– You’re not lifting your head.
In the course of watching literally thousands of golf swings on slow motion video, I have never seen a golfer hit a bad shot because they lifted their head while swinging their golf club. Almost every single golfer who I have ever witnessed say “I picked up my head” has actually kept their head down in a dramatic fashion.
Then why are these golfers topping or completely whiffing their shots?
What’s happening to these golfers is they have an incorrect impact position. They are “scooping”at the ball with their hands and wrists, rather than striking their ball. Scooping is usually caused by the impulse to use the hands to lift the ball as well as a failure to transfer weight toward the target.
Correcting an improper impact position is a gradual process, the first step is understanding the basic concept of balls-striking. We need to ensure that our swings reach their low point after the ball. From there, most students progress quite well by practicing with an impact bag and working on transferring their weight to their front foot.
Mike Sullivan is a golf professional and director of instruction at the Mike Sullivan Golf School in Raleigh, NC. Mike also provides professional golf swing analysis to corporate clients at several PGA Tour sites, including: AT&T Pebble Beach Pro AM, U.S. Open, The Masters, Wells Fargo Championship in Charlotte, NC, The PGA Championship and The BMW Championship
