Bad golf advice is everywhere. The more time I’ve spent in this game, the more I think some of it isn’t always bad. It is simply misunderstood.
Telling a golfer to keep the left arm straighter can clean up a collapsed swing. Tell a golfer the same thing, and suddenly they’ve locked their arm so tight that the swing looks more like a windmill than an athletic movement.
Most advice is not wrong for everyone. They are wrong when applied to the wrong player, exaggerated, or followed without understanding what they are supposed to fix.
To accept and process golf advice from other people, you need at least a basic understanding of your swing and your tendencies. Otherwise, a tip that solves one issue can quickly create more.
Here are four common golf tips, what they’re trying to fix, and what can go wrong if you take them too far.
“keep your head down”
This usually occurs when a golfer catches the ball, hits it thin, or looks early to see where the shot went. The idea is simple: keep your eyes on the ball long enough to make clean contact.
Forcing yourself to keep your head down can quickly turn into keeping your whole body down.
When golfers take this advice too literally, they stay in their stance too long. The chest stays pointed to the ground, the body stops rotating and the bottom is restrained.
Instead of making a free, athletic movement through the ball, they freeze on it.
There is still value in the “heads down” advice. If you’re pitching up before impact, you probably need to be more aware of the ball and where the club is landing. But that doesn’t mean your head has to stay buried and restrict your movement.
Best tip: Watch the club hit the ball, then let yourself turn and watch the ball fly. You need awareness in influence. You don’t need to get your head, chest, and body off the ground long after hitting.
“hold your delay”
Lag sounds great because most players associate it with power, compression and shaft leagues. If you drop the club early, roll at the end, or lose speed before impact, learning to create a better transition sequence can help.
Trying to hold the lag usually causes golfers to lean and release the club too late.
Procrastination is not something you want to lock up and force yourself to maintain. At some point, that corner has to be released. If it doesn’t, you either miss the ball, leave your face open, or make a last-second compensation with your hands.
Best tip: Begin the downswing by letting your hands drop as your body begins to rotate, then let the club release naturally through impact. Do not pull the handle straight down just to hold the angle. If the club gets steep or you feel like you need to save your forehand, you’re taking too long of a lag.
“Keep the club square through influence”
If you hit shots that start straight, spin too much, or feel like the face is open, trying to keep the clubface square sounds like a logical adjustment.
However, forcing anything into the golf swing is difficult to make work long-term, even if the intention to square the clubface is good.
The clubface is supposed to rotate. Your body is rotating, your arms are moving and the club is traveling around you in an arc. Trying to keep the face square through impact can make the swing stiff, slow, and over-controlled.
Best tip: Focus on squaring the clubface at impact, not keeping it square for as long as possible. Control your grip, make sure your wrists can move naturally and let the club release the ball instead of trying to control it during the swing.
“Turn your hips for more power”
Using the arms instead of the body is one of the most common mistakes I see from amateur players. When a player is all arms, giving them the feeling of turning their hips can help them understand that power comes from more than just lifting the club up and bringing it back down.
The thing is, hip rotation is really easy to overdo.
A big bend in the hips can make the backswing look bigger, but it doesn’t automatically make the bottom movement better.
In fact, turning the hips too much can make it more difficult to pass through the impact. If you get everything off the ball but don’t have the ability to get back, you’ll likely be relying on your hands and arms to save the shot.
Best tip: Use your body better so your arms don’t do all the work. Turn back enough to create a full backswing, then make sure you can still roll through the ball with balance and control.
Final thoughts
Most golf tips are designed for a specific player, a specific problem, and a specific moment. That’s why the same tip can help one golfer and hurt another.
Take some time to understand how your golf swing works and what strengths and weaknesses you have and from there you can work towards improving your game in the right way.
