How to Cure the Duck Hook!

A ‘duck hook’ is a shot that goes sharply left at the moment of impact.  There are three different reasons for this errant shot.  The first one is an extremely closed clubface when the backswing reaches its first position, second when the body hasn’t turned sufficiently on the backswing and thirdly when the body hasn’t moved on to the front foot when following through. The first aspect to address is to make sure that at the first position (club is parallel to the ground) of the golf swing that the ‘toe’ of the club is roughly pointing up to the sky.  It doesn’t point directly up to the sky but on the same angle as the spine.  By ensuring this clubface is square early in the backswing, the forearms will rotate properly and hence be able to deliver a square club face at the ball.  The second check point that you must fix with your swing is ensuring sufficient hip turn.  Make sure when swinging back that your left shoulder goes under your chin, hips have turned 45 degrees and the left knee has moved about 20 degrees.  The golf swing is very much a reactionary movement meaning that whatever you do on the backswing, you will tend to replicate on the follow through.  Therefore if you have sufficient turn on the way back, then you will turn properly through the ball causing your hands to be less active as they are forced to follow the body. The last movement that you need to have in place when rectifying the ‘duck hook’ is ensuring you always transfer your weight on to the front foot.  This means as you start your downswing, you initiate with your left hip followed by an unwinding of your body and moving everything on to your front foot.  This will ensure that the arms always stay in front of the chest rather than working independently and hence ‘flipping’ the clubface left through impact. A great drill to use when practicing to rectify the ‘duck hook’ is training yourself to know how to hit a slice.  Rehearse feeling the club face slightly ‘open’ during impact while keeping the hands slightly forward.  The ‘duck hook’ action is the exact opposite to a slice because the club face tends to be forward of the hands at impact.  Also put a shaft down on the other side of the ball pointing slightly left and aim to swing on that path coming through.  This will start changing the ball flight to slightly higher and straighter as the swing path and clubface are starting to get back into the right position.   Lastly and most importantly, make sure you transfer your weight.