Why does my driver swing consistently deteriorate into low hooks during a round/range session

[pkshooter]

I’ve been struggling with driver consistency most of the year.  After charting my drives and being able to replicate it on the range, I’m starting to notice a pattern.  I’ll likely need to catch good/bad drives on video and/or get a lesson, but curious if anyone on here has gone through something similar and identified an issue.

 

Typically my drive on the first 1-3 holes is good height, decent distance, straight flight, and typically right of target.  Then I typically hit a few holes with nice straight to  baby draw driver flights with good distance.  By the time I get to the back 9 I’m starting to hit lower, shorter drives with more and more hook.  By the middle of the back I can barely keep my drives in play.  I’m normally a good three wood hitter, but this phenomenon affects my 3 wood swing as well.  
 

Today I went to the range and warmed up with 10-15 good 7 iron shots.  Then 5-10 great hybrid shots.  Then 5 good 3 wood shots.  Then I proceeded to hit driver.  My first few hits were nice, high, straight, and right of target.  Then I hit about 10 in a row or so that were really good - slight draw, but would have been in fairway.  Then after about 20 drives, it’s like a switch flipped and I started hitting a string of low hooks.  I put my driver down, picked up my 3 wood and proceeded to hit more hooks.

 

I finally realized that this progression of straight drives, to nice baby draws, to low hooks is very repeatable for me whether it is a range session or a round.  My handicap is around 8. I’m hitting irons the best I have ever hit them.  I use a Ping G410 driver with all neutral settings.  I’ve tried both a regular flex Alta shaft and a stiff flex Alta shaft and get the same results.  

Edited September 28, 2020 by pkshooter

[Warrior42111]

Sounds like lower body muscle fatigue IMO. You slow down slightly and then your upper body catches up and the brain knowing to hit the ball compensates.

 

Does it creep into the longer irons at all?

[davep043]

7 minutes ago, Warrior42111 said:

Sounds like lower body muscle fatigue IMO. You slow down slightly and then your upper body catches up and the brain knowing to hit the ball compensates.

 

Does it creep into the longer irons at all?

I thought of exactly the same word, fatigue.  Less effective lower-body movement, more reliance on upper body, more over the top.  I know that in my own game I have the same issue.  I make specific effort to maintain good sequencing as the round gets to the latter holes.  Without that specific effort, I get the same results that you do.

[MonteScheinblum]

In reality first two responses are mostly correct.

 

The fault is there al of the time.  When you fatigue, your body is no longer able to compensate.

 

Same things happens as we age.  The “It works for me” swing issues become unmanageable. 

[davep043]

14 minutes ago, MonteScheinblum said:

In reality first two responses are mostly correct.

 

The fault is there al of the time.  When you fatigue, your body is no longer able to compensate.

 

Same things happens as we age.  The “It works for me” swing issues become unmanageable. 

I'm happy to be mostly correct!

[MonteScheinblum]

30 minutes ago, davep043 said:

I'm happy to be mostly correct!

😜

[ChipNRun]

1 hour ago, pkshooter said:

Then I proceeded to hit driver.  My first few hits were nice, high, straight, and right of target.  Then I hit about 10 in a row or so that were really good - slight draw, but would have been in fairway.  Then after about 20 drives, it’s like a switch flipped and I started hitting a string of low hooks.  I put my driver down, picked up my 3 wood and proceeded to hit more hooks. ...

 

Possibly a fatigue factor. A Division II golf coach who gave me lessons down in Oklahoma had this to say on practicing drivers: After you warm up with a few partial and full iron shots, go to your driver. He said it's the most physically demanding club to hit, and recommended driver practice for early in  your session.

 

48 minutes ago, davep043 said:

I thought of exactly the same word, fatigue.  Less effective lower-body movement, more reliance on upper body, more over the top. 

 

The above pretty well describes the mechanics of what happens.

[PJE]

I had a similar experience. For me, it was knee pain which eventually required surgery. 

But I think the posters, above, are correct in that you are losing your lower body action and sequencing as the round or range session elapses. 

If you think it is lower body fatigue or a strength issue, there's are many exercises, with our without weight training, that you can do to strengthen your leg muscles and lots of helpful stretches.  Maybe try a leg exercise program for 4-6 weeks and see if your problem diminishes?

 

[pkshooter]

57 minutes ago, MonteScheinblum said:

In reality first two responses are mostly correct.

 

The fault is there al of the time.  When you fatigue, your body is no longer able to compensate.

 

Same things happens as we age.  The “It works for me” swing issues become unmanageable. 

Interesting.  I’m in decent shape and don’t really feel fatigued, but that sounds plausible since I always start well and then things go bad.  So it sounds like the beat option is to fix the fundamental fault(s) so that I don’t need to rely on body/coordination to compensate.

[Nels55]

I have had and do have similar experiences.  One thing that can help on the range is to open your stance and hit a few fades or big slices for that matter.  Often this will get my swing back on track.

[Ri_Redneck]

WOW, I didn't get in early enough, but fatigue was my first thought when reading the OP. I'm 58 and ran into this same problem for a long time. I now try to walk a couple of miles daily to keep the lower back, hips and legs in reasonable shape. It has helped tremendously. I walked a somewhat hilly course yesterday and only lost my ability to fade the ball on the last 3 holes. I could feel the fatigue setting in to.

 

BT

[miamistomp]

1 hour ago, Warrior42111 said:

Sounds like lower body muscle fatigue IMO. You slow down slightly and then your upper body catches up and the brain knowing to hit the ball compensates.

 

Does it creep into the longer irons at all?

 Yep 

   Same happens to me and my coach says when you get tired the legs stop moving and hands take over--I am a drawer that becomes an unhappy hooker at that point

[alfriday]

Fatigue is certainly a possibility, perhaps even a probability. 

 

Alignment and ball position is another.  A lot of golfers let their alignment drift to the right as they play.  Next time you play, have a playing partner check your alignment on the first tee and then on the back nine tees.  It's a nice check while waiting for the new fitness regime to show results.  

[pkshooter]

19 minutes ago, miamistomp said:

 Yep 

   Same happens to me and my coach says when you get tired the legs stop moving and hands take over--I am a drawer that becomes an unhappy hooker at that point

I think this is what is going on

[pkshooter]

13 minutes ago, alfriday said:

Fatigue is certainly a possibility, perhaps even a probability. 

 

Alignment and ball position is another.  A lot of golfers let their alignment drift to the right as they play.  Next time you play, have a playing partner check your alignment on the first tee and then on the back nine tees.  It's a nice check while waiting for the new fitness regime to show results.  

I suspected alignment because that has been an issue in the past, but I was using alignment sticks today at the range when replicating this and I confirmed that I was lining up properly.

[pkshooter]

1 hour ago, Warrior42111 said:

 

Does it creep into the longer irons at all?

My longest iron is a 5 iron. I haven’t really noticed it beyond the driver and 3 wood, but I don’t hit a ton of long irons, so I may have just missed this

[pkshooter]

1 hour ago, davep043 said:

I thought of exactly the same word, fatigue.  Less effective lower-body movement, more reliance on upper body, more over the top.  I know that in my own game I have the same issue.  I make specific effort to maintain good sequencing as the round gets to the latter holes.  Without that specific effort, I get the same results that you do.

can you describe what you do to maintain good sequencing.  Sounds like this could help

[pkshooter]

44 minutes ago, PJE said:If you think it is lower body fatigue or a strength issue, there's are many exercises, with our without weight training, that you can do to strengthen your leg muscles and lots of helpful stretches.  Maybe try a leg exercise program for 4-6 weeks and see if your problem diminishes?

 

Thanks for the response.  I’m 45 and fairly fit.  I run 20+ miles per week and have good leg strength.  My guess is that fatigue is just not something I have recognized and makes my lower body lazy.  Now that I have some insight, hopefully I’ll be able to consciously be able to keep my lower body active as I get more fatigued 

[MonteScheinblum]

2 minutes ago, pkshooter said:

Thanks for the response.  I’m 45 and fairly fit.  I run 20+ miles per week and have good leg strength.  My guess is that fatigue is just not something I have recognized and makes my lower body lazy.  Now that I have some insight, hopefully I’ll be able to consciously be able to keep my lower body active as I get more fatigued 

That’s not completely what you need to be doing.  The fault is not the lower body staling.  That’s a symptom that shouldn’t happen even if you fatigue.  There’s another problem that’s undiagnosed.

[PJE]

24 minutes ago, pkshooter said:

Thanks for the response.  I’m 45 and fairly fit.  I run 20+ miles per week and have good leg strength.  My guess is that fatigue is just not something I have recognized and makes my lower body lazy.  Now that I have some insight, hopefully I’ll be able to consciously be able to keep my lower body active as I get more fatigued 

Oh, if you are running 20 miles a week then it's probably not fatigue. Your legs are probably plenty strong.

Maybe you just get out of alignment? Especially if you are playing the same course(s) and you align yourself unconsciously away from trouble?

Or after a few holes under your belt, you feel loosened up and just get too quick and hit from the top and out of sequence?

I'm not much of a believer in swing aids. I think it's best to hit balls but the Orange Whip is something you could try. I think it does help with sequencing. Others may disagree though. A person can still make bad swings with it so it's not magic. 

[davep043]

1 hour ago, pkshooter said:

can you describe what you do to maintain good sequencing.  Sounds like this could help

What works for me may be the completely wrong thing for you, so I won't go any further down my own personal band-aid route.  Of all of the comments on this thread, I'd trust the well-qualified instructor's the most.  He says the underlying issue is present all of the time.  Find a good instructor, find out what the underlying problem is, and work to fix it.

[pkshooter]

1 hour ago, MonteScheinblum said:

That’s not completely what you need to be doing.  The fault is not the lower body staling.  That’s a symptom that shouldn’t happen even if you fatigue.  There’s another problem that’s undiagnosed.

Agree - always best to fix the root cause, which is the swing flaw.  My thought process is that in the meantime until I can get the swing flaw identified and corrected I can try to consciously make sure my lower body stays activated as a band aid.

[bnperrone]

Agree with the fatigue issue as has been mentioned. Given your exercise routine and general fitness it's easy to discredit fatigue, but keep in mind that a lot of muscles used in the golf swing aren't strengthened in most other activities. The golf swing itself is also not a natural body movement. I'd look into some golf-specific strength and mobility routines. With the pandemic at the 6-month mark there are all kinds of exercise plans being promoted by everybody trying to grab a piece of the "trying to drop the COVID 19" demographic. GolfDigest has a lot of free workout pieces.

 

Since this is WRX and everybody is an equipment tweak away from the tour I'll throw out the possibility that your driver and 3W are substantially out of sync with the rest of your bag in terms of weight, SW/balance, flex, etc.

That said, I really think it's some underutilized muscle wearing out and/or tightening up. I'm a while into recovering from a pretty bad car accident with an awkward impact and the hip mobility issues have been crazy with all the pain and tightness and hidden affects. Best of luck.

[llewol007]

Like most have said, once your lower body begins to tire out, you start to stay back on your swings and you start to pull your drives. More noticeable since you can incur more side spin with a driver. 

[Hackinator]

On 9/28/2020 at 4:25 PM, pkshooter said:

Interesting.  I’m in decent shape and don’t really feel fatigued, but that sounds plausible since I always start well and then things go bad.  So it sounds like the beat option is to fix the fundamental fault(s) so that I don’t need to rely on body/coordination to compensate.

Is it possible that is not fatigue but rather you trying to squeeze out more yards from your driver.    And you are trying to squeeze those extra yards by using your arms more, which means your body less.

 

I know that I sometimes I have some great driver sessions until I try to squeeze some extra yards, then I become too handsy and it always leads to those low hooks you describe.

 

 

[GreenTurf]

Let me guess…… you also start hitting fat shots when the low hooks start….. the problem here is corrected easily once you start focusing on this simple thought…… assuming your are right handed…..  “Get off of your right foot”….. there are 2 points of emphasis….. as you play on through the round your muscles begin to warm up and as this happens you naturally feel the desire to swing harder, and while you do this fatigue slowly creeps in unnoticeably….. both of these things causes the shift from right foot to left foot to slow down….. when we are not getting off of our right foot in the downswing it causes our hands to outrace the sequence of feet, firing of the hips, upper body, and hands…. So the result is fat shots and low pulls…. The easiest fix is the concentrate on weight transfer from right to left in the practice swings….. hope this helps…..