Nothing sends a chill down a golfer’s spine quite like the shank. That horrible click, the ball jetting off almost 90 degrees to the right (for a right-handed player), and the feeling of complete swing betrayal. It's a shot that can appear out of nowhere and shatter your confidence. This article will break down exactly what a shank is, what causes it, and provide you with a clear, actionable game plan with simple drills to get it out of your system for good.
Before we can fix it, we need to be crystal clear about what a shank actually is. Forget the golf myths and curses you’ve heard, the answer is purely mechanical. A shank happens when the golf ball makes contact not with the clubface, but with the hosel - the rounded part of the iron where the shaft connects to the clubhead.
Because the hosel is round, when the ball hits it, there’s no controlling it. It shoots off wildly to the right (or left for a lefty) with a distinct "clink" sound that is horrifying to any golfer. It’s often called “the laterals” or “the rockets” for good reason.
The most important thing to remember is this: every golfer has hit a shank. From tour professionals to weekend warriors, it's a ghost that has visited nearly every bag. It feels like your swing has abandoned you, but the fix is often simpler than you think. You haven’t forgotten how to swing a golf club, you’ve just developed a small habit that is pushing the contact point from the sweet spot over to the hosel.
The core problem behind a shank is that, at the moment of impact, your clubhead is further away from your body than it was at address. The hosel is a little closer to you than the center of the face, so something is pushing that clubhead outwards and exposing the hosel to the ball. Let’s look at the most common culprits.
This is probably the single biggest reason golfers start shanking. At address, you feel balanced. But during the swing, particularly the downswing, you lose that balance and your weight lurches forwards, onto your toes and towards the ball. Imagine someone pushing you gently in the back as you're about to hit the ball.
When you lunge forward, your whole body moves closer to the ball. Your hands and arms follow, pushing the clubhead further out. The result? The hosel lines up perfectly with the golf ball, and you hit a shank. This often happens because a player is trying too hard to generate power, leading them to throw their body at the ball instead of rotating smoothly.
Think about your swing path as the direction your club travels on its way to the ball. The ideal path comes slightly from the inside, contacts the ball, and then moves back to the inside. An "over-the-top" swing is the opposite. During the transition from backswing to downswing, your shoulders and arms open up too early and throw the club outside the ideal swing path.
Imagine a line drawn from your ball out to the target. An over-the-top move means the clubhead approaches the ball from outside of that line. As it comes across your body from out-to-in, the hosel is leading the charge, and if your timing is just a little off, it's the first thing that will meet the ball.
Sometimes the problem is baked in before you even start the swing. If you set up with the ball too close to your feet, you don't give yourself enough room to swing. Your body knows this instinctively. During the swing, to avoid feeling cramped and hitting your own body, your arms will naturally push away from you to create space.
When your arms and hands push out and away from you at impact - even by an inch - that’s enough to move the contact point from the face to the hosel. A good checkpoint is to let your arms hang naturally from your shoulders at address. Your hands should be directly underneath or just slightly outside your shoulders, not pulled in tight to your legs.
This one seems counterintuitive to the "over-the-top" cause, but it's just as destructive. A player can get their club so far "stuck" behind them on the downswing that their body rotation gets ahead of their arms. This traps the arms and club on the inside.
From here, the only way to get the clubhead back to the golf ball is to throw your hands and arms aggressively outwards. This aggressive throwing action shoves the hosel directly towards the ball. You might feel like you're creating a powerful draw, but you're actually playing a dangerous game where a shank is always just a small mistake away.
Reading about causes is one thing, fixing it on the range is what matters. Here are four simple, effective drills designed to directly combat the causes of the shank. Start with slow, half-swings and build up your speed and confidence.
This is the classic, go-to drill for shanks, and for good reason - it works. It directly trains you to avoid moving the clubhead outwards towards the ball.
If your shanks are coming from losing your balance and falling towards your toes, this drill is your cure. It removes your ability to lunge and forces you to rely on proper rotation.
This is a fantastic drill for golfers who stand too close or have a tendency for their hands to push out at impact. It's a simple mental trick that gives you the space you need.
This drill specifically targets the over-the-top swing path. It's all about retraining the sequence of your downswing, teaching your club to approach the ball from the inside.
To summarize, the shank is a mechanical issue where you hit the hosel of the club. It stems from pushing the clubhead further from your body at impact than it was at address, usually due to poor balance or a flawed swing path. The focused drills outlined above are designed to systematically remove these faults and restore your confidence.
Sometimes, even with the best drills, identifying the exact cause of your own shank can feel like trying to solve a puzzle in the dark. If you're struggling to understand whether your path is off or your weight shift is the problem, getting an objective look at your motion can provide immediate clarity. I say this because at Caddie AI, we’ve developed a way to give golfers that clarity right in their pocket. You can get instant, expert-level analysis of your swing and pinpoint the exact fault, giving you a clear direction for what to work on without the guesswork.
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