Is anybody else not even opening the thread on the y&%*s?

[Wyatt Halliday]

The flubs can be worse. Only bulk level quantities of alcohol can subdue them.

[Kalen Braley]

The flubs can be worse. Only bulk level quantities of alcohol can subdue them.

I think Wyatt is on to something here.

My worst days on the course are either when:

1) I'm playing military golf...left, right, left, right.

2) Or when every other iron shot is digging a hole halfway to China and my ball advances 20 yards up the fairway.  And on those rare days, it doesn't seem to matter what adjustment I make to my stance, posture, grip, ball position, etc, etc....its just going to be one of those days.

[jeffwarne]

nothing is worse than the shanks....
and they come in bunches.

The ONLY way to help someone with them is to get them to hit something without a hozel (a wood) and forget it happened.
People who start shanking and insist on immediately curing it (thus incresing their tension level and exasperating the problem) are doomed to shank to eternity because they are grooving the shank and forever burning it in their psyche (and mine)

I'm just amazed how some can hit that tiny piece of metal two inches to the left of the sweet spot so consistently

[Kalen Braley]

I had the chip shanks and cured it almost instantly once I actually realized what the problem was.

[Doug Siebert]

I don't know if I've ever seen someone truly afflicted with the yips....after reading that thread and seeing how bad it can be, I guess I've never witnessed it.  But my dad has had bouts with shanks for years.  When he first got them once he shanked he was shanking pretty much the rest of the round.  Nowadays its just a one off but doesn't seem to get into his head like it used to.

The funny thing is that back when he'd seem to get infected with a mind virus where one shank caused him to shank the rest of the day I started to wonder if it was possible if you could catch them.  There were a few times I'd be standing over a wedge shot and thinking about him shanking and telling myself "stop thinking about shanks or you'll get them too!"  Fortunately that didn't seem to be the case, as even when I was thinking about shanks while hitting a shot I didn't shank.  Didn't usually produce a particularly good shot though since my usual thoughts about getting the weight of the shot correct for the distance were pushed out of mind

[Bill_McBride]

I had the chip shanks and cured it almost instantly once I actually realized what the problem was.

Swinging too far inside?

[Kalen Braley]

I had the chip shanks and cured it almost instantly once I actually realized what the problem was.

Swinging too far inside?

Actually it was the reverse.  My chip swing was too far outside so the hozzle kept hitting the ball instead of the club face. 

[Bill_McBride]

I had the chip shanks and cured it almost instantly once I actually realized what the problem was.

Swinging too far inside?

Actually it was the reverse.  My chip swing was too far outside so the hozzle kept hitting the ball instead of the club face.  

It can work the other way too.  Give it a try!  

[JNC Lyon]

YIPS YIPS YIPS!
SHANKS SHANKS SHANKS!

 

[Doug Ralston]

Is it okay if I tell a pretty funny shank story?

One time I was playing with my beloved Uncle Joe at the ancient 9-hole Newnan (Ga.) CC.  We got to #7, which used to be #1 so the members called it "Old #1.". The hole was a medium length par 4 with a round green that was an upside down saucer, with no bunkers.  Uncle Joe had been fighting a shank a bit, I suspect because his belly was pretty round at that point.  We came to #7 and he hit a nice mid iron into that convex green and the ball wound up just off the green at the bottom of the slope.  

From there he shanked the ball at least 8 times until he had circumnavigated the green.  You can visualize this because each dreaded lateral went straight right.  

At this point in a speechless rage, he picked up the ball and walked the length of Old #1, to the clubhouse where the bar awaited.  That was it for golf that day.  

I had exactly this experience, during one of my many bouts. Except it only took me 5 shanks to circle the green. My 5th shot, I used my putter, even though it was very deep there. Of course, the grass caught the tip and it shanked as beautifully as any wedge. I was then standing withing an inch or two of where i was 5 shots ago. Forunately, my playing partner invoked the legenday quintuple mulligan, and i putted on with my driver. The shanks had gone by the next hole [mine seem almost exclusively on very short chips], and we finished with some laughs and a drink.