The best golf swing tips taught by the pros
Are you just starting out in the game of golf and need some great advice to get started? Maybe you've played golf for years and wish you knew a couple of great golf swing tips to lower your scores? The problem is everyone is an expert out there and willing to help you with your golf, but only a few golfers are worth listening to.
The good news is I've conducted a worldwide search and got you the answers from the best golf instructors in the world for this question.
What are the two most important golf swing tips you give at golf lessons and why?
Here they all are in no particular.
3 SECRET MOVES I WISH I WAS SHOWN WHEN I FIRST PLAYED GOLF
Chris Ryan
For the average golfer who typically plays 1/2 times each week, the two most common faults I see and therefore tend to work on would be:
Clubface control - all too often I see the clubface in a waited position during the downswing which means the club is effectively open.
This then causes shots that finish to the right of the target, or a last-minute attempt to fix this which results in a very poor impact position, very often seeing a poor pivot and poor arm and wrist structure.
One of the issues here is that many golfers see this poor impact and try to fix this when the problem is actually happening much earlier in the swing.
Shaft Angle in Transition - I see all too often a golfer struggling to play good golf due to the club shaft being too steep as they begin down.
Many of the game’s elite demonstrate a much flatter club shaft at the same point.
When the club shaft gets too steep many things are compromised such as the golfers’ ability to control clubface, generate speed, use the body effectively and these often result in a poor club path, strike, and clubface position at impact.
Chris can be contacted here at ChrisRyanGolf.com and on Twitter.
Andrew Rice
My 2 most important golf swing tips are:
The face angle will determine the shape of your golf swing.
Never over-estimate the appearance of a golf swing while underestimating the value of skill in a golfer.
Andrew can be contacted here at AndrewRiceGolf.com and on Twitter.
Tom Stickney
Helping students to do two things:
1. Narrow down what their true golf goals are?
2. Help the student to understand what are realistic and unrealistic expectations from their lessons, swing, and game.
You can see over 200 articles I have written at Golf WRX.com and over 500 videos at TomStickneyGolf.com.
Dennis Clark
My 2 most important golf swing tips would be:
1.Relax the grip: Most amateurs grip the golf club too tightly and cannot release the club. Be sure the golf club is in your fingers (not too much in the palms) and hold it in a relaxed way.
2.Swing the clubhead: Many golfers tend to pull the handle of the club as opposed to swinging the head of the club. Feel the "swish" of the club as you swing through the golf ball.
Dennis can be contacted here at DennisClarkGolf.com and on Twitter.
Maria Palozola
I feel that the two most important tips I give are:
1.Establish a solid set up
Your set up is the foundation or blueprint for your golf swing. It will affect the shape of your swing and its ability to generate speed and power.
So it only makes sense that if you start off right you are likely to follow with a decent swing. Each link is only as good as the previous link.
If you start with a poor grip or poor posture, the second, third, fourth link, and so on in your swing will only be trying to compensate to get you back on track.
2.Establish an effective practice routine
With all the work golfers do try to perfect their golf swing, it's all for nothing if they don't know how to make it effective.
A lot of time is wasted at the driving range with good intentions and a lot of hard work on technique gets away from us if we don't know how to practice golf by creating effective practice sessions.
Golfers should lean towards random practice (hitting a different club to a different target on each swing) and keep block practice (hitting a hundred balls with the same club and to the same target) to a minimum in order to transfer what they have learned to the course.
Maria can be contacted here at MyGolfInstructor.com and StLouisGolfLessons.com on Twitter.
Jaacob Bowden
It's hard to pick the 2 most important golf swing tips, but I would say as a generalization people want to hit the ball straighter (e.g. not slicing) and further.
With slicing, I think it's important to understand the ball flight laws. That understanding can make it easier to alter what you are doing and subsequently produce your desired shot shape.
With distance, that boils down to 3 things. First, use some foot powder spray at the range and work on hitting the ball more solid.
Second, get a custom fit for your clubs. Third, if you are willing to put in some work with swing speed training (SwingManGolf.com, for example), you can pretty easily pick up 30-40 yards in a month.
Jaacob can be contacted here at GolfWRX.com/author/jaacobbowden/.
Tasha Browner
The most important tips I can give a student in a lesson revolve around how to take their game to the course. Here are two ways to help:
1. Always do your routine - an effective routine breeds a consistent setup that includes grip placement, alignment, ball position, distance from the ball, and most importantly, posture.
Another benefit to executing your routine while practicing is it helps you prepare your mental game and swing for the golf course. See this article here Tasha.golf/tashas-tips/January-04th-2014.
2.Practice like you play- the next time you are working on your game, "play holes" on the range where you change clubs and targets on every shot. This is another way to help your game transfer to the course.
Tasha can be contacted here at Tasha.Golf and on Twitter.
Brian Mogg
Brian's 2 most important golf swing tips are:
1. For wedge shots create a descending angle by staying over your front leg with your torso and hitting down with the loft and bounce of the clubhead and having a quiet lower body.
2. Most golfers, don't get a full turn, and having a visual picture of "back to the target" is a great picture of how the torso needs to rotate to get the full coil needed in the swing.
Brian can be contacted here at MoggAcademy.com and on Twitter.
Brad Patterson
Brad's 2 most important golf swing tips are:
1. Invariably every new student has never learned the ball flight laws. I educate them immediately on what makes the ball fly the way it does and what parts of their body control face and path.
Everyone is taught to become a student of their own swing!
2. Virtually every student has never hit a draw before. I show them my two-minute "Solve your slice forever" muscle confusion drill. Watch the video here.
To date, the drill is 100% that a golfer will hit it straight, or a draw, in 3 balls or less! You cannot imagine how many times I've heard, "Holy sh*t!" out of pure joy and excitement.
Brad can be contacted here at GolfTheSimpleTruth.com and on LinkedIn.
Jon Sherman
1. One in particular that keeps coming up is the concept of swing tempo. Most people are told to swing "smooth" or "easy", but how do you actually make a golfer feel what that is, or even measure it?
You may have seen this article a while back, but I wrote a pretty lengthy discussion on swing tempo.
Here is the link. I also wrote this article as a follow-up on how I think golfers can reasonably practice tempo themselves.
2. Another concept that I think most golfers have been given misleading information on is the concept of hitting down on the ball.
People watch pros on television taking monster divots, and it's a term that's been thrown around for decades.
A lot of instructors have figured out that for many players it doesn't make sense to have a very steep angle of approach in their iron shots, but rather a more shallow one.
Here is an article I wrote that highlights some of the major thoughts from teachers who have researched it more in-depth.
Jon can be contacted here at Practical-Golf.com and on Twitter.
Amy Alcott
The two most important things I like to think about are number one keeping the right-hand grip very light.
If there's too much tension in the right-hand the takeaway will be abbreviated and jerky.
A light soft right hand is important to let the club flying through the hitting area and also good extension.
The second thing I think about is to keep the hands slightly ahead as a unit at address. This unitizes the swing and lets you swing everything back in one piece.
The best way to remember is to keep the hands on the crease of your pants shorts or skirt. If the hands are in a neutral position it's easy to get very handsy in the takeaway.
Amy can be contacted here at AmyAlcott.com and on Twitter.
Lawrie Montague
Of all the advice I share with amateur golfers the most consistent advice is:
1. The golf swing travels from A (the backswing) to B (the finish) regardless of the length of the stroke.
The golf ball merely gets in the way of the clubface and responds perfectly every single time.
So, the principle of swinging is to allow the stroke to travel from A to B without interference.
In this instance interference is the golfers’ attempt to hit the ball and make it B, instead of taking the stroke through to its completion.
2. Most amateurs want to increase their distance from the tee but they quite often confuse arm/shoulder speed for clubhead speed.
The idea is to get the clubhead to travel faster--not the arms and shoulders. The most effective way is to imagine how a martial artist breaks a brick with their fist.
The martial artist in a relaxed state transfers his energy through and well beyond the brick, but never at it.
Therefore the principle for generating efficient force to hit the ball further is to move the focal energy point of the stroke well-past the ball and never towards it.
I suggest that the golfer conserve the energy of their downstroke until the hands are passing the golf ball and then expend the energy well past the ball until both arms pull into a straight line with the club.
Lawrie can be contacted here at ProTourGolfCollege.com and on Twitter.
Robin Symes
Robin's two most important golf swing tips are:
1. Sequence, there is no question that to be able to strike solid shots, with power and yet control your power sequence must be correct, leading the downswing from the ground up.
There are a number of lessons to help players achieve this but really is a must for golfers to improve.
2. Basics, Golfers must have symmetry, from their grip, arm, shoulder, eyes, and lower body alignment.
Many golfers are twisted, out of position from the word go giving them really no chance of hitting a solid straight shot.
A no skip lesson for me is getting these aspects correct at the beginning.
Robin can be contacted here at SwingStation.com and on Twitter.
Alex Fortey
1. One of Alex's best golf swing tips is quite simply to, Take Dead Aim.
What I mean by taking dead aim is refining and narrowing your focus and objective target.
So instead of saying or thing you want to hit the fairway, you want to hit a dark patch on the right side of the fairway 250 yards carry away.
Instead of wanting and sometimes praying they hit the green, if you think about a branch on a tree that is in line with the left side of the green and you hone in on that branch…
If you do this and you miss your target by 10% you will still be very close to, or if not still on the green.
Aim small miss small is a principle that you should heed for every golf shot you ever hit if you want to see consistent shots and lower scores.
Taking dead aim is what will give you the advantage on every single shot and is such a simple golf tip that every golfer needs to follow.
See the video and learn more here: take-dead-aim-important-simple-golf-tip/.
2. The best golf drill for swing speed and dialing in your ball striking.
Many golfers want to know how to increase distance with the driver and hit fewer clubs into the green, but the way golf instruction have you going about pursuing that is complicated and not very natural to achieve unless you are a full time, PGA Tour Player who can practice and workout for golf all week long.
Staying centred is key when it comes to good ball striking and consistent golf and this simple golf lesson will show you how easily you can feel a balanced and powerful effortless golf swing.
Golf should feel natural and effortless …
It can if you allow your body to move how it’s supposed to.
Over the years this simple golf tip has been my go-to “dial-in golf swing” routine that gives instant results on the golf course.
To do the drill you simply put your feet together and hands-on hips and practice making golf swings back and through.
Gradually add the golf club after several reps and work your way up from shorter to longer shots.
See the drill here: the-best-golf-drill-for-swing-speed-and-to-dial-in-your-ball-striking/.
Alex can be contacted here at TheArtOfSimpleGolf.com and on Twitter.
Brad Pluth
Brad's 2 most important golf swing tips are:
1. You can only have one swing thought while you swing, play/work on one thing at a time.
2. Know how you shoot the scores you shoot (data) and develop a plan to achieve your goal.
Brad can be contacted here at BradPluth.com and on Twitter.
Tim Brown
Tim's most important golf swing tips are:
1. The players’ ability to brush the ground in the same spot over and over again!
Until you can hit the ball and the grass at the same time with the low point slightly in front of the ball, golf is frustrating!
To be a golfer you must get the ball in the air and you must hit the ground and the ball at the same time with an overwhelming majority of the clubs in your bag!
2. The second thing would be to get the strike in the middle of the face. Toe and heel hit not only affect distance but can disrupt directional control!
Tim can be contacted here at TimBrownGolfAcademy.com and on Twitter.
Alistair Davies
Alistair's 2 most important golf swing tips are:
1. Extension - improve contact and distance. Alistair recommends getting the arms to fully extend just after making contact with the golf ball.
Alistair demonstrates how to extend the arms through impact here.
2. The second most important golf swing tip is getting the takeaway done right. This is generally the first, or second point of breakdown in the golf swing.
Most golfers get this wrong and pull the golf club too far to the inside which causes a chain reaction of swing problems.
Alistair discusses what he commonly sees about the golf swing takeaway here.
Alistair can be contacted here at AlistairDaviesGolf.co.uk and on Twitter.
Chuck Quinton
Chuck has a different take on the best golf swing tips.
In fact, he recommends this:
Stop searching for quick tips as your brain does learn this way. You learn by practicing fundamentals and doing them over and over again in a specific pattern.
This is how you learn new movement patterns and how Rotary Swing golf instruction was developed.
Chuck can be contacted here at RotarySwing.com and on Twitter.
Joseph Hallett
Joe's 2 most important golf swing tips are:
1. Proper set up is key. Get your butt behind your heels and let your arms hang ... just like everyone sets up to a club in the pro shop :-)
2. Down is down--if the club went back and up then it has to go down THEN forward (as opposed to most who try to make it go forward/towards the ball)
Joe can be contacted here at JoeHallettGolf.com and on Twitter.
Jim Suttie
As you know, every swing has a different problem and a different fix is required.
That being said the main 2 problems I see are:
1. A weak left-hand grip leading to a casting downswing motion.
2. Excessive tension causing a shoulder-dominated downswing.
Jim can be contacted here at JimSuttie.com and on Twitter.
Michael Hebron
Michael's has 3 important golf swing tips which are:
1. Swing the weight of the club.
2. The golf course is the best swing model.
3. Learn what to do with the club and the body will follow.
Michael can be contacted here MichaelHebron.com and on Twitter.
Gary Wiren
1. A word that I use daily in teaching is through. We don't swing or stroke to the ball, we go through it.
In karate the boards are not the thought, it is through the boards with the target beneath them.
In boxing, we don't knock the opponent out by thinking strike the nose, but by going through to the back of the head.
Put a tee or coin about six inches in front of your ball and focus on continuing your speed through there.
2. When chipping, an early breakdown of the left wrist due to deceleration of your left arm swing or because of flipping your right hand to get distance or elevation will cause fat shots and thin shots.
To fix that problem, put a tee at the end of your grip and make practice swings to your finish where you check to see that the tee is not pointed to your body but outside of it.
Then hit the shot and check the tee. This drill will give you a flat left wrist, one of the secret "strike positions" in golf.
Gary can be contacted here at GaryWiren.com.
Scott Sackett
Scott's 2 most important golf swing tips he gives at golf lessons and why?
Getting the club on plane is paramount for hitting a solid shot. So I am always working on Trackman to get the paths close to zero along with the face.
That is assuming the person wants to hit it straight. The key to making that happen is the first move down from the top.
I go back to a few things that my students always keep reiterating to me…..here they are. These are their sensations:
My right elbow feels very close to my side
The right shoulder feels like it is dropping down and not going out
The club feels very much behind me
My upper body (head)is not moving forward. It is staying behind the ball until well after impact.
Remember these are the sensations of a person who is originally over the top which is 90% of all golfers.
Scott can be contacted here at ScottSackett.com and on Twitter.
Kevan Whitson
My two most important golf swing tips I try to install with my students are:
Block practice your technique on the range following tuition. Then go to the golf course to focus on "Target Orientation".
Putting Technique, firm up grip pressure on short putts and loose grip on long putts.
Kevan can be contacted here at RoyalCountyDown.org and on Twitter.
Megan Padua
The two most important tips I give in a lesson are to understand the importance of setting up for success and developing a pre-shot routine with a purpose.
Making sure golfers finish the golf swing in a balanced finish.
Megan can be contacted here at MeganPaduaGolf.com and on Twitter.
Sam Goulden
Sam's most important golf swing tips are:
1. Just about every single golfer other than tour level is lacking awareness of ideal impact conditions.
My first goal in every lesson is to ensure the player has a conceptual understanding of the intention for impact.
2. The number one concern I hear from players is “lack of consistency”. I make sure every player understands the geometry and physics of a solid shot with a predictable curve first.
Then I help them switch their brain from thinking to seeing and feeling the shot. We then create a routine for every shot that allows them to get into the ideal mental state for every single shot.
Only then can the player truly find consistency. I am a certified FocusBand performance coach and I use the headset to give my players neurofeedback which allows them to find the zone or flow state consistently.
Once the player has a consistent process and mind, they are able to play more consistently.
Sam can be contacted here at SamGouldenGolf.com and on Twitter.
Allen Terrell
I don’t give a lot of tips in a lesson. We try and educate our students on how their swing works or doesn’t work.
Everyone is so different so it would be hard to say something that fits all. If there is anything I would minimize the lateral motion of the upper axis in the backswing.
Second, I explain how the body goes into extension through the ball and into the finish.
Allen can be contacted here at DustinJohnsonGolfSchool.com and on Twitter.
Ben Austin
The biggest tip I would have for golfers is to learn where the club makes contact with the ground.
Put 2 tees down and try to get the club to hit the ground between them. Learning how to make the club hit the same spot is vital to becoming consistent.
The second tip is to learn the importance of the clubface. The clubface is the primary reason why your golf ball goes where it does.
Ben can be contacted here at BenAustinGolf.com and on Twitter.
What you need to do now
As you can see there are a number of different golf swing tips that can help your golf game and lower your scores.
However, it can be confusing to know which tips might work for you and your golf swing.
My advice is to try out which ones resonate best with you or better yet go and see your local PGA professional and get your golf swing analysed.
Another great idea is to try out these golf swing instruction programs that I've personally tried myself.
They provide simple, yet proven golf swing techniques that work for golfers are all handicaps ... yes even those of you that can't break 100!
I'd recommend trying out Rotary Swing or the Perfect Impact System.
If you have any questions about any of these please let me know.
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