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Symptom

Hooking the ball

The ball turns hard left and runs a long way after landing, whether it starts left and dives further left or starts right and crosses back over the target.

A ball curves because the face and the path through impact disagree. The flight alone cannot tell you which of the two is out of place, because a face problem and a path problem can produce the same shape, and that is exactly what the questions separate.

Common ways golfers describe this

  • Why do I hook the ball?
  • Low hook left
  • My draw turns into a hook
  • Starts right hooks left
  • Ball turns over too much
Club path square to the target, face square to itThe club's path through impact seen from above, drawn for a right-handed golfer, with the feet at the left and the target at the top of the page. A dashed line runs up the page through the ball: the target line. The club's arc meets the target line at the ball travelling straight down it, so its direction at the ball matches the target. A short solid line at the ball is the clubface. It points along that path, so there is no gap between them and nothing to bend the ball. The figure moves. The clubhead travels the arc at an even speed and draws the path in behind it, carrying the face with it, and the face holds the same aim the whole way rather than turning with the arc. The two readings meet at the ball, which is the only moment either of them decides anything.
  • Target line
  • Club path
  • Clubface
The two things a shot's shape comes out of, seen from above: where the club is travelling at the ball, and where the face is pointing. They are drawn matched here, which is the only state that curves nothing.

Narrow it to one cause

Each question is here because golfers answer it differently, and that difference is what rules a cause out. Nothing is generated while you answer: every question, cause and fix was written and checked in advance.

Start the questions

A few questions · no account needed

What you will be asked

  1. Where does the ball start, before it turns left?
  2. At address, how many knuckles can you see on your top hand looking down?
  3. Where on the face are the marks from the shots that hook?
  4. Lay a club along your toes at address, then step behind it. Where does it point?
  5. Set up to a mid-iron. Where does the ball sit in your stance?
  6. How high does the hook fly compared with a good shot with the same club?

Where this can come from

These are the causes this symptom resolves to, in the order they turn up most often. That order is not a diagnosis and it is not your answer: two of them can produce a shot that looks identical from behind. Each has a fix you can read now, whether or not you answer anything.

  1. Face closed at impact

    The face points left of where the club is travelling. The ball starts left of the path and keeps turning left, and because a closed face also removes loft, the flight is usually lower and more diving than the golfer expected. The same closed face that produces a playable draw produces a hook once it outruns the path by enough.

    Read the fix

  2. In-to-out swing path

    The club is travelling right of the target line through impact. With the face closed to that path the ball hooks; with the face square to it the ball is pushed straight right and never comes back. It is frequently the residue of an over-applied slice fix, which is why the miss often changes sides rather than disappearing.

    Read the fix

  3. Grip too strong

    The hands sit rotated away from the target on the handle, so the face tends to arrive closed unless something else compensates. A strong grip is not a fault by itself and many good players use one, but paired with a path already moving right it is what turns a draw into a hook.

    Read the fix

  4. Body aimed right of target

    Feet, hips or shoulders point right of the ball-to-target line. Right-handed golfers do this far more often than they believe: a square stance runs parallel to the target line, so the feet point at a spot left of the flag, which looks wrong from address. Turning until the feet point at the flag aims the body right. Shots either go right with it or require a compensating move across the ball.

    Read the fix

  5. Strike toward the toe

    Contact out toward the end of the face produces the dead, hollow feel golfers describe, and twists the head open around its centre of gravity, adding draw-side spin. Distance loss is larger than the miss looks.

    Read the fix

  6. Ball too far back in the stance

    The ball sits well before the low point, so the club is still descending steeply when it arrives and delivers less loft than the club actually carries. Flight is low and the ball meets the face while the path is still travelling right, which is why a back ball position so often adds a push or a hook.

    Read the fix

Related symptoms

These are not here because they sound similar. Each one can come from a cause on the list above, which is why fixing one sometimes quietly fixes another. The closest matches are first.

What this rests on

If something here contradicts what a launch monitor tells you, say so. Corrections change the page.

Discussion

Golfers who have had this shot, on what it turned out to be and what sorted it. Read it as experience rather than diagnosis: the questions above are what narrow it to a cause.

Loading the discussion