Things I picked up on

Question
As I am going along, I am finding little things that I believe caused things like snap hooks and errant shots every now and then.

I generally hit the ball pretty straight but I believe I had a couple anomalies that were subconscious.

The first was with my right hand and it could have caused the above (and I am working on correcting this).  My left hand was OK (the V points somewhere between the neck and the right shoulder) but the right hand wanted to lay flat(palm pointing up and the V pointing way right). Occasionally I was feeling my hands rotate ccw through the downswing. Would the right hand position contribute to this?  I know that you should see two knuckles on each hand and the Vs should point to the right shoulder (or between the chin and shoulder for a slightly weaker grip).  Having the right hand in the proper position does feel a bit uncomfortable but I am slowly getting used to it.

The other was once in a while (when I get someone to watch me) I fell back (and it appears that I am hitting with my weight on the right foot) and I lost power (and sometimes hit it fat), got too far under the ball (when teeing a wood) or topped it.  If I remembered to shift my weight to the left foot,I got some good distance. With the irons and hybrids it wasn't much of a problem but used to happen more often with the woods.

Do you think the two above could have been also causing me to occasionally whip around on the follow-through (causing a hook or pull)?

Actually, things are getting good now.  What I've been doing lately is practicing full shots with the short irons and pitch shots with the middle irons at a school park near my house.  I think this is much closer to playing golf than going to the range.  If one hits a bad shot it ends up in someone's yard or in the playground.  

Answer
Hey Lou:
Good observations.  The right hand too much under the club encourages too much rotation, which could cause a hook to some degree.  The club needs to be more towards the fingertips in the right hand (middle two fingers),and the V needs to be closer to the chin than the right shoulder.  You need your hands to function as a unit, so get in front of a full lenght mirror, take your grip and your stance, and check it out.  Look at them.  You'll get used to it.  Hitting it fat and moving underneathe it you described perfectly.  Please don't try to SHIFT YOUR WEIGHT.  Swing the golf club to a finish and allow your body to respond to that motion and stick your finish.  I am assuming you know how to make a finish and what it should look like and feel like.  Concentrate more on the swinging motion (arms, hands and golf club), and let the body move in the same direction as the club is swinging.  Just check your finish when you are done swinging and see how you did.  Gymnasts get points for sticking their finish, we don't.  BUT, when was the last time you saw a Tour player lose his/her balance?  

Eddie Kilthau
PGA Member