New Cleveland HiBore XL driver, pull hooks

[Mhairsto]

Hi Bobby,
I have most of your DVDs - driver, full swing, short game.
I've watched them many times and have applied most of your lessons and drills.
I think you are an excellent instructor.
My index is 12.8, down from about 16 a year ago.

With my new Hibore XL driver, I have developed a nasty hook in the past 2 weeks.
This new driver has a stiff fit-on-red Fujikura shaft. The head loft is 9.5.
My driver swing speed is about 93-95.

I feel like I'm leaning backwards very slightly onto my right leg
(I'm right-handed) on my downswing, causing me to swing up and then across to my left side,
way too low and sharply, instead of a nice, forward-facing, chest-out followthru.
So even though I end up with most of my weight on my left foot on followthru,
somewhere in the downswing I feel like I've fallen backwards a couple of degrees.
I have also recently started relaxing more on my setup. And it seems like my relaxing
more has affected my balance, and so I'm leaning back on my downswing
to offset the head momentum on the downswing.

The result is a slight to severe duck hook.
I lost at least 10 strokes off my round on Sunday due to poor, ugly, short, low, hook drives.

When I try to correct it by opening my face on setup,
and really forcing a straight-through and outward / upward followthru,
I start pushing my drives way high and right by 20-30 degrees.
These right-pushes can get way out of control. I cannot find a happy medium. But I rarely slice the ball.

What can I do to correct this leaning back problem?
Here's a recent finding: When I force my setup to start as if I'm leaning against a wall
on my left side, and straighten / tighten and press down on my right leg,
with a slight left / inward right knee bend, it stops me from falling backwards
on my takeaway, and forces me to follow straight through, and straight out,
and the ball flight is instantly lower, longer and straighter. But it feels forced.
I'm thinking maybe my new driver is a contributing factor. I'll go back to my Warrior 10 degree
driver and see if I still need to force the lean-to-the-left / pushing the right foot down on setup and takeaway.

On my long irons, I seem to also pull most of my approach shots, but not severe duck hooks. Just pulls.
And I've been told I do pull sharply through to my left on followthru - not straight out and up.

Update 5/11- I did it again. 4 of my drives were low pull hooks, and when I tried to correct and open my face a little, I was clear out in the next fairway with a huge push/fade. Again, no happy medium. I'm getting very frustrated with this new driver and / or its operator. My 85 could easily have been an 80 with 3 or 4 better drives!

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks for helping me with my game. I enjoy your dvds.

MHairsto

[Bobby_Eldridge]

Help has arrived...The next time you go to the practice facility I want you to do EVERYTHING you have been doing except two things. After you have addressed the golf ball I want you to look down and make sure you only see one knuckle of the left hand. The next thing I want you to do is hold on with your left hand as tight as you can.

Swing away...let me know if this helped.

[Mhairsto]

Bobby,
I actually changed two things in my grip. I have been using an opposite overlap grip for the past year, i.e., my left index rolled over my right pinky. This was from a lesson from Ed Tischler who teaches a right-hand dominate method. But today I tried the more traditional right pinky over left index, gripped the club tighter with my left hand, used the one left knuckle view at setup, and this setup is starting to work. I'm also convinced that the Hibore XL is too proned to hook on me. The Warrior 10 degr driver is MUCH more forgiving. I put a Fujikura Speeder stiff shaft on it a few months back and it is a great driver. Not real long, but consistently straighter. I used it in late April on my weeklong trip to Scotland, and I consistently put drive after drive straight down the middle @ Kingsbarns - a real tough course even without the wind.
Thanks for the tip. I'll followup again next week.
MikeH