The Golf Shanks Cure

As Romeo (Cheech Marin) from Tin Cup would say, you’ve got a case of the shanks, the laterals, the “el hosels”. The golf shanks just come up when you least expect them.

What is a shank? It’s when a golfer impacts the ball with the hozel of the club first. A shank will usually go about 45 degrees or more to the right of target for right handed players. Instead of hitting the ball square on the face of the club, a shank is hit too close to the heel of the iron that it catches a piece of the hozel which sends the ball sideways.

Making light of the situation, Romeo called them the laterals, and the el hosels (hozel). That’s exactly what a shank is.

A golf shank really isn’t much of a swing flaw. If you stand too close to the ball, you might hit more shanks than the next guy. If you cut across the ball violently, you may have a tendency to hit more shanks because the club is led by the hozel when you attack the ball from the outside-in. For the average golfer, they may go 10 rounds without hitting one, but then they might hit two on one hole.

Golf is certainly a head game, and once you hit one shank, the chances of you hitting another one increase because of the games our mind plays with us. We often times will think our way into hitting another one. And like Tin Cup did, he stopped thinking about it, and finally cured himself of the shanks.

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The best cure for the golf shanks is to blow it off, and not dwell on it and maybe step back from the ball just a pinch to give your club more room in which to swing freely without getting cramped. As Romeo had Tin Cup do, he turned his hat around backwards, put a golf tee behind his left ear, put all his change in his left pocket and tied his left shoe in a double knot, and then hit the ball. Just like that he was cured.

Tin Cup asks, just like that I’m cured? And Romeo replied yeah, you stopped thinking about your swing cause you were so worried about how silly you looked. Often times, that’s all it takes is to get your mind off of it.

I’ve probably hit 15 or so shanks in my life on the golf course, and they’re always when I least expect them. Of course I never expect to shank a ball, but just out of the blue I’ll hit one, and wonder where that came from. Nothing I did during the swing felt different. But just like sometimes you hit the ball off the toe of the club, sometimes you’ll hit the ball off the heel of the club, and since the hozel is right there, a shank results.

Sometimes our aim is a bit off, that’s all. But if you dwell on it too much, it’ll become more of a problem and you’ll get tentative and before you know it, you’re hitting shanks regularly. So don’t worry about it, shake it off and concentrate on the next swing.

A pretty simple drill to stop from shanking the golf ball is to put a couple tees in the ground about 5 inches apart (just about how wide the club head is) and take some practice swings to where you consistently swing the club through the tees without hitting them.

Improve your Iron Play and Cure your Shanks!

In your backswing, if you get off balance and start leaning too far forward, shanking the golf ball is often the result. Because your center of gravity is now closer to the ball, you force your downswing to adjust for the new center of gravity, and if the right amount of adjustment isn't made before you impact the golf ball, often times the golf club hozel is the first to contact the ball causing the shanks. Try staying back on your heels more for a few swings to prevent your weight from leaning too far forward and onto the balls of your feet.

Your golf shanks are a direct result of your club's impact point on the golf ball. Even the best golfers in the world are prone to a golf shank every now and then. We can all miss hit a ball. The shanks are just a result of miss hitting the ball too far on the heel. Try these couple drills to minimize your golf shanks.