If you have ever shanked the ball you know how terrible that feeling is. One shank per round is one too many. The key to stopping the shank is really understanding why it happens.

The most common cause of the shank is when the club comes from the outside of the target line and hits the ball with the hosel or socket of the club (where the shaft meets the heel of the clubhead).

Instead what you want to do is for that club to come from the inside of the target line. to help make this happen, what you can do when you are practicing is to set up a rolled towel just on the outside of the ball and parallel to the target line. That way when you swing and don’t hit the towel, you know that your path has come correctly from the inside.

When you are on the course, naturally you won’t be able to put a towel down, so instead, you need to visualize the target line and visualize the towel as if it were there. If you do this correctly when you swing, your club will come from the inside line and you will be much less likely to shank the ball and more likely to have a great round.