Breaking 80

One Plane vs. Two Plane

One-Planer

How to avoid the snap hook

By Jim Hardy with Matthew Rudy
Photos By Stephen Szurlej
Photo Illustrations By Jim Luft April 2008

All great players have a go-to shot -- something they can hit under even the most pressure-packed situations.

For the one-plane swinger, that's probably going to be a shot that curves from right to left. But how do you hit that shot without worrying about snap-hooking? The trick is to hit an intentional draw. The shot that just destroys the one-planer is the snap hook, which happens when your right arm stays under your left too long, then flips over at impact (above).

When you hit an intentional draw, your right arm begins rotating earlier in the swing, and you hit a more controlled draw. With that shot, you can aim at the right edge of the fairway and swing away without worrying about the lake on the left.

Two-Planer

How to avoid the push

The two-plane swinger is probably going to favor a left-to-right shape for a go-to shot. Jack Nicklaus won a lot of tournaments pounding a cut drive out there 285 yards.

The danger for a two-planer is that the act of shallowing out a steep angle through impact opens the clubface. If you don't play the ball far enough forward in your stance, that gentle fade can become a weak push slice.

When you move the ball forward, opposite your front heel, make sure you don't push your hands forward as well (above left. That pulls your right shoulder toward the ball and skews your aim to the left. Keep your hands slightly behind the ball (near left) to maintain the correct shoulder alignment. You'll hit a nice, controlled fade.

TWO-PLANER'S ALIGNMENT CHECK: Illustration By Christoph Niemann; A two-planer who wants to hit a fade tends to line up too square to the target. You have to be sure to allow for enough left-to-right curve when you set your aim. If you don't, you end up hitting the ball to the right of your target or, even worse, overcorrecting mid-swing and double-crossing yourself with a pull hook.