Golf can be a difficult game. But with these perfect golf swing tips, golf will be more enjoyable and you may even win a few skins from your friends.
In the hierarchy of golf movies, I would put Caddyshack as “1A” followed by Tin Cup as “1B”. In the latter, Kevin Costner plays the lovable, loser, golf pro, Roy McAvoy. Roy is the owner/operator of a remote driving range in Texas where he spends his days teaching golf, eating hot dogs, and betting on anything with his compadre, Romeo (played by Cheech Marin), and their group of friends. Roy meets his new student Molly (played by René Russo) and is dismayed to find out she’s the girlfriend of his longtime nemesis, David Simms, an accomplished pro golfer.
During his golf lesson with Molly, Roy waxes poetic about the golf swing and it’s during that scene where he utters the immortal and eminently accurate words, with respect to the golf swing, “perfection is unattainable”. So, while these tips may be about the perfect golf swing, you will never make a perfect golf swing. Nobody ever has, from your 18-handicap, weekend duffer to the immortal Jack Nicklaus.
Benefits of Golf
Does golf have fitness and health benefits? You don’t get your heart rate up very much. You don’t lift a lot of weight. It’s not really mentally challenging. But that doesn’t mean golf doesn’t have its benefits.
No matter your skill level, you still have to stretch your muscles a bit. You also have to swing your arms and shoulders. You can drive a cart; but, many golfers like to walk when they play. There are obvious benefits for maintaining and improving your eye-hand coordination. Finally, if the competition isn’t too intense, golf is inherently a social game. Much can be revealed while walking a fairway or studying a green.
I was golfing once with friends on the Fort Polk, Louisiana, golf course. It was a weekday and the course wasn’t that crowded. The Course Manager let us go out as a fivesome (four being the usual maximum for a golfing group). He reminded us that if there were faster players/groups behind us we should let them “play through”. Before we had a chance to tee off on a particular hole, a single golfer came up behind us. We offered to let him play through, but he asked if he could join our group instead. We told him that would be fine and off we went.
As we were walking down the fairway, as you might expect, we all introduced ourselves to our new friend. I extended my hand and told him my name was “Bill Wilson”. He nodded with a serious look in his eye, shook my hand, and introduced himself. Down the next fairway, he asked again for my name. I thought that kind of strange but answered again “Bill Wilson”. “No, what’s your REAL name?” At this point, I wasn’t sure what to think. I fished my ID out of my wallet and handed it to him proving I was, in fact, William Wilson.
He apologized and handed me the coin he used to mark his ball on the green. On one side it read “Hi, my name is Bill” and on the opposite side it read “Alcoholics Anonymous”. He explained to me that Bill Wilson was the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous and when members of his local AA would meet someone who they had seen at an AA meeting they would introduce themselves as “Bill Wilson”. This served to let the other individual know they, too, were an alcoholic. Who would’ve thunk it?
I apologize for the distraction. Now, back to our original topic…
See also: https://fitnessandhealthadvice.com/the-callaway-golf-2021-apex-iron-set/
Importance of Your Grip
Everything about your golf swing begins with your grip. Too strong and you are going to hook everything. Too weak and you get the opposite reaction or what is known as a “slice”. This is the nemesis of most recreational golfers. They are forever chasing their drive off to the right (for right-handers) or the left for southpaws. Usually, that means they are in the trees are what we used to refer to as the “gorsk”. Imagine knee-high thicket that is impossible to hit through.
I hate to admit it; but, I was a terrible slicer for years. Here’s a free tip I received from the Course Manager at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. President George W. Bush was arriving to play and the Secret Service was out in force and had everything else on pause. The Course Manager had been watching me on the driving range and without solicitation gave me a simple tip to strengthen my weak grip.
He said that the problem most slicers had was the angle of the club when they began their grip. The most common thing to do would be to rest the club-head on the ground and take your grip. Instead, he advised me to rest the club-head on some raised object like the tire of a cart or the lower storage area on my golf bag. PRESTO – no more slice.
Your Backswing
The backswing is an often overlooked part of the golf swing. It’s important because it loads power into the club from both the swinging of the arms and the turn of the hips. It’s that second part that most recreational golfers fail to execute.
You will always be hitting your second shot before your playing partners if you only use your arms in your golf swing. In other words, they will forever be out driving you.
A proper backswing results in the club-head swinging back behind your head and pointing at your target. This necessitates a slight bending of the wrists. At the same time, your hips should rotate exposing your back to the direction you want to hit the ball. Only when you reach this proper position should you think about uncoiling your hips and swinging the club to hit the ball.
The Ball Strike
This brings us to where the rubber hits the road, so to speak. In order to make the ball do what you want the ball to do you must strike it correctly. Every part of the golf swing is all about this point.
Back to the movie, Tin Cup. When Kevin Costner’s character, Roy McAvoy, was commenting on the swing to strike the ball, his mantra was that the swing was always down as if pulled by the center of the earth. It’s this necessary downward trajectory of the club that trips up average golfers.
Their tendency is to want to try to scoop the ball off the grass. This is the primary reason weekend duffers don’t hit the ball very far. It’s also why your average golfer sometimes barely disturbs the grass while low-handicap and professional golfers create sizable divots. The key is to let the loft of the club on a downward trajectory direct the path of the ball and not try to “pick it” off the ground.
A quick comment on the golf ball. For years, I’ve heard weekend golfers talk about how shot distance and accuracy is determined by the “feel of the ball”. They claim some golf balls “feel softer” and go further with more accuracy. Yes, some golf ball materials present more resistance to the golf club than others. But, my honest opinion is that, in all the years I’ve golfed, all golf balls pretty much feel the same when struck correctly.
Of critical importance during this phase of the golf swing, you must keep your eyes down and your head steady. The eyes down part should be obvious. You can’t strike the ball correctly if you can’t see the ball. Keeping the head steady follows from the need to keep your eyes down. It also helps you to properly unload the power you’ve stored in your hips and arms during the backswing.
It’s appropriate to rotate those hips around your spinal column and naturally, but ever so slightly, allow the heel of your back foot to come off the ground. Poor ball-strikers overemphasize that heel lift and pay a price in shot distance and accuracy because of it.
I’ve bested golfers using expensive Titleist golf balls and $1400 iron sets while playing a decidedly unmanly, pink lady golf ball, using an $80 set of clubs I bought at Kmart. I’m not bragging about my golfing abilities. My point is that supposed golf ball “feel” might be a good marketing ploy to sell golf balls. But, it loses every time to better technique.
Following Through
Our protagonist in Tin Cup, Roy, commented that every golfer’s follow-through is unique. This is true. Your follow-through will be yours and yours alone. What you do in that follow-through makes a big difference in whether your shot travels the distance it should and is on target.
Amateurs sometimes tend to want to almost stop the club swing after they’ve struck the ball (usually poorly). This stopping action pushes the hands too far in front of the club and saps distance from the shot. It also creates a situation often leading to a slice.
To correct this, always continue your follow-through for what is a comfortable distance for you. Your follow-through will never do you wrong if it remains in a plane toward your target.
Putting Perfect Golf Swing Tips All Together
One thing is clear, the golf swing is not easy. It takes practice and usually patience to master. If you start with a good grip, make a proper backswing, strike the ball with a downward trajectory, and execute your personal follow-through in line with your target, you will get better.
Remember: even executing these perfect golf swing tips well… perfectly, perfection of the golf swing itself is unattainable. Just ask Roy.
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Hi, I’ve just gone through your article about perfect golf swing tips. I find this post very interesting and educative. Though I never got much interest in golf, I’ve learned that it is a good sport for our health. I agree with you that it can help in fitness and health because you still have to stretch your muscles and swing your arms as you clearly stated. Thank you so much for sharing this amazing article with us, I promise to share it further to spread the word.
HI William, Thank you for a great post. Im just started learning golf and posts like this are extremely helpful. To be fair Im not too good and still practicing swinging a lot (with average results). I didn’t aware how important grip is , but definitely will go through your advices and try to use them in practice. Hopefully it will help me to improve my results soon.
Thanks for the comment. I encourage you to keep at it and not give up golf. It can be frustrating when first learning it. I call golf “The Great Equalizer”. You can take someone who considers themselves “super athletic” and put them on the golf course up against someone much older and a regular duffer or someone “less athletic” but with more golf experience. My money is on the old fart and the less athletic dude every time. You know the old joke about how to get to Carnegie Hall, right? The same applies to getting better at golf: practice, practice, practice!
Your post is chuck full of a lot of information. The imperfect/perfect swing I took to heart. It doesn’t take the best clubs, it takes a better swing. I am also ready to view some DVDs that are new to me. Have you been able to go golfing during the Corona Virus? It would be beneficial just from the socialization aspect.
All the best.
Thanks for the comment. Golfing has been off the table for me for most of the coronavirus lockdowns. I live in Michigan where the golf season is limited. Plus, our governor wielded some questionable power to pretty much shut down everything. I look forward to watching some of the pro golfers this season.
That’s a cool story about people introducing themselves as Bill Wilson. I didn’t know that either.
I agree with you too in that the golf swing is not easy. I have tried to get a decent swing, but I am still a mess. It seems to get harder the more conscious you are about how difficult it is.
Ann, thanks for the comment. One of my golfing buddies described the golf swing as requiring “relaxed concentration”. He would seem to agree with you about the golf swing getting harder the more you concentrate. I tend to think it’s like Carnegie Hall. If you want to get to the top, it takes lots and lots of practice.
I never knew the story about Bill Wilson and Alcoholics Anonymous before my golfing encounter either. I was sure to watch a movie about it soon thereafter. Although, the one I saw isn’t the one I had linked to the article. The movie actually starred Mickey Rooney.
One thing is for sure, whenever I introduced myself after that I was sure to watch the other person for any type of strange reaction. I never knowingly encountered another person associating me with the story of THAT Bill Wilson again.
Thank you very much for the great and informative article. You know, I never really thought about the proper form much since I started golf back in college, but I would like to say that golf does have the mental health benefit, as it is not as competitive and it has a much more relaxing setting to it. I am glad that you did give advice on proper technique though, as that will help my game a little with my friends.
Thanks for the comment, Jessie. I would say that golf being not competitive depends on the level of the “competition” in your group. My friends and I were relatively competitive with a few dollars or maybe a free drink on the line during our rounds. Similarly, our level of relaxation was dependent on how relaxed we could be with a few dollars and a drink riding on our next putt.
Thanks for bringing us this very interesting post.
As it is full of your personal stories, it makes it a great read. I loved your openness and honesty in relation to your own game.
Golf might not be a great source of exercise, but it takes a great deal of skill to get all the swings right. And the walk and fresh air is great for mental health.
You have certainly stepped all the swings out clearly and your information is very helpful.
Keep swinging!
I enjoyed your informative article, but would have to take issue with you over golf not being mentally challenging. I don’t play myself, but having seen the top players, those that win the tournament are the ones who win the mental challenge as well as having the skill. As you say, there’s no such thing as a perfect swing, so staying focussed when you start to hit horrible shots is what can separate the great players from the good ones.
Just on the health benefits of golf – my Dad has played all his life. He is now 91 and although he can only manage 9 holes now, he still does this 3 times a week and gets very insulted if you suggest he should use a buggy instead of walking!
Thanks for the comment. Rereading my article, I have to agree with you. Golf is mentally challenging. I know that because I played the game; so, I’m not sure why wrote it.
My uncles were the same way as your dad. They didn’t play as often or reach the same age as him. But, they would never “waste” money on a cart when that cash could be used at the 19th hole for a couple of beers 🙂