There's all sorts of bad swing advice out there, but what are some of the worst tips?
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Getting better at golf is a life-long pursuit — and one that can be maddening at times. It’s often an exercise of two steps forward, one step back, and gains are rarely linear. There will be rounds where the game feels easy followed by days when nothing goes right. Improvement on the course is a heck of a journey.
Lowering your handicap is an addicting pursuit — but it requires a certain level of discipline. In the current age of social media, there’s an infinite wealth of swing-tip videos with promises of fixing your game. The problem is, lots of this content isn’t actually all that helpful.
Harrington has also heard his fair share of poor golf advice, and on the latest episode of The Scoop, he shared with our Claire Rogers one common swing tip he recommends amateurs ignore.
Padraig Harrington wants amateur golfers to ignore these common swing tips.
You’ve probably heard at some point or another that you need to keep your head still during the golf swing, but that advice shouldn’t always be followed. Being stagnant during the swing tends to rob you of athleticism and power, which will do nothing but hurt your game.
“You don’t want to lock things down,” Harrington says. “You’re trying to swing a golf club the same way you swung any stick as a kid.”
What does he mean by that? It’s all about keeping things natural.
“Get that movement going, get that speed going,” Harrington says. “And then we can tidy it up later on. If you lose that athleticism and that dynamic bit of your swing, you don’t ever get it back.”
It’s much easier to teach yourself how to hit the ball straight than it is to learn how to hit the ball far, so it’s important you keep as much athleticism in your swing as possible. If you can do that, it’ll be much easier to lower your handicap than it would be if you stayed stagnant.
Zephyr Melton is an assistant editor for GOLF.com where he spends his days blogging, producing and editing. Prior to joining the team at GOLF, he attended the University of Texas followed by stops with the Texas Golf Association, Team USA, the Green Bay Packers and the PGA Tour. He assists on all things instruction and covers amateur and women’s golf. He can be reached at zephyr_melton@golf.com.
