Golf: Fault No. 1

The number one fault in golf has been around for a long time. It was first written about some 104 years ago. What is amazing is that it is really not discussed much today even though practically every player does it to a certain degree. When I say it is not discussed much, nobody comes out and just says it. There are many swing tips to keep you from doing this but I think the tips would be listened to more if the reason for these tips was given. Let’s go back to an article that was written in 1922 to find out what the no. 1 fault in golf is.

The article was written by O. B. Keeler. He interviewed Stuart Maiden the Scottish teacher of the great Bobby Jones. Like most Scotchman, Maiden was a man of few words. After much poking and prodding Keeler was able to get Maiden to discuss what he thought was the commonest fault in golf. The answer, which is still true today, is hitting too soon. What does that mean. To quote Maiden, “It means hitting before several things. Hitting before the club has got back to the intended limit of the backswing. Hitting before the body has pivoted. Hitting before the hips are advanced. There are a dozen ways of hitting before you are ready. Maybe more than a dozen. I never counted them”. When asked about how do you stop your pupils from hitting too soon, he replied, “I don’t always stop them”. Today this problem is sometimes referred to as hitting from the top. Some players have this problem so bad they are hitting on their backswing which is way before they get to the top of their swing. The result of this problem is that the ball gets what is left over. Obviously this will affect your distance by as much as 50 yards. Why is this problem so hard to correct.

One, you cannot consciously correct the fault. Some instruction advocates trying to maintain your wrist cock as long as possible. This would be great advice if your hands and wrists were not connected to your arms. If your arms come down too fast then they are going to slow as they get closer to the ball. If they don’t, then you are going to hit the about 30 yards left of your intended line. Just like not finishing your backswing anxiety is another culprit. I think one thing that can be helpful is to at least know when the hit is supposed to start. The hit should begin when your left arm is parallel to the ground on the downswing. If you look at the entire golf swing from the start to the complete follow through, the hit should not take place until you are about 2/3 through the golf swing. You can break the golf swing down into 9 parts. The take away. Getting the club shaft parallel to the ground. Getting your left arm parallel to the ground. The top of the swing. Starting down. The left arm again parallel to the ground. Impact at the ball. The straightening of the right arm after contact. Finishing the swing. This blog is not going to go through how you should get to those positions. I might do that sometime in the future. For now we want to think about the best way to go about hitting the ball at the right time. This the only way we can increase distance and accuracy. That is the good news here. If we start to hit the ball at the right time both parts will improve.

How is the best way to try and do this. You must complete the backswing something we have previously discussed. In order to go from the backswing to the downswing there must be what I call a natural pause in the swing. This is true of any endeavor. You have to stop in order to change direction. So the pause is real but you must feel that it is happening on its own. You want to feel the pause not try to pause. After you pause you must feel that your backswing is starting down slowly. If you can start the hands down slowly then you have a fighting chance to hit the ball with maximum speed at impact. Once you start down as your hands drop into the hitting zone things will be happening so fast that you have to just let it happen. This may be the final reason players can’t keep from hitting too soon. When you do it right, the club head is flashing through the hitting zone so fast, you have the feeling that you cannot control it. Once you are aware of where the hit takes place your goal should be to not hit too soon. If you can do that, you will be ahead of about 98% of people who play this game.