Pulling in

Today I played with a guy who has a handicap of 3. This made me very nervous. I'm very conscious of being the dead weight who slows everyone down. When I get nervous my swing faults assert themselves. Oddly, my chipping and putting were pretty good, but I added a lot strokes because of toe shanks with my irons.

I don't really know what causes this, but at one point, using a 7i, I missed the ball completely and left a shallow divot--a s****e really--just inside the target line through the ball. The divot was not outside-in. It was parallel to the target line, but just too close to me.

This was the only time I whiffed the ball, but as I say, there were plenty of toe shots. My sense of it is that my nerves make me shorten my swing, and swing too hard, slashing with my arms. Somehow this pulls my arms in closer or something. But...I don't really know.

I don't know if anyone else has this experience or has any ideas of what to do about it. Standing closer to the ball has never worked.

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Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

I would guess in addition to golfone suggestions, you have a left arm breakdown prior to and through impact which causes you to come up and out of a shot or to pull the club in to your body.
Try keeping the left arm more out in front of you and straighter and you will be hitting good shots assuming all else is ok.

Are you keeping the same spine angle throughout the swing? If you are actually missing the ball to the inside, that is by quite a distance, suggesting that you have excessive movement and you must be unbalanced. Check your set up first.

Missing the ball completely is rare, fortunately. On this particlar occasion, I did miss it to the inside, leaving a straight divot. What's not so rare is hitting it off center, closer to the toe. In fact, that's more the rule than the exception. Slowing my swing down helps a bit. "Snugging" in to the ball at setup a bit more than feels comfortable sometimes helps, although it sometimes results in a massive chunk.

I imagine my spine angle must change. I don't expect anyone to be able to diagnose this without seeing it, but I thought I'd get some ideas.

__________________
Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller