioned, just the timing of the hands can get us in trouble. If you swing out to in, with passive hands, you'll hit the low draw. Aggressive hands are gonna produce a hook. As Don said, and my friends LAUGH at me for doing it, find an instructor and forge a relationship.........That relationship is why I can just call him and he knows my swing, my faults, and the cause.....It's actually pretty funny, him laughing at me when I tell him whats going on.......

Chances are this is a simple fix. Ask a good player you know to look at your setup and swing. If you can't do that, ask your pro. It's may cost you a lesson but will be worth it in more enjoyment.

If you can't do either, let me ask, are you pushing or pulling the shot? I noticed you have a Regular shaft and this can cause a hook on its own, although typically, this will not fly significantly lower. If you are also pulling the ball and hitting a low hook chances are you are starting down with your arms/hands then, sliding your hips such that you deloft the shot and pull it. As you start down, make your hips initiate the downswing and feel as though you are swinging past your chin. This should keep you "behind the ball" and launch it higher. One note: The position of the forward shoulder joint at impact relative to the ball dictates the low point in the swing. If the shoulder joint is behind the ball at impact, you will automatically swing "up" and launch a driver shot higher with less spin. If the shoulder joint is forward of the ball at impact, you will hit hit down on the ball, launching the ball lower with more spin.

Update on this situation: I have weakened my grip to a more neutral grip and have eliminated the low hook but now I have the trajectory that I want with the dreaded slice. How do I fix my slice and turn it into either a draw or a slight fade? Could I adjust my stance to a more closed stance?

Matt,

At this point you really should see a certified PGA teaching pro to get you on the right track. There are no miracle cures or quick fix tips that anyone can give you that will work without seeing your swing. This is the best advice anyone can give you.

Best Wishes,

DV

Spray your driver head with foot powder or
Tape to see where your striking the ball on the
Face of your driver.

See a pro at the course where you play. Hard to determine your particular issue on this site without actually seeing you swing the club. Could be a number of issues. A pro can fix it pretty quickly and you can go out a have fun playing golf. Pretty sure it is a swing issue, but someone needs to watch you hit the ball a few times. With respect.

Do you have trackman numbers? Someone who struggled with big hooks I didn't understand why but a couple of sessions on trackman gave me new insight that I never had before.

Make sure you're not coming over the top. That explains the slice, but an OTT swing that's square, but off the toe can cause a low hook as well. I know this shot well when I don't play often.

Excerpt from the August 8, 1955 edition of Life Magazine [Ben Hogan's 1955 Life Magazine Interview regarding his "secret" to fix his hook]:

"The two adjustments had transformed pronation into a bonanza for me. They were so delicate that no one would ever think of looking for them-and I certainly was not going to tell anybody where to look. The first was in the grip. I moved my left hand one eighth to one fourth to the left so that the thumb was almost directly on top of the shaft. The second adjustment, which is the real meat of the “secret”, was nothing more than a twist or a cocking of the left wrist.
I cupped the wrist gradually backward and inward on the backswing so that the wrist formed a slight V at the top of the swing. The angle was not more than four to six degrees, almost invisible to the human eye. This simple maneuver, in addition to the pronation, had the effect of opening the face of the club to the widest practical extreme at the top of the swing.
At this point the swing had been made hook proof. No matter how much wrist I put into the downswing, no matter how hard I swung or how hard I tried to roll into and through the ball, the face of the club could not close fast enough to become absolutely square at the moment of impact. The result was that lovely, long-fading ball which is a highly effective weapon on any golf course."

Take a stick, old golf shaft, whatever and stick it in the ground about six feet in front of your ball on a direct line to the hole (or target) . Standing directly behind the ball. Line up the stick, ball, and flag (or target). We agree that you need to hit the ball through or over the stick to be on an exact line to the hole or target, right? guide: golf-tipsandfacts.com/.../

Now grab your driver and address the ball. You know you have to hit it over or through the stick, right? The geometry hasn’t changed. But from your vantage point at address, that stick is going to feel very far right of target. Keeping the club on that path is necessary to hit the ball on the line to the hole, but it will feel like you are hitting a big block to the right. If it were baseball, you would be aiming over the right-field wall.

The problem is that our brain doesn’t think that over the stick is the line to the hole. It is going to tell you it is very much left of the stick. It isn’t, and we can stand directly behind the ball to confirm it, but the brain is a damn liar. The result is a club path that is left of target. To get left, the club has to go “over the top”, which is not on the plane it needs to be and results in a club face that is closed to the path of the club. The result is a left to left shot.

Some people get away with this because the club face is square to the target, but since the path is from outside to in, it is open to the target line. The ball starts off reasonable straight because of the open face (open to club path, square to target line) but will have side spin and slice.

I have been able to fix 90% of people’s slices and over-the-top swings simply by pointing out this geometry fact to them. No swing changes are required; just knowing where to hit will change the swing on its own.

A hook is caused by a super closed club face as well as probably flipping the hands and wrists through impact.

I would suggest having a look at your grip, making sure it's not hook biased then practice hitting shots where the club face is open through impact.

The low ball flight is because you're likely hitting down on the ball. Place a head cover 10 inches past the ball and try not to hit the head cover, this will promote an angle of attack of hitting up on it.

Hope this is useful.

Haha. I came back to see if the OP had any luck with his swing and realized the post came from 2016.

Correcto. Dates of original posts are at the top; October 03, 2016 at 12:58 AM By Matthew J. Sometimes we just want to help, which is what the site is all about and did not look at the date. Have been guilty myself. No worries. With respect. Hopefully he went to a pro and got that fast over the top swing worked out. Cheers.