This might be asking for the holy grail, but anyone got any tips for eliminating big left/right misses?
I’m talking 50+ yards offline with driver - shot shape on these misses is usually push-slice or pull-hook which makes me think its a clubface issue. Nevertheless, these shots have always been the bane of my golf game. It gets really hard to score well when you start racking up the penalty strokes. I tried the whole “swing 80%” thing last year but was just as wild.
I struggled with this for a long time, but I believe I now have it under control. I think the big two way miss comes from early extension, stalling the hips, getting stuck, and having to rely on flipping the wrists through impact. Work on clearing the hips and neutralizing your swing path, if that makes sense. You got this!
Big key is how often is it happening? Multiple times per round would mean there’s some type of swing issue that probably could use some coaching. Once a round or every few rounds? That’s just kind of golf, have to not let it affect your confidence on the next drive and move on from it.
Its definitely multiple times per round on average. Good days I can go a whole round without one, but then there are days like today where I had five or six.
I average roughly 3.5 penalty strokes per round, which I’ve come to find out is extremely high for a single-digit handicap (albeit high single-digit). The vast majority of these penalty strokes are the result of a huge miss right or a huge miss left.
I’m right there with you on this, I often hit a big slice into the next fairway. I’ve struggled too is that costing me more strokes than if I were to lay up? I’ve continued to hit driver based on what I’ve read and heard. It’s frustrating though for sure.
Do you have a goto club?
Mine is a 19° degree 3 hybrid which goes around 220.
I say this because if my driver isn’t working on that day, or i am playing a particular hole that i have had previous issues with, i know if I use this club I’m pretty safe and it relaxes me before addressing the ball.
Obviously you need to work on your misses, but more will agree having a stock goto shot will help.
The big misses are usually a clubface issue (where is it pointing at impact). I wish I had a fix for you, but if you really want to know the answer in your swing, lessons can likely give you the answer.
What’s your ball flight like the rest of the time? Draw? Fade?
One of my goals for the off season is to find a 0 degree path… not to play on the course, but to ingrain the feeling of swinging down the middle. From there I will figure out what feels more natural, and play that path / shot shape.
I think this will help me eliminate big misses as it will keep my path closer to neutral, which will mean my club face will be the only thing to send the ball far off line.
That and big, bad swings…
3.5 penalty strokes is high for a single digit, so I highly recommend finding a solution that works for you. Trying to get your miss down to one side would be a huge start.
Almost all of us have swing faults, and almost all of us have compensations in our swing to correct for the swing faults. compensations, by their nature, tend to be inconsistent. The better your mechanics, the fewer and less severe the faults are, the fewer compensations needed. The fewer the compensations, the less chance of mis-timing the compensation, and the less severe the results of that mis-timing. Get good instruction, work on improving your mechanics.
Push-slice and pull-hook definitely sounds like a clubface issue. But what’s causing that? Are you stalling and flipping, rotating the clubface hard through impact? That certainly sounds like one thing that could cause both of those big misses. But I’m no instructor, I imagine there are lots of potential causes.
For many players, its not about how good your good shots are, its how bad your bad shots are. Improving your swing will improve the level of your bad shots.
For misses that big you must have a lot of lateral movement in your swing that’s causing you to have such variability in Club position coming through the ball. Maybe try the often misused standby “keep your head still”.
You are swinging left and have an inconsistent club face
Find a good teacher and get to work!
Remember “overnight” in golf usually means 6 months of hard work
I’ve been fighting the flip for years
Get an impact bag and become best friends
None of us know for sure that he’s flipping, I mentioned that as one possible cause. And even if he is, there can be many different causes for the flip. I bet you can find 100 different (and contradictory) video tips on how to beat the flip. This is where instruction should come in. A good instructor should be able to determine what’s going wrong, and help find feels or drills to help correct it.
Not really. I have big right/left misses throughout the bag. Even my wedges have large angular dispersion but they don’t get me into that much trouble because the ball can only go so far offline when it only goes 100 yards.
I’ve got lessons lined up for the off-season (which will be less than a month away given where I live), so I guess I’ll just have to deal with it until then.
I used to pride myself at being able to work the ball both ways. I still can when absolutely necessary, say, I need to hit a big cut or hook around a tree or other trouble, but I’ve at least partially eliminated the big miss(you can’t stop it, you can only contain it) by trying to focus on 1 shot shape for a majority of my shots and committing to targets…
Whether it’s draw or fade, stick with it and pick good targets, understand your dispersion with it and aim correctly. If trouble is right and left is open, pick a target than gives you at least 30 yds of room right (assuming driver). Picking better targets and understanding the space you have available will also give you more opportunity to hit driver instead of laying back on holes where trouble comes into play.