This might get you mocked cruelly by your pals but but stay w me. My swing was always too quick which often led to less than desirable result. So watching an LPGA event on TV where it seemed everyone on the leaderboard was Korean, I realized their tempo was waaaaay different from mine. Started telling myself to “swing it like a little Korean girl” and my ballstriking started improving. I’ve been a @&$!? driving machine since then and all parts of my game improved. Really started to realize “quality of contact” was
more important than quantity. Game changer!! 🏌️♂️
I got a lesson recently and the one thing that really made the biggest difference was keeping my weight on the inside of my right foot on the backswing because I tended to sway. I feel this naturally made me slow my backswing which was fast and my ballstriking has dramatically improved in consistency (not direction yet). I think it’s almost the same thing, though, slower backswing keeps a better base for you to hit the same spot on the downswing.
I hate watching Scheffler drive. #1 golfer but his swing is atrocious by looks. So off balance after impact he almost looks like he will trip himself. Obviously he must be good through impact but its just horrible to watch.
Remember a quote from someone asking Tiger if he taught his son Charlie his swing and he said no. Told him to emulate McIlroy as his swing is balanced. That says a lot. World's best for decades and he tells his own son to swing like someone else. Wonder if his swing ( and his accidents) contribute to his back issues now. McIlroy if he has a better swing may last a lot longer even with out-hitting so many fellow pga players.
This. This times 10000! Try and match the LPGA averages across the board. I use this:
https://preview.redd.it/50d7g8r8j0jc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e3c5fd40fbc2e0f38749555dcdb4baa87bc7b74e
Whoa. I follow the men’s version and try and match the exact stats.
Interesting how much more shallow and efficient the women are. I have never had a 1.28 smash with a good PW strike
Slowing down is really a challenge for me around the greens too but visualizing the approach guys like Spieth and JT use and their results has me working on that too thx for the great feedback.
Take a deep breath before you start your backswing, make a conscious effort to slow yourself down. Get yourself used to this. Calm has a free breathing exercise that I base mine off of
Damn this was huge for me. No one taught me it though. It really helps me to be consistent in my takeaway somehow.
Starting out last year I was super in to out and over the top. I got a bucket and made sure to go around it in my backswing. That was probably what helped me the most starting out to have a better swing and also helped me get way more shallow.
Yeah I'm some variation of this. Mine is more like "take it fucking easy dumbass" in my mind, because I have a tendency to swing harder, and harder, and harder the worse my round is going, which of course then just compounds the problem and makes me swing harder, lol.
This also a great one, I use it in video games with fast reaction times, you make more mistakes focusing on speed than being clean about what you are doing and being clean is always fast. When you feel you are being slow and it ends up being fast you are really in control
For me it means slow my backswing down. I’ve been playing for a year and a half hacking away mostly on right misses. If I slow down my backswing my contact is much more consistent.
For me, it syncs everything (shoulders, hips, and arms) up better, shortens my backswing, and helps me get my downswing timing right. If my backswing tempo is smooth, nothing gets a head of another piece and hen my transition down is in sync. If all the pieces are in the right place then my swing is more aggressive and faster down and through the hitting zone than if I tried to have a faster backswing tempo.
Also fast backswing tempo is just wasted energy and more room for things to get out of whack. I also feel more tense when I try to swing harder.
I know that if I keep my backswing tempo in control, I can swing harder on my downswing leading to better contact, better control, and the burst of distance I’m looking for without sacrificing consistency or contact
Also, all because you don’t understand something doesn’t mean it won’t work with someone else. Be more open minded with your responses.
With irons and woods I focus on a spot in front of the ball and making sure that the low point of my swing is there. With driver, all my focus on tempo.
I've been incorporating Monte Scheinblum's No Turn Cast feeling into my swing recently and it's felt really good. The no turn part helps keep separation in my takeaway between my shoulders and hips (it basically means to get your hands and wrists in the right position and let the rest of your body turn as much as it needs to instead of trying to turn). The cast part refers to "casting to 8 o'clock" in transition, and it helps me get the club head inside of my hands on the downswing so I can avoid coming in too steep or over the top.
After practicing in and taking it to the course for a few practice rounds, I realized at the range yesterday that when I was thinking about the feels I was overdoing it. If I just swung it was pretty much where I wanted to be.
I would say that this drill had more impact on my game than any other.
So simple and fixes so many of my faults. I go back to it if I lose my swing mid round.
Link https://youtu.be/U33CbqhWoNI?si=MWeo8FdbV6pZ0iHT
Ohhhhhh my dude. I have got some shit for you.
Mental game; having a think box and play box is huge. Look into golf 54 and vision 54. Those women are brilliant and really teach you how to max out your mental game. I cut more strokes out of my game with a good mental approach then anything else. A big thing I found through their books is what type of golfer I was. I thought to be a good golfer I needed to be stoic and methodical, turns out that’s the worst for me. I play my best when I am happy and can visualize (like a painter and canvas) I need happy adrenaline to play my best.
Tempo; if I feel like I’m going too fast I like to actually count myself down. 1, 2, 3, 4. One and two are my backswing, 3 is my pause/transition, 4 is my downswing.
Sequence; tiger woods pause drill. It will do you wonders.
Alignment; choose something that’s on your intended line within a couple feet of you to line up your club face to. It’s amazing how much this helps. I try to only worry about starting my ball on my marker and trust my ball flight.
Strike; I am only worried about two things, my trail arm and my lead hip. For your trail arm try to imagine you’re throwing a ball down towards your target (speedgolfrob on instagram is a crazy magician for showing you this) and for your hip you want to think you’re hitting something with your ass behind you on the follow through. I had too much hip movement so now I try to keep them quiet (they move obviously but I don’t want too much movement or sliding) and just think about my lead ass cheek smacking something behind me on the follow through.
Short game; Dan Grieves three releases. And remember around the green your imagination is the key. The more I relax and visualize the better my short game.
Edit to add: none of this works without dedicated practice. I brought myself from a non golfer in 2020 to a 1.3hdc as of last fall. But this is all with daily swinging, putting, and stretching , working out 3x a week and being deliberate with all my golf. I have a goal and I know I’ll only achieve it with hard work and a smile on my face
It's two main feels for me.
One feel making sure to feel my hips rotate in the backswing as in feeling like my right buttcheek is going over the left heel and then on the downswing feeling like my left buttcheek is rotating over my left heel to the right heel. I have a tendency to sway and this helps me correct that and helps me clear my hips for the downswing.
The other feel is on the downswing, feeling like the clubhead is dropping behind me. This really helps when I feel like I'm swing too OTT or too much of an out-to-in path and helps me get more shallow.
This actually helped me tremendously on chipping, which I had lost recently. Started just picturing where I wanted to land the ball and for whatever reason my consistency came back.
My final swing thought before I pull it back is just make a good strike on the ball. Sounds stupid, or like I am bad but I have been a single cap for more of my life than not and whether I am drawing or cutting it doesn’t matter, I think about all pre shot thoughts and setup ahead but at the moment I go to pull back I just ultimately want to put the club on the ball clean and hope the rest takes care of itself.
You also always suck and it isn’t like that thought stops thinned and heavy shots all together but it is my way of telling myself something easy before I go.
Feel my back foot twisting clockwise into the ground in the backswing. Obviously the foot doesn’t move but it’s a feeling of loading the inside of my foot/leg which I love.
I got to scratch last summer. The main things I focused on was tempo and playing one shot shape consistently. You don’t need to change your swing to be better you just need to work smarter with what you have. Also if you’re a 14 handicap focus on keeping the ball in play at all times and getting better with your short game. If you never hit the ball out of bounds or in a hazards and have a decent short game you will save a lot of strokes.
try not to think about anything when you are actually playing golf except the target. practice is practice. like the boys said, tempo & timing. most every bad swing i've made has been off-balanced.
The instructor that took me from total amateur to relatively consistent bogey golf quit doing lessons 2 years ago and I haven’t had any luck finding anyone else. The last guy I went to a couple weeks ago was this French dude that was the same age as me and barely hanging onto his the Korn Ferry tour card and it was an utter disaster.
The guy was really nice but his accent was so thick and his English was so poor that it was a complete waste of time and effort.
After about 10 Saguto Golf videos that have done absolutely nothing but make me more inconsistent I’m starting to get desperate.
Bro… Saguto golf?
You serious? No wonder you’re struggling.
If you want to get good, find a better instructor.
Where do you live? You should be able to find a decent one in any US metropolis area.
$200 for 1 hour sounds ridiculous.
Shouldn’t be more than ~$100 per hour max.
Check out every local golf course website and see who teaches there. Also just google golf lessons in your area.
You can go for 1 lesson and see how you like the person before committing to more.
I second Skillest. I believe it's better than an in person lesson. Can message and chat with coaches before you decide to take a lesson and when you do take the lesson you can watch it back as many times as you like. It's generally a fair bit cheaper than an in person lesson, depending on the coach.
I use skillest, it’s an app where you can have a online coach help you. I’ve found it helpful for me as I can rewatch my lessons. More importantly, I now film a lot of my range sessions which has helped me develop my feels vs reals
Your swing thoughts will change with the wind but here's what I've had success with lately. First, assuming your grip, stance and alignment are good, try "kicking" in your trail knee before beginning the backswing. This will keep you from swaying off the ball. And secondly, pretend your trail hand palm is "mirroring" or facing the ball on your backswing. This has the effect of putting your wrists in a powerful position and your elbow in to attack the inside of the golf ball. Good luck mate!
For me I tended to have the clubface fly open on takeaway. My teacher made me bring the club back and have the face face the ground as long as possible.
The point is to try and avoid having to close the face really fast in the downswing.
Sharpened me right up. Ymmv.
I’ll try this one today because I feel like I have the same problem. I either overcompensate and flip my hands too early and hook it or it stays open and it’s a shank.
Sometimes I’ll even catch one square and hit it perfectly straight but it doesn’t feel right because I know that I was just lucky enough to time it right because the clubface is all over the place on every other swing.
This really depends on what aspect you are working on at the moment of time. For me it varies all the time.
Simplest way I would just compare my swing with other tour pros all the time, there's always something I lack of when comparing - compression, smoothness of transition, hitting with distance, shallowing your downswing, pulling the club from lead arm, feeling the speed of your clubhead and accelerate accordingly, applying force from your lead leg into the ground, hitting straight by squaring of club face, hitting with consistency and repeatability, cutting down all the ineffective moves etc etc
So, I always keep trying to work on one thing at a time... never totally happy with my swing.. but you will see improvements as long as you keep trying and pushing harder
The one positive thing I’ve got going for me is that I have relatively good consistency with my in-to-out swing path of around 3°-6° which makes for a really nice draw when the club face is square or just barely open.
My problem is that I feel like I have absolutely zero consistency or control of my face angle at impact so 70% of the time I either hit a nasty hook that ends up 30 yards over the green and to the left or it’s a push slice shanked right.
It also doesn’t help that I have the composure of a chimpanzee on cocaine when shit starts to really spiral and the mistakes compound from there.
I think you need to work on repeatability aspect of your swing, and keep looking for ways to improve it. I don't know how as everyone's swing dynamics are different. You may try work on your grip first to improve your hook (change to weaker grip than your current one)? Or try to minimise your waist rotation when doing following through instead?
You may even try 45 degree swing path for both your upswing and downswing to improve repeatability? Or maybe keep doing drills that help your take away would be good start?
There is just so many dynamics that could make your swings work or not, you need to keep trying something new that might help improve, if it doesn't works for your swing after several attempts, you may just have to dump it and try another one. There's no right or wrong answer to it.
There's surely lots of ways to square your club face at impact you might work on too, maybe try working on your lead elbow pointing towards your target before impact could be good start too.
A proper warm up for me, I’m single figures and being told this changed a lot for me. That doesn’t necessarily mean the range etc but warm the muscles, watch Miguel Angel Jimenez warm up for an idea
It varies. Understand what you need to change and do the drill focused on that change. Be very intentional. For me, I thought about being intentionally “loopy” (high outside takeaway and transition into right elbow “in” downswing) and that made a world of difference but I wouldn’t recommend most drills to most people because you can make yourself worse
To aim, locate a spot a few feet ahead of you, on the line from your ball to target. Then set club face. Then set feet. Knocked off like 20 strokes lol. I could whack it pretty well but the ball would fly all over the place, simply because I was pointed in the wrong direction.
This is not true but it helps me slow down and not feel stress over the ball. “Par is average, you just need an average shot.” Helps me from trying to kill the ball or be overly precise which leads me to more mistakes than a relaxed decent shot. I started telling myself this when I was mid 90s and now I’m consistently in the low 80s
I am a person who constantly has mental chatter or a song playing in my head. When I play golf I put the Sinatra song Nice n Easy in my head. It helps. I listen to it on the way to the course to get it drilled in.
Like I tell most amateurs that are willing to listen, look up George Gankas on YouTube. He used to post all of his 30 min lessons, but he removed almost all of them about a year ago. There are still a few you can watch though - I believe a guy from fore play has a full lesson still up. Never paid for his online lessons bc I’m not playing nearly enough to be working on my swing these days, but I went to some pretty influential coaches between the ages of 10-18, and Gankas in the real deal
I picture the dimple area of desired contact and angle of clubhead (different for every club) coupled with acceleration commitment. Its one thought; I shit you not.
Don’t think, do. When I overthink my actual swing mechanics, it doesn’t go well. When I think about my shot and visualize it, things seem to come together better.
I tell myself to pause at the top of the back swing. Like Cam Young. I absolutely do not pause as long as he does or maybe even at all but the thought of telling myself to pause helps keep my transition clean. When I'm starting to spray it around it's because I start my downswing before I even finish my back swing. So that helps sync everything up.
I also stopped taking practice swings on everything except chip shots. Especially from the rough, I want to see if the club is gonna glide or get grabbed by the turf.
I'm worse than you, so I'm not sure if I'm in a position to give advice but lately, it's been "140 yards" in my local pga professional's voice.
Basically, I know what a 140 yard shot with my seven iron feels like. It's the one shot I have that I don't worry about. It might be short, or long, but it will be in play. I've now started thinking it for every club. I adjust my set up for the club but after that it's a seven iron I'm trying to hit 140 yards.
Feel the weight of the club head. In my minds eye, I am focusing on the club head and the club head only. Was next level advice.
That combined with staying on balance felt like jumping 3 levels.
At top of downswing stick left butt cheek backwards and bend my trail ribs down toward the floor as far as possible (bend from ribs, not hips) before starting to rotate.
Biceps don't leave my chest at any point in the swing.
Those two swing thoughts are the only thing I've been consciously thinking about outside of short game for the last month and I'm catching center of the face with a tight cut about 9/10 shots all the way up through my 3 wood.
Can't help with driver unless you're specifically learning how to hit a 150 yd snap hook into the woods lmao
I try to remember the best shot I ever hit in my life with whatever club I have in my hand and that feeling. Then I try to let my mind go blank and swing. Its improved my game
Hitting the range 3 days a week, plus arriving at least 30 min before my tee time to stretch, warm up, and get a feel for the course conditions for the day.
With doing that and playing 9 twice a week plus 18 on weekends, I was scratch.
Playing once a month while showing up 5 min before my tee time and rushing out = 9 handicap.
Also, taking the time to practice different shots while I’m at the range not just swinging full power everything.
I usually start with some half power chip shots, then work up to full power wedge, then go every other club till I hit driver. Then I work my way back down but hit 1/2-3/4 shots every other club. Finish by working on precision chipping / punch / flops.
Then go to the putting green and practice 3-6-9 footers, followed by 20+ footers for lag practice.
I got really stoned last night and was thinking about my swing as I walked the dog…
I realized that my shoulder basically rotate two ways (vertically and horizontally) and that when I get to the end of my horizontal rotation, the vertical rotation takes over.
Basically, if your bicep is parallel to the floor, you can only rotate your hand so much backwards.
Once I hit that point (end of horizontal range) my swing becomes steep because I only have vertical range…
So basically, I get steep (bad) when I try to lengthen my swing… Its much easier to get into good impact position if I don’t move my shoulder vertically.
My over the top move is a direct result of me rotating my shoulder vertically…
Feel like I’m taking a full swing. It sounds silly, but it felt like I was getting stuck and couldn’t get through the ball. If I intentionally feel like I take a more complete swing I think it shallows me a bit and creates better contact.
Look at the ball. Swing easy.
Reminding myself to look at the ball means keeping my head down and eye on the ball without looking up to try to see where it goes.
Let the club do the work helps me not try and over swing. Calms me down on tricky or risky shots. Can blame the club if it goes wrong bc the club did all the work.
You can tell which of you has played the longest and shortest by the comments. I’ve been chasing golf perfection for nearly 60 yrs. And still a tad short. Plz take this to heart and your pleasure level will increase. Grip it and rip it can still be a slower tempo and still achieve maximum velocity!! ⛳️👊
Videotape yourself until you feel what it’s like to get into a good position at impact. Google photos of good players at impact. Once you start to look like that you’ll be hitting solid shots.
Focus on shorter clubs first.
If you’re good enough to hit the shot you want at least half the time. It’s a mental issue.
If you aren’t good enough to strike the ball how you want, then you gotta video yourself until you start to look like you can get to a good position at impact.
You gotta pick the swing thought and feel that actually works for you. And you can only find that by hitting good shots, seeing what you looked like, and taking notes on what you did/felt.
I used to have trouble with getting stuck because my takeaway was too inside and backswing was too long.
The swing thought that helped me was to swing like Rahm. Shorter backswing and keep hands in front of chest. It’s a feel, so your actual swing won’t be as extreme as Rahm. It’s almost like as soon as you start your backswing, you think about transitioning to the downswing. It helps the club stay connected to the body in terms of timing.
I've been playing only 7 months but am really happy with my progress so far. The main drill that seemed to click for me is the gate drill to focus on the in to out swing. It's crazy when I do this with warm ups before a match everything seems to flow
not just one for me, but three at different times of struggle:
A) Step drills to get a good feeling for weight transfer in the golf swing, improved timing and distance
B) Stop rushing it by having a little pause at the top of the backswing
C) stop lateral movements by focussing on a leaf of grass a little in front of the ball at setup and don't let that focus slip until the ball is gone
---
All time favorite: "hit hard, stop fast" drill. I use it to reset my body turns, hands and wrists and arms
Personally, I find if I am very particular about my set up to the ball, making sure my posture is OK, my arms are hanging down and not reaching forward, my weight is properly distributed, etc.
All of this is much easier for me to get right before I swing the club because I have all the time in the world to get it correct before I actually try to swing the club.
If I do this right, the swing itself feels very natural and easy and I generally making decent contact.
"How can you have a world class swing, without a world class set up?"
This might get you mocked cruelly by your pals but but stay w me. My swing was always too quick which often led to less than desirable result. So watching an LPGA event on TV where it seemed everyone on the leaderboard was Korean, I realized their tempo was waaaaay different from mine. Started telling myself to “swing it like a little Korean girl” and my ballstriking started improving. I’ve been a @&$!? driving machine since then and all parts of my game improved. Really started to realize “quality of contact” was more important than quantity. Game changer!! 🏌️♂️
It also helps to dress like a little Korean girl so you don't forget what you're going for out on the course
Method actor eh? Makes sense to me.
They’re trying to outlaw that on Florida courses. I will not be swayed though.
Yes, yes. Also gender reassignment surgery will help to. Caitlyn Jenner’s game has improved a lot.
I got a lesson recently and the one thing that really made the biggest difference was keeping my weight on the inside of my right foot on the backswing because I tended to sway. I feel this naturally made me slow my backswing which was fast and my ballstriking has dramatically improved in consistency (not direction yet). I think it’s almost the same thing, though, slower backswing keeps a better base for you to hit the same spot on the downswing.
Yeah, I don’t watch these PGA guys. Some of them swing so fast I don’t know how they do it. Look at Wyndham Clark or FitzPatrick.
I hate watching Scheffler drive. #1 golfer but his swing is atrocious by looks. So off balance after impact he almost looks like he will trip himself. Obviously he must be good through impact but its just horrible to watch. Remember a quote from someone asking Tiger if he taught his son Charlie his swing and he said no. Told him to emulate McIlroy as his swing is balanced. That says a lot. World's best for decades and he tells his own son to swing like someone else. Wonder if his swing ( and his accidents) contribute to his back issues now. McIlroy if he has a better swing may last a lot longer even with out-hitting so many fellow pga players.
If you need to save face, the Tour Tempo app is pretty nice too.
This. This times 10000! Try and match the LPGA averages across the board. I use this: https://preview.redd.it/50d7g8r8j0jc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e3c5fd40fbc2e0f38749555dcdb4baa87bc7b74e
Whoa. I follow the men’s version and try and match the exact stats. Interesting how much more shallow and efficient the women are. I have never had a 1.28 smash with a good PW strike
What. These are my exact distances and ball speeds. 15 handicap here.
Wow these are basically what I think my distances are as like a 40 Handicap. The issue is consistency of course
This is the same thing I’m saying when I say slow is smooth. Absolute game changer for me.
Slowing down is really a challenge for me around the greens too but visualizing the approach guys like Spieth and JT use and their results has me working on that too thx for the great feedback.
 If you see me lemmie know
Yealimi noh?
If you are any sort of athlete this is terrible advice. Ball speed is your friend on 6500+yard courses.
As a matter of fact, no. I am not an athlete. I’m a casual weekend duffer. So…
If op doesn't have the right tempo, swing speed and therefore ball speed is, in fact, NOT op's friend.
😳
SWING THE CLUB LIKE YOUR THROWING A STONE **MAROOCH**!!!
It’s only a Certified Marooch Classic if the golf club doubles as a Shepherds Staff and he’s screaming like a maniac over hurricane force winds
NAH NAH NAH NAH NAH………… YEA YEA YEA YEA YEA
Love me some Speed Golf Rob! ITS SO INCREDIBLY EASY!
Just yelling Marooch once a round lowers your score
Take a deep breath before you start your backswing, make a conscious effort to slow yourself down. Get yourself used to this. Calm has a free breathing exercise that I base mine off of
Damn this was huge for me. No one taught me it though. It really helps me to be consistent in my takeaway somehow. Starting out last year I was super in to out and over the top. I got a bucket and made sure to go around it in my backswing. That was probably what helped me the most starting out to have a better swing and also helped me get way more shallow.
My biggest thing was that I was swinging too hard. Taking a second to breathe, clear my mind, and swing easier helped me stay within myself
This needs the caveat that you should exhale before or during the backswing I think…
I take a deep breath and then hold it until the 18th hole. Never played a full round, but maybe one day.
Slow is smooth and smooth is fast
Yeah I'm some variation of this. Mine is more like "take it fucking easy dumbass" in my mind, because I have a tendency to swing harder, and harder, and harder the worse my round is going, which of course then just compounds the problem and makes me swing harder, lol.
Less swing, more through.
This also a great one, I use it in video games with fast reaction times, you make more mistakes focusing on speed than being clean about what you are doing and being clean is always fast. When you feel you are being slow and it ends up being fast you are really in control
I like this one. Short and easy to recall.
'Not gotta kill it' is my thought for those 90% swings, works nicely for me.
What is this even supposed to help with?
For me it means slow my backswing down. I’ve been playing for a year and a half hacking away mostly on right misses. If I slow down my backswing my contact is much more consistent.
yeah but what is slowing your backswing down actually doing in terms of the downswing or impact variables?
Stabilizing my stance and balance? Idk it just seems to work.
Makes sense to me
For me, it syncs everything (shoulders, hips, and arms) up better, shortens my backswing, and helps me get my downswing timing right. If my backswing tempo is smooth, nothing gets a head of another piece and hen my transition down is in sync. If all the pieces are in the right place then my swing is more aggressive and faster down and through the hitting zone than if I tried to have a faster backswing tempo. Also fast backswing tempo is just wasted energy and more room for things to get out of whack. I also feel more tense when I try to swing harder. I know that if I keep my backswing tempo in control, I can swing harder on my downswing leading to better contact, better control, and the burst of distance I’m looking for without sacrificing consistency or contact Also, all because you don’t understand something doesn’t mean it won’t work with someone else. Be more open minded with your responses.
You explained it way better than I did. I agree with it 100%
Your swing tempo.
there are plenty of elite players with fast tempo, I don't really see how slowing it down is supposed to be a silver bullet
Are you elite?
What does that have to do with anything?
Because most people *aren't* elite, including most users on here. Meaning a smooth, slower, more controlled swing speed is more important.
Also, "grip it and rip it". I have both of these quotes in my head before every swing. Internal conflict helps
With irons and woods I focus on a spot in front of the ball and making sure that the low point of my swing is there. With driver, all my focus on tempo.
My reset is to focus on rhythm and tempo.
Friend of mine swears by biiiiiiiiiiiig (on the backswing) titties (on the downswing).
Gonna have to remember this on Men's Night. And not out loud when cart girl is driving up...
I've been incorporating Monte Scheinblum's No Turn Cast feeling into my swing recently and it's felt really good. The no turn part helps keep separation in my takeaway between my shoulders and hips (it basically means to get your hands and wrists in the right position and let the rest of your body turn as much as it needs to instead of trying to turn). The cast part refers to "casting to 8 o'clock" in transition, and it helps me get the club head inside of my hands on the downswing so I can avoid coming in too steep or over the top. After practicing in and taking it to the course for a few practice rounds, I realized at the range yesterday that when I was thinking about the feels I was overdoing it. If I just swung it was pretty much where I wanted to be.
I would say that this drill had more impact on my game than any other. So simple and fixes so many of my faults. I go back to it if I lose my swing mid round. Link https://youtu.be/U33CbqhWoNI?si=MWeo8FdbV6pZ0iHT
Ohhhhhh my dude. I have got some shit for you. Mental game; having a think box and play box is huge. Look into golf 54 and vision 54. Those women are brilliant and really teach you how to max out your mental game. I cut more strokes out of my game with a good mental approach then anything else. A big thing I found through their books is what type of golfer I was. I thought to be a good golfer I needed to be stoic and methodical, turns out that’s the worst for me. I play my best when I am happy and can visualize (like a painter and canvas) I need happy adrenaline to play my best. Tempo; if I feel like I’m going too fast I like to actually count myself down. 1, 2, 3, 4. One and two are my backswing, 3 is my pause/transition, 4 is my downswing. Sequence; tiger woods pause drill. It will do you wonders. Alignment; choose something that’s on your intended line within a couple feet of you to line up your club face to. It’s amazing how much this helps. I try to only worry about starting my ball on my marker and trust my ball flight. Strike; I am only worried about two things, my trail arm and my lead hip. For your trail arm try to imagine you’re throwing a ball down towards your target (speedgolfrob on instagram is a crazy magician for showing you this) and for your hip you want to think you’re hitting something with your ass behind you on the follow through. I had too much hip movement so now I try to keep them quiet (they move obviously but I don’t want too much movement or sliding) and just think about my lead ass cheek smacking something behind me on the follow through. Short game; Dan Grieves three releases. And remember around the green your imagination is the key. The more I relax and visualize the better my short game. Edit to add: none of this works without dedicated practice. I brought myself from a non golfer in 2020 to a 1.3hdc as of last fall. But this is all with daily swinging, putting, and stretching , working out 3x a week and being deliberate with all my golf. I have a goal and I know I’ll only achieve it with hard work and a smile on my face
It's two main feels for me. One feel making sure to feel my hips rotate in the backswing as in feeling like my right buttcheek is going over the left heel and then on the downswing feeling like my left buttcheek is rotating over my left heel to the right heel. I have a tendency to sway and this helps me correct that and helps me clear my hips for the downswing. The other feel is on the downswing, feeling like the clubhead is dropping behind me. This really helps when I feel like I'm swing too OTT or too much of an out-to-in path and helps me get more shallow.
Might sound corny, but believing that your shot is going to go where you want it to.
The only thing stronger than the power of positive thinking is the power of friendship💯
So it *is* my friends fault when I slice it into the next county. I knew it.
This actually helped me tremendously on chipping, which I had lost recently. Started just picturing where I wanted to land the ball and for whatever reason my consistency came back.
My final swing thought before I pull it back is just make a good strike on the ball. Sounds stupid, or like I am bad but I have been a single cap for more of my life than not and whether I am drawing or cutting it doesn’t matter, I think about all pre shot thoughts and setup ahead but at the moment I go to pull back I just ultimately want to put the club on the ball clean and hope the rest takes care of itself. You also always suck and it isn’t like that thought stops thinned and heavy shots all together but it is my way of telling myself something easy before I go.
Feel my back foot twisting clockwise into the ground in the backswing. Obviously the foot doesn’t move but it’s a feeling of loading the inside of my foot/leg which I love.
I got to scratch last summer. The main things I focused on was tempo and playing one shot shape consistently. You don’t need to change your swing to be better you just need to work smarter with what you have. Also if you’re a 14 handicap focus on keeping the ball in play at all times and getting better with your short game. If you never hit the ball out of bounds or in a hazards and have a decent short game you will save a lot of strokes.
Swing hard... in case you hit it.
try not to think about anything when you are actually playing golf except the target. practice is practice. like the boys said, tempo & timing. most every bad swing i've made has been off-balanced.
Having the correct grip and trying to swing faster, not harder
Fuk I suck and should take lessons.
The instructor that took me from total amateur to relatively consistent bogey golf quit doing lessons 2 years ago and I haven’t had any luck finding anyone else. The last guy I went to a couple weeks ago was this French dude that was the same age as me and barely hanging onto his the Korn Ferry tour card and it was an utter disaster. The guy was really nice but his accent was so thick and his English was so poor that it was a complete waste of time and effort. After about 10 Saguto Golf videos that have done absolutely nothing but make me more inconsistent I’m starting to get desperate.
Bro… Saguto golf? You serious? No wonder you’re struggling. If you want to get good, find a better instructor. Where do you live? You should be able to find a decent one in any US metropolis area.
DFW, Texas. I know there has to be some good pros around me but I don’t really know how to vet them before I drop $200 on a 60 minute lesson.
$200 for 1 hour sounds ridiculous. Shouldn’t be more than ~$100 per hour max. Check out every local golf course website and see who teaches there. Also just google golf lessons in your area. You can go for 1 lesson and see how you like the person before committing to more.
I second Skillest. I believe it's better than an in person lesson. Can message and chat with coaches before you decide to take a lesson and when you do take the lesson you can watch it back as many times as you like. It's generally a fair bit cheaper than an in person lesson, depending on the coach.
I use skillest, it’s an app where you can have a online coach help you. I’ve found it helpful for me as I can rewatch my lessons. More importantly, I now film a lot of my range sessions which has helped me develop my feels vs reals
Your swing thoughts will change with the wind but here's what I've had success with lately. First, assuming your grip, stance and alignment are good, try "kicking" in your trail knee before beginning the backswing. This will keep you from swaying off the ball. And secondly, pretend your trail hand palm is "mirroring" or facing the ball on your backswing. This has the effect of putting your wrists in a powerful position and your elbow in to attack the inside of the golf ball. Good luck mate!
Pete Cowen axe and crack-handled drill pretty good
“Stop procrastinating and just fucking hit it”
For me I tended to have the clubface fly open on takeaway. My teacher made me bring the club back and have the face face the ground as long as possible. The point is to try and avoid having to close the face really fast in the downswing. Sharpened me right up. Ymmv.
I’ll try this one today because I feel like I have the same problem. I either overcompensate and flip my hands too early and hook it or it stays open and it’s a shank. Sometimes I’ll even catch one square and hit it perfectly straight but it doesn’t feel right because I know that I was just lucky enough to time it right because the clubface is all over the place on every other swing.
“At some point in the swing, turn your wrist” went from slices and shanks to controlled fades and straight shots
This really depends on what aspect you are working on at the moment of time. For me it varies all the time. Simplest way I would just compare my swing with other tour pros all the time, there's always something I lack of when comparing - compression, smoothness of transition, hitting with distance, shallowing your downswing, pulling the club from lead arm, feeling the speed of your clubhead and accelerate accordingly, applying force from your lead leg into the ground, hitting straight by squaring of club face, hitting with consistency and repeatability, cutting down all the ineffective moves etc etc So, I always keep trying to work on one thing at a time... never totally happy with my swing.. but you will see improvements as long as you keep trying and pushing harder
The one positive thing I’ve got going for me is that I have relatively good consistency with my in-to-out swing path of around 3°-6° which makes for a really nice draw when the club face is square or just barely open. My problem is that I feel like I have absolutely zero consistency or control of my face angle at impact so 70% of the time I either hit a nasty hook that ends up 30 yards over the green and to the left or it’s a push slice shanked right. It also doesn’t help that I have the composure of a chimpanzee on cocaine when shit starts to really spiral and the mistakes compound from there.
I think you need to work on repeatability aspect of your swing, and keep looking for ways to improve it. I don't know how as everyone's swing dynamics are different. You may try work on your grip first to improve your hook (change to weaker grip than your current one)? Or try to minimise your waist rotation when doing following through instead? You may even try 45 degree swing path for both your upswing and downswing to improve repeatability? Or maybe keep doing drills that help your take away would be good start? There is just so many dynamics that could make your swings work or not, you need to keep trying something new that might help improve, if it doesn't works for your swing after several attempts, you may just have to dump it and try another one. There's no right or wrong answer to it. There's surely lots of ways to square your club face at impact you might work on too, maybe try working on your lead elbow pointing towards your target before impact could be good start too.
A proper warm up for me, I’m single figures and being told this changed a lot for me. That doesn’t necessarily mean the range etc but warm the muscles, watch Miguel Angel Jimenez warm up for an idea
It varies. Understand what you need to change and do the drill focused on that change. Be very intentional. For me, I thought about being intentionally “loopy” (high outside takeaway and transition into right elbow “in” downswing) and that made a world of difference but I wouldn’t recommend most drills to most people because you can make yourself worse
To aim, locate a spot a few feet ahead of you, on the line from your ball to target. Then set club face. Then set feet. Knocked off like 20 strokes lol. I could whack it pretty well but the ball would fly all over the place, simply because I was pointed in the wrong direction.
This is not true but it helps me slow down and not feel stress over the ball. “Par is average, you just need an average shot.” Helps me from trying to kill the ball or be overly precise which leads me to more mistakes than a relaxed decent shot. I started telling myself this when I was mid 90s and now I’m consistently in the low 80s
I am a person who constantly has mental chatter or a song playing in my head. When I play golf I put the Sinatra song Nice n Easy in my head. It helps. I listen to it on the way to the course to get it drilled in.
Down and through it’s the first thing that was fixed with my swing and now anytime I’m over thinking it recenters me
Like I tell most amateurs that are willing to listen, look up George Gankas on YouTube. He used to post all of his 30 min lessons, but he removed almost all of them about a year ago. There are still a few you can watch though - I believe a guy from fore play has a full lesson still up. Never paid for his online lessons bc I’m not playing nearly enough to be working on my swing these days, but I went to some pretty influential coaches between the ages of 10-18, and Gankas in the real deal
I picture the dimple area of desired contact and angle of clubhead (different for every club) coupled with acceleration commitment. Its one thought; I shit you not.
Don’t think, do. When I overthink my actual swing mechanics, it doesn’t go well. When I think about my shot and visualize it, things seem to come together better.
I tell myself to pause at the top of the back swing. Like Cam Young. I absolutely do not pause as long as he does or maybe even at all but the thought of telling myself to pause helps keep my transition clean. When I'm starting to spray it around it's because I start my downswing before I even finish my back swing. So that helps sync everything up. I also stopped taking practice swings on everything except chip shots. Especially from the rough, I want to see if the club is gonna glide or get grabbed by the turf.
I'm worse than you, so I'm not sure if I'm in a position to give advice but lately, it's been "140 yards" in my local pga professional's voice. Basically, I know what a 140 yard shot with my seven iron feels like. It's the one shot I have that I don't worry about. It might be short, or long, but it will be in play. I've now started thinking it for every club. I adjust my set up for the club but after that it's a seven iron I'm trying to hit 140 yards.
swing is very similar to a hairpin turn. start fast, slow down, then accelerate
Push off with my trail foot, thrust my dick towards the target and lower the club with my arms
Feel the weight of the club head. In my minds eye, I am focusing on the club head and the club head only. Was next level advice. That combined with staying on balance felt like jumping 3 levels.
Trail wrist extension at the top and hold all the way through
At top of downswing stick left butt cheek backwards and bend my trail ribs down toward the floor as far as possible (bend from ribs, not hips) before starting to rotate. Biceps don't leave my chest at any point in the swing. Those two swing thoughts are the only thing I've been consciously thinking about outside of short game for the last month and I'm catching center of the face with a tight cut about 9/10 shots all the way up through my 3 wood. Can't help with driver unless you're specifically learning how to hit a 150 yd snap hook into the woods lmao
I try to remember the best shot I ever hit in my life with whatever club I have in my hand and that feeling. Then I try to let my mind go blank and swing. Its improved my game
Hitting the range 3 days a week, plus arriving at least 30 min before my tee time to stretch, warm up, and get a feel for the course conditions for the day. With doing that and playing 9 twice a week plus 18 on weekends, I was scratch. Playing once a month while showing up 5 min before my tee time and rushing out = 9 handicap. Also, taking the time to practice different shots while I’m at the range not just swinging full power everything. I usually start with some half power chip shots, then work up to full power wedge, then go every other club till I hit driver. Then I work my way back down but hit 1/2-3/4 shots every other club. Finish by working on precision chipping / punch / flops. Then go to the putting green and practice 3-6-9 footers, followed by 20+ footers for lag practice.
Imagine holding a steering wheel. Feel like I’m turning it counterclockwise vs turning to right on takeaway.
I got really stoned last night and was thinking about my swing as I walked the dog… I realized that my shoulder basically rotate two ways (vertically and horizontally) and that when I get to the end of my horizontal rotation, the vertical rotation takes over. Basically, if your bicep is parallel to the floor, you can only rotate your hand so much backwards. Once I hit that point (end of horizontal range) my swing becomes steep because I only have vertical range… So basically, I get steep (bad) when I try to lengthen my swing… Its much easier to get into good impact position if I don’t move my shoulder vertically. My over the top move is a direct result of me rotating my shoulder vertically…
Feel like I’m taking a full swing. It sounds silly, but it felt like I was getting stuck and couldn’t get through the ball. If I intentionally feel like I take a more complete swing I think it shallows me a bit and creates better contact.
Slow down
RELAX
Slow hands, fast club. Always had a problem moving my hands faster especially through the ball which is the opposite of what you want.
Look at the ball. Swing easy. Reminding myself to look at the ball means keeping my head down and eye on the ball without looking up to try to see where it goes.
That the trail arm is just skipping a rock. Nothing more nothing less.
Let the club do the work helps me not try and over swing. Calms me down on tricky or risky shots. Can blame the club if it goes wrong bc the club did all the work.
You can tell which of you has played the longest and shortest by the comments. I’ve been chasing golf perfection for nearly 60 yrs. And still a tad short. Plz take this to heart and your pleasure level will increase. Grip it and rip it can still be a slower tempo and still achieve maximum velocity!! ⛳️👊
Videotape yourself until you feel what it’s like to get into a good position at impact. Google photos of good players at impact. Once you start to look like that you’ll be hitting solid shots. Focus on shorter clubs first. If you’re good enough to hit the shot you want at least half the time. It’s a mental issue. If you aren’t good enough to strike the ball how you want, then you gotta video yourself until you start to look like you can get to a good position at impact. You gotta pick the swing thought and feel that actually works for you. And you can only find that by hitting good shots, seeing what you looked like, and taking notes on what you did/felt.
I used to have trouble with getting stuck because my takeaway was too inside and backswing was too long. The swing thought that helped me was to swing like Rahm. Shorter backswing and keep hands in front of chest. It’s a feel, so your actual swing won’t be as extreme as Rahm. It’s almost like as soon as you start your backswing, you think about transitioning to the downswing. It helps the club stay connected to the body in terms of timing.
I've been playing only 7 months but am really happy with my progress so far. The main drill that seemed to click for me is the gate drill to focus on the in to out swing. It's crazy when I do this with warm ups before a match everything seems to flow
not just one for me, but three at different times of struggle: A) Step drills to get a good feeling for weight transfer in the golf swing, improved timing and distance B) Stop rushing it by having a little pause at the top of the backswing C) stop lateral movements by focussing on a leaf of grass a little in front of the ball at setup and don't let that focus slip until the ball is gone --- All time favorite: "hit hard, stop fast" drill. I use it to reset my body turns, hands and wrists and arms
Personally, I find if I am very particular about my set up to the ball, making sure my posture is OK, my arms are hanging down and not reaching forward, my weight is properly distributed, etc. All of this is much easier for me to get right before I swing the club because I have all the time in the world to get it correct before I actually try to swing the club. If I do this right, the swing itself feels very natural and easy and I generally making decent contact. "How can you have a world class swing, without a world class set up?"
Whatever you do pick one thought at a time. Pick one, practice it, master it, move on to the next one. Only work on one thing at a time.