Every golfer, from beginner to seasoned player, makes mistakes that can add strokes to their score. The good news is that most of these errors are incredibly common and, with a little know-how, completely fixable. This guide will walk you through the most frequent faults seen on the course and provide simple, actionable steps to correct them, helping you build a more reliable swing and play with greater confidence.
Your hands are your only connection to the golf club, so how you hold it has an enormous influence on what the clubface does at impact. A poor grip is the root cause of many inconsistent shots, forcing you to make compensations throughout your swing just to hit the ball straight. The two most common errors are a "strong" grip (hands rotated too far to the right for a right-handed golfer) or a "weak" grip (hands rotated too far to the left).
Think of your grip as the steering wheel for your golf shots. A neutral grip allows the clubface to return to square more naturally without you having to manipulate it. Here’s a simple way to build one for a right-handed player (left-handed players, just reverse the directions):
Note: Making a grip change will feel bizarre at first. Stick with it. Practice holding the club at home while watching TV. The more you do it, the more natural it will become.
Your setup, or address position, dictates the path and angle of your entire swing. A poor setup forces you to make major adjustments from the moment you take the club back. The most common posture fault is standing too upright, which severely limits your ability to rotate properly.
If you don’t create enough Body tilt and don’t give enough room for the arms to hang, your swing likely becomes overly dependant on the hands and arms, instead of rotation of the large muscles through the torso. This lack of rotation leads to a loss of power and an inconsistent swing path. Another common error is having a stance that's either too wide or too narrow, which ruins your balance.
A good setup should feel balanced and athletic, not stiff or casual. Follow this sequence:
The purpose of the backswing is to put the club in a powerful and consistent position at the top. The most common mistake is a "disconnected" swing, where the arms and body don't work together. This usually manifests in one of two ways: swaying off the ball or lifting the club with just the arms.
When you sway (move your entire body laterally away from the target), you have to make an equally large sway back toward the target to hit the ball. This is incredibly hard to time consistently. When you lift the club with just your arms, you don't generate any power from your body's rotation. Both result in weak, inconsistent shots.
The backswing is a rotation, not a lateral slide. Think of yourself as standing inside a cylinder or barrel.
For many golfers, seeing the ball on the grass sparks an instinct to try and "help" it into the aIr. This leads to them trying to scoop or lift the ball up, usually by bending their arms and leaning their weight back through impact. It's one of the biggest killers of quality contact.
When you try to lift the ball, the lowest point of your swing arc happens *before* you reach the ball. This causes you to hit the top half of the ball (a "topped" shot) or the ground first (a "fat" or "heavy" shot). Remember, golf clubs are designed with loft to get the ball airborne for you!
For an iron shot, you need to make contact with the ball first, and then the turf. This is what creates a clean, compressed strike and that satisfying divot *after* the ball.
Your finish position isn't just for show, it's the result of a good-quality swing. If you find yourself off-balance, stumbling, or finishing with all your weight on your back foot, it's a clear sign that something went wrong in the preceding sequence.
An unbalanced finish signals that you didn't commit to the shot and transfer your weight through impact properly. Often, this is a result of trying to "steer" the ball or holding back your body's rotation. It reveals a lack of conviction in the swing.
Think of your follow-through as the final destination of all the energy you've built up. You don't want to stop that rotation prematurely.
Fixing common golf mistakes is about understanding the root cause, not just putting a bandage on the symptom. By methodically addressing issues in your grip, setup, and swing sequence, you can build a more repeatable and trustworthy motion that leads to better shots and a lot more enjoyment on the course.
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