Unable to find a fix.

To say my game has " gone south " would be a huge understatement, it's gone to the deep south. It's a complete mystery not only to me but to my regular playing partners. I played on Thursday, shotgun start, my first two holes, a 178 yd. par 3 then a 497 par 5, I went 7 then 11,,,,,,,,wow, ten over after two holes.
For some strange reason I'm nailing my driver, perfectly, I only missed one fairway last round and my short game is nothing short of brilliant. It's my fairway shots, hybrids either hooked or smothered, mid irons weak and pushed right into the numerous bunkers on our course.
I spent an hour on the practice range yesterday, I only took along two cubs, my 7 and 5 iron with the exception of a couple of balls I semi-shanked every shot. The toe of the club was pointing left after impact, the club turning in my hands,,,,,,incredible and no idea how to find a fix.
In the meantime I console myself with nice weather, our course is in lovely condition and I have great playing partners and it's Sunday, a day off and a 9.35 tee off time,,,,,I'll enjoy my day in spite of my vanished golf game.
have a great day guys, Buteman.

Well Butman, you are not alone. I used to be able to hit my clubs pretty well. About two weeks ago, I started with the same affliction you talk about. The accurate description is a Push Slice. As you describe, it almost looks like a shank but not touching the hosel.

I practiced for a week hitting 200 balls a day in the practice field with my PW to try and fix it. In desparation, I called the local PGA Pro, I won't mention the name. The guy has credentials. Claims to have played on the PGA circuit for a short time and had affiliations with Jack Grout (Jack Nicklaus's life long teacher). Well, in my opinion, he scammed me for $45 for a meager 30 minutes of instruction. I told him I would be happy if I left with two things..JUST TWO THINGS: 1. I wanted to know what I was doing to hit this ugly PUSH SLICE. and 2. When it starts, what do I do to stop it.

Guess what, I left with neither. I am so depressed that I need to call the MD to see if he can get me on Zoloft. I think that is my only hope. I love golf but this may be the end of my career. Now I am left to my own devices to fix it.

One thing is for sure.....and this is a solemn vow.... "I will never, ever, ever go to another PGA pro for lessons". It's a stone waste of time and money.

Whew, I feel better already.

Don't flame me on this one fellow golfers, I seriously needed to get that off my chest.

I've always got chess...... :-(

Chessbum.....

If you can get your hands on a video camera and record your setup and swing it might help you.
1) You could look at your own swing and see if you notice anything completely off.
2) You could submit your video to www.swingacademy.com or www.golfdigestchallenge.com, and get your swing looked at for free. (Golf Digest Challenge is offering free analysis by PGA pro(s) at the Jim Mclean golf academy while Swing Academy is composed of both pro and peer analysis.
3) You could submit your video to David Leadbetter on the Golf Channel's the Turn.
4) You could display your video on here, and get opinions (just be careful whose advice on here you take ).

I went through a similar patch recently. I played in a medal match last month and shanked or semi shanked every iron shot, I could only chip and use my driver and hybrids, even those were not that good.

I had previously noticed that when practising at the range that I would start off hitting nice clean balls but after around 50 or so I would start hitting them out of the heel causing them to bend off in an alarming right hand arc.

I took a lesson to try and sort it but did not hit a bad ball throughout. Back to the range and the same sequence cropped up. After some serious trial and error hitting and trying to create the problem at will I found out the cause. I am a one plane swinger and my arms had started to extend in the downswing such that the heel was coming into the ball, I discovered this by placing the ball just in front of a range rubber tee and finding that when I hit one of these errant shots I was also striking the tee. My initial thought was that I was either hitting sharply in to out or coming out to in and thus striking the tee behind the ball. It was neither of these.

I had started to setup with too much slack in my arms such that the elbows were pointing outward and they were hanging too close to my body, this brought me too close to the ball at setup so that in the downswing my arms were extending and pushing the club too far out catching the heel or hozel. Setting my arms further away so they formed the shape of a lower case "y" with my elbows turned in so they pointed more towards the hips stopped this happening completely. I have now played two games with nice crisp contact again and had some trouble free range sessions.

This may not be your problem but worth a check.

__________________
Best Regards
Brian

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Funny o'l game!

Thanks for your responses and advice, it's a fickle game and I have always been of the opinion that my hard work and effort to achieve a reasonable level ( single digit handicap ) will reward me.
I accept what I get out on the course with a positive attitude and when I completed my second hole a few days ago ten over for those couple of holes I actually chuckled to myself. I only hit a few wedges prior to teeing off yesterday, when we were called to the first tee my mind was open.
As usual the ever present wind on our course had to be dealt with, I hit a lovely drive on one ( 397 yd. dogleg left ) with a hint of a draw into the wind. I hit a six iron to a back left flag, pure and solid 15 feet from the stick. I turned to one of my playing partners and said " wow, who just hit that shot ".
I had a enjoyable round which included three birdies and shot an 81, so it's just a matter of hanging in there. One swing flaw in particular that I did correct was making sure I finished with a good follow through. In previous rounds I was quitting at the ball and I could feel it, so I trusted what I had and went at it. It's a great game win or lose, a never ending search for improvement but all being said, it's still just a game, good company, good exercise and fresh air. Have a great day, buteman.