How to Hit Every Golf Shot

Hitting any golf shot you want, on command, comes down to mastering a few fundamental ideas. This article breaks down the entire golf swing - from how you stand over the ball to your finish position - into simple, actionable steps. We’ll cover the setup, grip, backswing, downswing, and follow-through, giving you a complete blueprint for building a repeatable motion.

It All Starts with the Setup: Your Foundation for Consistency

Your setup is your foundation. An inconsistent setup leads to an inconsistent swing. It might feel strange at first, because we don’t stand this way in any other part of life, but getting it right puts you in a powerful, athletic position to make a good swing. Think of it less as strange and more as the "ready" position of a serious golfer.

Building Your Stance from the Ground Up

Follow these steps to build a solid setup every time:

1. Club Head First: Before you do anything else, place the club head on the ground directly behind the golf ball. Square the club face so it’s aiming precisely at your target. This is your most important reference point.
2. Achieve the Athletic Tilt: From there, bend forward from your hips, not your waist. A great way to feel this is to push your bottom backward as if you were about to sit on a tall stool. Your back should remain relatively straight, but tilted over the ball. This is the posture that gives you room to swing.
3. Let Your Arms Hang: With your upper body tilted forward, allow your arms to hang down naturally from your shoulders. They shouldn’t feel stretched or crammed in close to your body. They should just hang, relaxed. If you do this correctly, your hands will be positioned directly underneath your shoulders. A common mistake is not leaning over enough, which forces the arms too close to the body and restricts the swing.
4. Establish Your Stance Width: For balance and power, your feet should be about shoulder-width apart for mid-irons. Too narrow, and you'll struggle to rotate properly. Too wide, and you’ll lock up your hips. Shoulder-width is the sweet spot that provides a stable base to turn against. Your weight should be distributed 50/50 between your feet.
5. Relax: This new position can create tension. Once you're in position, take a deep breath. Shake out your arms a little. A tense golfer cannot make a fluid swing. Feel athletic, stable, and ready.

Ball position is the final piece. For shorter irons (like an 8-iron or wedge), the ball should be in the center of your stance. As the clubs get longer, the ball moves slightly forward. For a driver, the ball should be positioned off the inside of your lead heel. Sticking to these general guidelines will help you make consistent contact.

The Grip: Your Steering Wheel for the Club Face

The way you hold the club is the single biggest influence on where the club face points at impact. Think of your grip as the steering wheel for your golf ball. If your steering wheel is off, you’ll have to make all sorts of compensations during the swing to get the ball to go straight. Getting a neutral, effective grip is a game-changer.

It’s worth noting: A fundamentally sound grip often feels weird at first. It's an unnatural hold. Trust the process and give your hands time to get used to it.

How to Construct a Neutral Grip

This guide is for a right-handed golfer. If you are left-handed, simply reverse the hands.

The Lead Hand (Left Hand)

• Place your left hand on the side of the grip so the club rests primarily in your fingers, running from the base of your little finger to the middle pad of your index finger. Avoid placing the club in your palm.
• Once your fingers are on, wrap your hand over the top. When you look down, you should be able to clearly see the first two knuckles of your left hand.
• Check the "V" formed by your thumb and index finger. This "V" should point roughly toward your right shoulder. If it points too far right, your grip is too strong, if it points toward your chin, it’s too weak.

The Trail Hand (Right Hand)

• Approach the club with your right hand from the side, with the palm facing your target.
• A great checkpoint is to have the lifeline of your right palm fit snugly over your left thumb.
• Wrap your right-hand fingers around the club. Again, you want to feel the grip more in your fingers than your palm.
• You have three options for connecting your hands: the interlock (interlocking the right pinky and left index finger), the overlap (placing the right pinky finger in the gap between the left index and middle finger), or a ten-finger grip. No single one is correct - choose whatever feels most comfortable and secure for you.

A good grip allows the club face to return to square at impact with minimal manipulation. It is the bedrock of accuracy.

The Backswing: Winding Up for Power

The goal of the backswing is simple: to wind up your body to create potential energy. A common misconception is that the backswing is an action of lifting the arms. Instead, it’s a turn of the body. The arms and club are just along for the ride.

Imagine you are standing inside a cylinder. The entire backswing should happen within the confines of this cylinder. You want to rotate, not sway from side to side. As you turn away from the ball:

• Start with a "One-Piece" Takeaway: The very first move away from the ball should be a synchronized turn of your shoulders, chest, and hips together. Your arms and the club will simply move with your torso.
• Introduce a Slight Wrist Hinge: As the club reaches about hip height, allow your wrists to hinge naturally. Think of it as the club head gaining a little bit of upward angle. This sets the club on the correct plane and stores power. Don’t force it, A simple turn of the body will help this happen without you even trying to do it.
• Rotate to the Top: Continue turning your shoulders and hips until you feel a comfortable stretch in your back and core. Your back should be facing the target. Not everyone has the same flexibility, so don't try to force a longer backswing than your body allows. Turn to whatever point feels comfortable for you. The key is that your hips have turned and your weight has loaded into your right leg (for a righty), all while staying inside that imaginary cylinder.

The Downswing & Impact: Unleashing Controlled Speed

Here’s where all that stored energy gets released into the ball. The transition from backswing to downswing is where most amateur golfers struggle, often by trying to create power with their arms and shoulders from the top. The real source of power is the body.

The downswing is a chain reaction, and it starts from the ground up.

1. The First Move: A Small Shift Forward: Before you even think about unwinding, the very first move from the top of the swing is a slight shift of your hips toward the target. Your weight moves from your back foot to your front foot. This move is subtle but absolutely vital - it ensures you will strike the ball first and then the ground, making crisp contact.
2. Unwind the Body: Once that small weight shift happens, it's time to unleash the rotation. Unwind your body - hips first, then torso and shoulders. Your arms and the club will be pulled down into the slot automatically by this rotation. You’re simply unraveling all the turn you created in the backswing. You’re not trying to hit the ball with your arms, you’re using your body’s rotation to deliver the club.
3. Focus on Strike: Tour players call this "covering the ball." As you unwind, you should feel like your chest is staying over the ball through impact. This descending blow is what creates that pure, compressed sound. The club strikes the ball, then takes a small divot of grass just after it. Don't try to scoop or lift the ball into the air, the club’s loft is designed to do that for you.

The Follow-Through: Finishing with Balance

The swing doesn't stop at the ball. The follow-through is a direct indicator of the quality of your swing. A balanced, complete finish is a sign that you used your body correctly and didn’t have to make last-second corrections with your hands.

To finish your swing strong:

• Extend Towards the Target: Immediately after impact, feel your arms extend fully down the target line as your body continues to rotate. This feeling of extension ensures you have released all of your power through the ball, not at it.
• Rotate all the Way Through: Don't stop turning your body. Allow your hips and chest to rotate all the way around until they are facing the target.
• Finish in Balance: A good finish position finds you with nearly all your weight (around 90%) on your lead foot. Your back heel will be completely off the ground. Your belt buckle should be pointing at, or even slightly left of, the target. You should be able to hold this position comfortably until the ball lands. If you are falling backward or stumbling, it’s a sign that your sequence or balance was off during the swing.

Final Thoughts

These fundamentals - setup, grip, a rotational swing, and a balanced finish - are the building blocks for every single shot in golf. Mastering them isn't about looking perfect, but about building a simple, repeatable motion you can trust under pressure on the course.

Knowing the fundamentals is one half of the battle, knowing how to apply them to the unlimited, tricky situations you find yourself in on the golf course is the other. That’s why we built Caddie AI. It's designed to be your on-demand coach and caddie, helping you match the right shot to the right moment. Whether you're unsure of the strategy on a new hole, or you're stuck in the trees and need an unbiased opinion on how to escape, you can get instant advice. You can even snap a photo of a tricky lie in the rough or a bunker shot, and Caddie will analyze the situation and recommend the best way to play it, helping you take an expert opinion with you on every shot.