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Had my round ruined yesterday by consistently pulling the ball left.  I wasn't hooking it, it was just going dead straight, but to the left of where I'm aiming.  In some cases by a marked angle.  The worst part of it is that I couldn't work out what I was or was not doing.  Frustrated the life out of me as, other than that, and the usual wayward drive or two, I was playing much better. 

I know it might be hard without seeing my swing, but anyone any ideas on why I'd be pulling it like this?

Was your alignment out by any chance? Standing with your stance closed, shoulders closed, aiming in that direction? Were you starting your downswing before you had completed your backswing? Often a pull is caused by getting your body ahead of the ball, so instead of swinging down the target line (asuming you were aiming down the centre of the fairway), your left shoulder is clearing and pointing to the left at impact. Without  seeing your swing it'd be tough to say exactly, but it wouldn't suprise me if it's a setup or swing tempo issue.

A good practice routine to stop this from happenign is to hit balls at the range with your feet together, enticing your body to turn properly and swing through the ball straight down the target line. Swing easy with a 6 or 7 iron when doing this, and it's the ball direction and action in the air you are looking for, not distance. It always works for me at getting my tempo back. I usually hit between 20 & 40 balls per practice session when I'm struggling with pulled shots. HTH. 

for me, if im pulling shots it is generally because my timing is out between my arms and lwer body.

Pulls = arms/upper body are moving faster than lower body

Push = lower body is quicker than my arms/upper body

 Slow everything down, play a couple of half swings and see what happens.

I tend to do this if a) I lean back on my right foot too much, or b) I try to hit it too hard.  Both mean I tend to close the face up, resulting in a clean strike with no noticeable side spin but usually about 20° left.

I just try and slow it up a bit to cure it

I knew I'd either get nothing or lots of stuff from this.  Wish I had a video of my swing.

The timing thing certainly sounds likely.  My stance is defintiley not causing all of it.  Not saying it isn't causing some, but like Tim says, sometimes I'm going 20 degrees left, more on one particular shot.

My suspicions in my own mind are that I'm trying to hit the ball too much.  Not necessarily too hard, but that I'm not swinging gently and under control.  The reason I think this is it reall only affects my longer irons, which I'm not comfortable with at all.  My short game with 8's - SW was excellent and I hit almost every green dead on using those. 

Could even be something as simple as you're closing the clubface at address (something I used to do in the longer irons to counteract my in to out swing). 

If you were playing better generally, then I would suggest that your swing, tempo, etc were about right and the bad habit you had developed to overcome the flaws was now manifesting itself in a pull.  Voice of experience here as I started pulling after having my swing plane corrected during a lesson. 

If the problem isn't seen with the short irons, clubs that have much greater room for error, andbeing shorter mean you are more upright at address, then it's more than likely a tempo issue. Try hitting balls at a range like I suggested to get your tempo back. you described me as a youngster there Jamie, exactly the same symptoms, though I used to lose the ball right with my longer irons and the occassional snap hook, purely becasue I tried to destroy the ball rather than swing through it. The routine I described worked wonders for me.

You may want to ask Wayne or David. They haven't pulled in ages :-)

Both Chris and Jonathan are probably closer to the cause, because if you are hitting the short irons without pulling them it has to be tempo. It is most important when using the longer irons that the same tempo used for the shorter irons is applied, but of course what happens in practice, is that because you are taking a longer iron the brain automatically thinks it has to be hit harder, when in actual fact a smooth swing is all that is required and trust the club to do the work for you.

By hitting slighter firmer without timing will nearly always produce a pull. We all do it, Jamie.

Thanks for that everyone. 

In my mind, I definitely let myself approach a long iron as hitting the ball, whereas I've just about managed to get the idea with the short clubs that I'm swinging, and the ball just happens to be in the way.

I've also understood the idea of not trying to watch the ball with the short irons, trying to make sure I've seen what kind of mark I've made on the ground with a swing before letting my head get up.

Frustrated the hell out of me yesterday, as, including penalties from going left into water and OB, I'm sure that it accounted for me not getting to that sub 100 score I'm aiming so much for.  Still haven't learned it's ok for me to bogey every hole, or take 3 to a par 4 green etc.

Get your swing working as it's supposed to, repetatively, and the scores will tumble Jamie

Somewhat of a truism there! :P

Have decided this forum is very frustrating as I sit and talk about golf, in my office, looking out the window at beautiful clear skies and I can't go play.

All these discussions are just extra teases!

Jamie wise words from John as usual.  I suffer from the same problem and is usually caused by trying to hit the ball too hard which causes me to pull my shoulders to the left in the follow through and the ball goes left.  Concentrating on swinging rhythmically and following through straight usually solves it for me.

As far as breaking a hundred is concerned I found playing to a par of 104 helped (double bogey on 4s and 5s and single bogey on 3s).  It helps to remind you of how many strokes per hole you have to score about a hundred and it is a psychological confidence boost during the round to get under par. 

I will try to David, but, even though I work for Sage as backline support, my computing knowledge is poor, because I hate the things Will try to get something on though.

And Jon, good idea as I won't have to pick up many shots that way.  To be honest, in my heart of hearts, I know that it's not far off.  I just need to get rid of some of the loose shots. 

Well, as so many people posted, and I used a combination of people's suggestions, I thought that I would post an update and a thankyou.

Yesterday I went out and shot a 95 and was rather pleased.  Slowed my backswing, stopped trying to hit the ball at all and most of my game came together at the same time, most pleasingly my long irons that I still pulled a little from time to time, but only a couple of degrees instead of 20 or 30.  It also meant I only lost one ball, and that's a hell of an achievement for me on a course with a lot of water.

So thanks guys, I shall be back with more questions once I start thinking I should be shooting sub 90's