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What is the worst advice you have received? Something that really messed up your game? That was the question we recently asked our How to Hit Every Shot instruction Facebook group.
“Keep your head down,” said GOLF.com reader Jason Cunningham. “The worst advice anyone can give another golfer.”
A chorus of others agreed with that sentiment, as did GOLF Top 100 Teachers. They voted “keep your head down” as the worst golf tip.
What makes the idea so bad? Because keeping your head down makes sense in theory but doesn’t work in practice, teachers say. Golfers can overdo it too much and end up being so severely undershot that they stop turning the shot. Reading Bobby Jones’s legendary On Golf instruction book, Jones agreed, calling it some of the most damaging golf advice.
Some simple and timeless advice from Bobby Jones.
“The average golfer would be much better off if no one had said anything about keeping your eyes glued to the ball.” pic.twitter.com/0CpTgoO78l
— LKD (@LukeKerrDineen) September 1, 2022
“The average golfer would be much better off,” he said. “If no one had ever said anything about the need to keep your eyes glued to the ball.”
He continues:
“When a person starts thinking about keeping their head still and concentrates on keeping their eyes on the ball, they invite trouble. The very act of trying to do something that is not natural creates a tension that is difficult to break… when a man stares at a golf ball, he is doing something totally unnecessary and destructive of the rhythm and relaxation for which he has grown. striving. .”
Jones swing thought: keep your right arm down
Instead, Jones says your head should remain “pretty much stationary,” but encourages it to subtly move toward your back leg on the backswing. He writes that instead of thinking about keeping his head down, he uses another wavering thought:
“I always think of it as staying close to the ball with the right side and arm,” he writes. “The most common cause of head lift can be found on the right side. Every time the right side and arm fail to hold the player, the head is forced to move prematurely.”
So don’t hang your head. Think about keeping your right side and arm down. It’s a swing thought from one of the greats, and one that could really work.
Luke Kerr-Dineen
An alumnus of the International Junior Golf Academy and the University of South Carolina–Beaufort golf team, where he helped them reach No. 1 in the NAIA national rankings, Luke moved to New York in 2012 to earn his master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. . His work has also appeared in USA Today, Golf Digest, Newsweek, and The Daily Beast.
Source: golf.com