How to Fix a Pull

About half of my drives (new TM M5) are straight pulls. The other drives are great. What is happening? What am I doing to cause this?

The pulls are as straight as an arrow, and I’ve never had this phenomenon before with the old driver.

My miss is on the heel, to heel center. But a few center hits also pull. I might also be closing the clubface slightly at address, taking a fairly strong grip.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

My best guess is your hips aren't swinging so your arms are getting through the ball too fast and flipping early. Stretch and make sure your loose before #1 tee and then "Fire them hips!!!"

A straight pull is a path issue. It can be caused by three things: Over the top swing, ball too forward, hanging back.

An over the top swing produces a swing that goes out to inside through the impact zone.

Your swing should be inside to out through the impact zone. A proper swing should be on an inclined plane. Thus at the bottom, the swing path transitions from inside out, to down the line, then out to in. Either setting up with the ball too forward or hanging back can cause an otherwise proper swing to contact the ball after the swing path has transitioned to out to in.

Your first task then is to figure which of these is your tendency. Hopefully, now that you know the three causes you can now recognize which is at work.

The fixes are pretty straightforward--at least to describe. Ingrained habits can be less than easy to change.

If you are occasionally swinging over the top, you obviously need to rid yourself of this tendency. Focusing on the back shoulder. Not allowing it to move out at the beginning of the downswing. Concentrating on your hip bump are two swing keys that tend to help people.

If the ball is too forward. Simply pay more attention to consistency in your ball position.

If you have a tendency to hang back? Focusing on the weight under your feet. Loading under your rear heel on the backswing then transitioning your weight to the balls then the side of your front foot is one way to help. Another way is focusing on moving your lead knee down the line at the beginning of the downswing. A third is focusing on pushing off your back foot.

It’s tough to diagnose in the abstract but my pulls tend to be an early release or lack of hip movement.

Thanks guys! I hit the range today for quite a while and really focused on driver. No ugly pulls, and I worked on the stuff you suggested.

Still not sure what was happening the other day, but today’s range efforts went pretty well.

Thanks!