Head Professional, White River Golf Club, Rochester, VT.
Golf School Director, Eagle Marsh Golf Club, Port St. Lucie, Fl

The great teacher Harvey Penick is reported to have said, "No woman can miss a single shot on the golf course, without a man giving her poor advice". Well, I don’t think that this applies only to women. Have you ever hit a bad shot on the course only to have one of your playing partners say, "Keep your head down!"? In this article, I would like to explore this and some other "bad advice" that is given every day on the golf course by well meaning friends.

1. Keep your head down! Nothing could be further from the truth. What your friends observed was probably correct, a change in the height of your head. What they don’t realize is that the change in the level of your head was probably caused by a change in the angle of the knees or spine. It is important to keep your head up so that your lead shoulder can pass under your chin on the backswing. From time to time I have students arrive for a lesson wearing bifocal glasses. I cannot always tell because some of today’s bifocals have no distinguishing line. As soon as they take a swing, I can usually tell because in an attempt to see the ball in a non magnified state, their head is down so they can look over the magnified portion. As the lead shoulder meets their chin on the backswing, it usually pulls them out of their setup position by changing their spine angle. I even had a student in golf school whose husband made her bite on the neck of her shirt. Talk about bad advice.
2. Keep your lead arm straight! Another misnomer in the world of golf. The golf swing is an athletic move. There is nothing athletic that is done with locked joints especially elbows and knees. I like to encourage my students to keep a "relatively straight lead arm". A little bend in the lead arm during the backswing can lead to a more relaxed swing and better results. A lot of bend of the lead arm is bad because this excessive movement can lead to inconsistent shot making. Many women are somewhat double jointed in the elbows and when they lock them put the lead arm in an unnatural position for a powerful swing.
3. Keep your head still! (or don’t move your head off the ball). The way we are built as human beings, approximately 2/3 of our body weight is ahead of our spine and the spine enters the head in the back. In order to shift our weight properly we must turn around our spine. In doing so it is necessary that the head move laterally in the backswing. Keep in mind, there is a big difference between allowing the head to move off the ball due to natural shoulder rotation and moving the head by sliding the hips. The rear hip should not move laterally. I have a photo sequence of Tom Kite which clearly shows that his head move almost a full four inches on the backswing and at the same time his right hip does not slide at all. If we keep the head over the ball throughout the backswing, we will be unable to shift our weight and a reverse pivot will result. If you cannot shift your weight toward the rear foot, you will have nothing to release on the forward swing, hence, no power. In an effort to decrease the movement in the golf swing, many modern players preset their weight toward the rear foot at address by tilting their spine toward the rear foot. This also places their head over the trailing knee at address, therefore very little additional movement is necessary on the backswing. It is simple and works great. Try it.
4. Grip the club like you were holding a live bird! This is a tough one. I agree with this to a degree. Although I would like to see this kind of grip with the trailing hand, it is important that the last three fingers of the lead hand hold on tight throughout the swing. The lead hand, (the one that usually has the glove on it) and arm are largely responsible for pushing the club back to start the backswing. At the top of the backswing when the club stops prior to changing direction, many players lose the grip with the lead hand by opening that hand. They then have to re-grip the club while it is in motion. Isn’t it tough enough to get a good grip when the club is not moving? If you find that you are wearing out your golf glove in the heel of the glove hand, you are re-gripping at the top of your swing. Hang on better with the last three fingers of that hand and you will hit better shots.
5. Swing easy! When Davis Love III was growing up, his father and grandfather, both teaching professionals, taught him to swing as hard as he could, without losing his balance. I agree with this concept. I get a lot of return lessons from women and I believe that it has a lot to do with the fact that I want them to swing at it. To be smooth, a swing does not have to be easy. The touring pros look smooth because they are swinging within themselves. That is, they swing with about 80% of the power they possess, but no one ever accused Fred Couples of swinging easy. An easy swing may look smooth but will not get you around the golf course effectively. Work on your balance during the swing and go after it.
6. Take the club back REAL slowly! A legendary instructor was once quoted as saying, "I never had a student who took the club back too slowly". I have to take some exception with this. Although it is good to take the club back slowly since it must come to a complete stop before moving forward and a fast backswing is tough to control, too slow a backswing has no rhythm and gives us too much time to think about the shot. Remember that the golf swing is more like a dance than a march! A good dance has rhythm, so does a good golf swing.