• Home
  • /
  • Blog
  • /
  • How To Stop Hooking The Golf Ball

How To Stop Hooking The Golf Ball

how to stop hooking the ball

Last Updated: August 21, 2020

Let’s just start off by saying that if you have a tendency to hook the ball, you are fortunate when it comes to shot shapes.

For many a good golfer, getting over a nasty hook is the last step on the road to becoming a solid, consistent player.

The reason being that changing from a hook to a draw is considerably less difficult and requires fewer swing changes than, say, changing from a slice to a nice draw.

That being said, there is nothing particularly enjoyable about that right to left snappy shot when you hit one, and more often than not, you end up being in as worse a situation than if you were to slice the ball out right.

If you’re aiming to perfect a baby draw in every shot, then you have to accept that now and then you will over-do it, double cross it and the ball will hook left – even the pros have missed shots, which tend to be hooks.

Luckily for beginners, hooking the ball actually involves some movements in the swing that you will want to keep and replicate, albeit on a slightly less aggressive level, in order to maintain that slight right to left shot shape.

How To Stop Hooking The Golf Ball

What Causes A Hook?

As with any error in the golf swing, it always better to understand why you are doing it before you try to understand what you can do to fix it.

A hook is essentially caused by the opposite combination of club path and clubface to those which cause a slice.

While a slice is caused by an open clubface and an out-to-in club path, a hook is engendered by a closed face and an in-to-out swing. This causes the ball to start left (as a result of the closed clubface) and continue to move left after impact (due to the path of the club being in-to-out).

While these two combinations will always be the root of any hook, there are still various parts of your swing or setup that can be causing the closed clubface or in-to-out swing.

The first, and by far the most common is a grip that is far too weak and that causes the hand and wrists to turn over too much through impact, resulting in a clubface that is closed to the target line.

The second common cause is slightly harder to fix, but equally as important.

This is an incorrect weight shift where your transition starts with the upper body moving down first, trailed by your hips and legs.

This premature rotation causes your hands to lead your lower body into the swing and results in a ball that starts left and moves left.

Fixing this is slightly harder because it involves dynamic, rather than static changes in your swing but is still very achievable with some of the tips and drills below.

Fixes And Drills

Before you try to change anything in your swing, you need to ensure your setup and grip is correct, as this will always override your swing and can cause you to over compensate.

You want to approach the ball with the clubface pointed directly at the target and the line of your feet slightly to the left of your target. This more open stance will help you start the ball on line and will open up your body a bit to prevent a huge in-to-out swing.

Next, grip the club as you would and check where the ‘V’ created by your right thumb and index finger is pointing. If it is pointing towards your right shoulder, you need to rotate your right hand anticlockwise around the grip so that the ‘V’ is pointing at your chin. This is known as strengthening your grip, and is one of the easiest ways to prevent excessive clubface rotation through impact.

If you can remind yourself of this setup (clubface square to target, feet slightly left and a stronger grip), you can progress to fixing your weight shift if the hook persists.

The transition from the top of your swing into the downswing is by its very nature complicated and dynamic. What you want is your body moving in sync, connected and in a fluid manner from the top of your swing through impact.

Unfortunately for many beginners, this movement is far from natural and often becomes disconnected, with either the hips firing before the shoulders or the shoulders before the hips. Either of these will produce an unfavourable outcome.

Typically in a hook, your shoulders initiate the downswing with your hips and legs following suite.

To fix this, try and slow down and exaggerate your swing, possibly even pausing at the top and focussing on leading the transition with your hips and then your torso as you rotate through the ball, then follow through with your hands towards the target instead of wrapping around your body as they would in a baseball swing.

Fixing the transition is not easy and will require a lot of practice and frustrating range sessions as you slowly get used to what the swing feels like and how to replicate it on the course.

There’s no easy fix here so you have to be dedicated and grind it out if you want to see that perfect shot shape!

Frequently Asked Questions

I only hook it on my long shots – what am I doing wrong?

It is quite normal for any shot shape to be exaggerated on longer shots. If you’re only ever hooking on drives for example, get a friend to check the alignment of your shoulders in relation to your feet and clubface.

If your shoulders are pointing too far right of the target you may be setting up for a hook.

Try and force yourself to ‘open up’ to the target a bit more to see some results.

See other golf instruction articles in our Golf for Beginners guide, for example: How to hit a fade, how to hit a flop shot, how to stop topping the ball and how to hit a driver straight and far!

About the author  Paul Bradshaw

Paul hit his first golf shot at the age of 5, and from that point on was immediately hooked. He went on to become one of the leading amateurs in South Africa, securing a full golf scholarship with the University of Arkansas Razorbacks. Turning professional in 2004, Paul played extensively on the Sunshine Tour and co-sanctioned European Tour events. Paul is our lead editor at Golf Assessor.

11 Best Portable Golf Launch Monitors- 2023 Buyers Guide

Golfers everywhere have seen a revolution in their practice and performance with the advent of launch monitors. Much like the best golf GPS apps, launch monitors offer a wealth of data that was once the exclusive domain of professional players, and now golfers of all levels can benefit from this technology. Launch monitors provide information about

Read More
pxg-0311-wedge-review

PXG 0311 Wedge Review

You might think that because we reviewed the irons, we were done talking about the PXG 0311s. Well, sorry to go on and on about them, but the wedges are distinct enough that we decided they were worthy of a review of their own. Visionary Bob Parsons (PXG stands for Parsons eXtreme Golf) also founded GoDaddy, so

Read More
TaylorMade M4 irons review

TaylorMade M4 Irons Review

While the big talking point on the new TaylorMade M3 and M4 drivers has been TwistFace technology, the M3 and M4 irons also feature a newly launched technology known as RIBCOR. This is designed to help you hit the ball higher, straighter and longer, which these days is the purpose of almost every new feature added to a golf club. For the sake

Read More

Callaway Epic Irons Review

“If you are ever caught on a golf course during a storm and are afraid of lightning, hold up a 1-iron. Not even God can hit a 1-iron!” These were the immortal words of Lee Trevino, and although hardly anyone uses a 1-iron these days, the truth is that, in Trevino’s heyday, irons of all shapes,

Read More
Best Golf Trolley Batterys and Chargers

Best Golf Cart Batteries and Chargers

Okay, I’m going to level with you here. If you’d asked me to pick my favorite golf cart battery and charger a year ago, I may have laughed at you. A favorite battery?Obviously it isn’t essential to know the inner workings of these types of batteries from a scientific perspective, but I was quite intrigued

Read More

Best Golf Glove – Our Top Picks For Comfort And Fit

How important is it that you get the best golf glove for your game? Really important, if you ask me! Think about it, your hands are the only contact you make with the club. Because of this, your grip is by far one of the most important factors in determining the outcome of your shot. In essence, your shot

Read More

Up the ante on your golf banter...

Join The Mulligan

A weekly newsletter of controversial golf opinions, strong debates and funny golf memes