Top 10 Worst Golf Tips

Here are the Top 10 Worst Golf Tips I have come across over the years...

10. Extend Your Arms At Impact - I just read this particular tip the other day, and it is absolutely horrible advice for the average golfer. Most golfers lose power because their arms ARE already extended at impact. This means their swing is already slowing down. Compare this thought to throwing a punch. Do you want to hit your opponent when your arm is full extended? No, because then you will have no penetration in your punch! The same can be said for the golf swing. You don’t want to be fully extended until AFTER impact. Full extension of the arms should actually happen about two feet past impact with the ball. This way you make sure you have the body behind the shot completely and you hit through the ball with acceleration.

9. Weaken your grip – Quite often, when an instructor sees a student for the first time, they will ignore the student’s ball flight and focus only on what they don’t like about the student’s golf swing. One area where most people have poor fundamentals is in the grip, and many people have a strong grip. Unfortunately, most people also slice the ball. So, while a strong grip should cause them to hook the ball, they are slicing the ball because their swing is badly flawed. If the instructor focuses on the grip rather than the ball flight, a weaker grip will make the slice worse.

8. Turn your hips more – Most people already turn their hips plenty in the golf swing. Yet, they will be told to turn their hips more if they are not generating much power in their golf swing. This is terrible advice. Turning the hips more, without turning the shoulders more will result in a lack of torque in the back swing. This torque is the difference between how much the shoulders turn and how much the hips turn. If the hips turn as much as the shoulders, or only a little less, than there is no torque, or tension built up between the upper and lower body. Furthermore, turning the hips more may actually result in weight shifting back to the front foot during the backswing. Ideally, there will be about a 2:1 ration between the shoulder turn and hip turn.

7. Get Stacked – This is in reference to the Stack and Tilt golf swing being marketed to both tour pros and amateurs alike. This is not a knock on the developers of the swing, who are two decent teaching pros from what I understand. The idea behind the swing is that it will help some golfers learn how to make better contact with the golf ball by keeping the weight primarily on the front foot and leaning the spine toward the target during the back swing. Unfortunately, most golfers are not athletic enough to pull off the move required in the downswing, which is that the spine will tilt back away from the target by impact. Many golfers already have a reverse pivot in their golf swing, and it leads to a variety of other swing faults as well as some back issues. Before attempting to copy this swing, get with a pro who is very familiar with it first.

6. Get a new putter – Putters are not cheap. If you are putting poorly, it is not likely because you need a new putter, unless you have bent it somehow, or unless you are putting with some hickory shafted relic. It is likely because you don’t spend much time practicing putting, and when you do, you don’t have a good routine or plan for improvement. Save your money and get your butt onto the practice green and work with some drills to gain better speed control and to develop more consistent contact with short putts.

5. Get a new driver – Drivers are even more expensive than putters. The solution many people seek is to get fitted with a new driver. Most people slice the ball, so most new drivers are built to combat that issue. Unfortunately, human beings have a way of adapting, and that slice will rear its ugly head no matter what kind of driver you are using. Save your money on equipment and get a couple lessons from a good teaching pro who knows how to fix a slice. A little research will help in that regard!

4. Feel as though you are sitting down when you stand up to the ball – This is terrible advice and it is often given to golfers who are topping the ball. Telling them to sit down in the stance is an attempt to help them stay down through the ball. Unfortunately, if they bend their legs too much and put too much weight on the heels, they will likely not have enough bend in the waist. Furthermore, it is not a natural position and the body will adjust at some point in the swing. The spine angle will change throughout the swing due to this poor set up, and it will be impossible to make consistent contact with the ball.

3. Aim further left – This advice is given to right handed golfers who tend to slice the ball, so if you are a lefty, chances are someone told you to aim further right if you slice the ball. Unfortunately, this will only cause you to come into the ball even further from the outside and over the top, which will cause a bigger slice. Most people are told this if there is trouble to the right (for a righty). The best thing to do is keep the driver in the bag and hit a more lofted club such as a 3 or 4 wood. The higher loft will add back spin to the ball, which will offset some of the side spin that causes the slice.

2. Hit down on the ball – This advice is often given to golfers who are having trouble getting the ball in the air because they are topping it. Telling them to hit down on the ball usually results in more swing faults because the golfer is trying to hit the ball with the upper body and the arms. They are topping the ball because their spine angle is changing in the golf swing, and they may be trying to lift the ball in the air. They just need to learn how the club design will get the ball in the air on its own, and they need to adjust the ball placement in their stance, and maintain their spine angle through the swing.

1. Last, but not least…drumroll please – Keep Your Head Down! - This is the worst advice to give to a golfer. It is given to golfers who top the ball too much. When a golfer tops the ball they will often say to themselves “I lifted my head.” Nope, they didn’t, they did not keep their center of gravity down at impact. Most golfers’ center of gravity rises in the down swing, while good players always lower their center of gravity, just as any athlete in any other sport tries does. Keeping the head down too long will only result in the upper body becoming disconnected from the lower body through the impact zone, and therefore, little power is generated. For better players who keep their head down too long, it often results in a pull hook.

Scott Cole
www.howtogolfyourbest.com

There you have it, the top 10 worst golf tips!