Irons - weak fades right on most, but then draw/hooks during rounds

[shadymg]

So I'm struggling with a crazy thing--when I go to the driving range, my iron shots are either flush or blocks right. BUT, during my last several rounds, my misses for irons has been HOOKS LEFT, which is absolutely destroying my scoring chances. Can anyone see something obvious in my swing that would cause the hooks off of grass? Out of nearly a full bucket yesterday, i only hooked 2 shots, and the vast majority were blocks right or really good. 

 

Twofold question--1) Does anyone spot why i might miss hooking left when on grass instead of mat (or would it mean i'm clearly doing something different during my rounds?)? and then 2) What are some obvious tweaks/flaws I could work on to get rid of the weak fades and improve my consistency strikes? 

 

Videos of 6-iron:

https://imgur.com/a/Oz5d0jO

 

[Tax77]

Have one of your playing partners take a video of your on course swing. You have a pretty deliberate range back swing, does that carry over to the course? 

[BraxtonFullerton]

Your arms are leading your downswing; not your body. At the range, you're most likely very relaxed and maintain a great tempo (which you do in the good swing you posted); but your downswing is all arms and your hips don't open fast enough on your bad swing, there's your block.

 

I'm only guessing that you get tense/quick on the course and your hips get open but you're still leading the swing with your arms being even faster, leading to hooks and pulls. You need to build lag with your torso.

Edited September 29, 2020 by BraxtonFullerton

[leRouxSA]

On the backswing your club face is also very closed (pointing at the ground on take away). This could be causing the hook if its not corrected on the downswing or even the block if its over corrected.

[straightshot7]

As leRouxSA said ^ your club face is very closed on the backswing/at the top of your swing.

 

Some guys like Dustin Johnson pull this off by having a huge clearing of the body on the downswing, but you don't have that.

 

It'd be easier to get your club face more square on the backswing.

 

Try letting the face rotate open on the backswing. So that when the shaft is parallel to the ground the toe of the club head is pointed almost directly up at the sky. 

 

Edited October 7, 2020 by straightshot7

[Valtiel]

Agreed with the guys above. There are two main things going on here that are going to give you consistency issues; early extension/out of sequence transition and a MASSIVELY strong grip with a shut face. 

As @straightshot7 said, guys like DJ do the shut face things because they have huge lower body clearing moves which give them the space and the time to hold on to the face through impact. You don't have that, and you actually have the opposite which is an early extension with the arms leading the downswing as @BraxtonFullerton said. Here is a side by side for comparison:



DJ on the left, hips massively cleared, staying down with the ball while holding on to that club face. You on the right, hips only barely open to the ball and you've stood up and lost your posture. This places a massive amount of extra emphasis on timing with your hands, which in their overly strong position are going to want to turn the clubface over, hence the draws and hooks on the course. 

You have a couple optionals and a definite mandatory is fixing the early extension by properly loading the lower body and leading with it in your downsing. From the face on view video, it looks like you might be a little light in getting your weight loaded in the backswing, which in turn makes it hard to lead with in the downswing. Here is another DJ reference:



Here is really loading on that right leg/hip which is what allows the moves that lead to his impact position above. This requires some definite flexibility though!

Once you've sorted out the lower body stuff and are getting your hips cleared properly into impact, you may or may not want to stick with your super strong grip and shut clubface. It is a valid way to play (although your grip is on the extreme side) but you need those lower body fundamentals in place to make it consistent and repeatable. 

Best of luck, and feel free to ask any follow up questions or share videos of the process.