==================================================== Newsletter - Issue 28 Date 07/16/07 ==================================================== ==================================================== Golf Tip: Shanks Cure ==================================================== If anyone has a golf question that they would like answered, please email your question to: teachingpro@bataviacc.com and I'll do my best to answer it in an upcoming newsletter. This morning while I was on the BCC putting green preparing for our Junior Golf Camp class, a gentleman by the name of Joe. D. introduced himself. Joe used to work with my son Tim at Rothland, and we shot the bull for awhile before he told me that he had the shanks so bad that he was ready to quit the game. Been there, done that, and it's no fun. A few years back, I was at the range at Willowbrook preparing for a tournament with my sons, and I shanked every iron that I hit. Pitching wedge, 9 iron, 6 iron, it didn't matter - I was shanking them all and I was in a cold sweat. The tournament went OK, my team played well tee to green, I putted well, and in fact we won, but I was still in a panic. Eventually, after trying every drill in the book, the shanks went away. Here's a drill that I developed myself that works for me, it will work for you too. Tee up a ball or set it up on some fluffy grass. Take a stance with your weight on your front leg (left leg for right handed golfers) and position your right foot almost behind your left, so that you are essentially standing on one leg. Your right leg is used for balance only. Now grip way down on your pitching wedge and hit balls with your right hand only. Try to hit the balls to the left so that your right forearm has to pronate to close the clubface through impact. After hitting several balls this way, you will get used to feeling your weight being forward and your clubface closing through impact. When you resume your normal posture and position for iron shots, concentrate on getting your weight forward on the downswing, the clubface should close nicely through impact, and the shanks will be a thing of the past.