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Shanking Chip Shots and How to Cure it
Shanks are caused by hitting the ball on the hosel of the club. Some golfers think they are hitting it off the toe because the ball will go straight to the right, but that's really rare case.
Please read How to Hit a Chip Shot before we start talking about how to cure it. A lot of times, fixing your set up will cure the shanks with chip shots.
In this article, I will talk about what causes the shanks when chipping and how to cure it.
The Cause
Golfers who shank the ball are often times slicers. So they may shank the iron shots as well as chipping.
If you shank your chip shots, your hands are further away from your body than they were at address.
So what causes your hands and arms to move further away?
There are lots of reasons but one of them is the position of your shoulders.
If your shoulders are aligned left of the target, you tend to swing from outside in. But if you chip like that, you will hit it left or pull the chip shots.
So you start to guide the ball toward the target by swinging the club toward the pin or target.
When you do that, your hands get away from your body. You are going to hit shanks. If you try to avoid hitting it on the hosel, you might hit it fat or top it.
How to Cure it
So to fix your shanks, you need to first align your shoulders correctly. Your shoulder alignment often determines the swing path. If it's aligned left, you will swing outside in. If it's aligned right, you tend to swing from inside out.
So lots of teachers will tell you to check your shoulder alignment.
Easy right?
Well, not really. It's hard to check shoulder alignment every time on the course.
But I can tell you how you grip the club affects the shoulder alignment.
Golfers with a weak grip are usually aligning their shoulders to the left. Golfers with stronger grip tend to align their shoulders right.
So fixing your grip is the easy way to fix shoulder alignment.
How to Hold Your Grip
When you hold your grip for chipping, make sure to lower your right shoulder first and grip it. If you grip the club with your both shoulders level with the ground, you can easily grip the club too weak.
Just like regular shots, check the knuckles of your left hand at address. I want you to make sure you can see 3 knuckles on your left hand.
Stance
Lots of pros have open stance when chipping. But if you shank, try to take square stance.
You feet should be parallel to your target line.