Instruction
Instruction: Only change the things that need to be changed
As a golf instructor for more than 20 years, I have gone through my own professional maturation when it comes to my instructional style and the way I have chosen to help my students.
Golf instruction is like any other occupation; it takes time and experience in order to become the very best. And no one has all the answers from day one. However, I will tell you that with the advent of 3D Motion Analysis and club and ball-flight launch monitors such as Trackman and FlightScope, the answers are becoming much easier to find. We all know that perfecting your communication takes time and experience, but the hardest thing I had to learn during the years was taking the correct route to success based on the goals of the student.
Every golfer has different goals when it comes to what they want out of the game, as well as different coordination capabilities and basic time constraints to deal with while trying to practice. It is up to the instructor to understand these issues in order to create a practice plan that will allow the student to improve as quickly as possible. It’s also the instructor’s job to get a student from point A to point B with as little aggravation as possible!
I want to share with you a lesson I had with a friend of mine the other day. During the interview process, Ed told me that he was an 11 handicap, always aimed a touch right and hit the ball low and left when he missed with his driver. He said that he hit the ball far enough for the tees he plays, but when there is trouble on the left he gets very uneasy. He also mentioned that he never practiced, but played three times per week and that was not going to change at his age. Finally, he said that if he could rid himself of the left shot he would be happy as a clam.
I took the time to put him on the Trackman to see what we had to work with, and here is what we saw:
- His angle of attack wasn’t too far off, at almost 1-degree up at impact. It could have been a touch higher, but distance wasn’t that much of an issue in his world.
- His swing path was almost 9 degrees from the inside. That indicates that a golfer’s driver could be too long or that his or her pivot could be faulty, etc.
- His face-to-path ratio was a touch high (-4.2 degrees), but not too bad. Thankfully, his heel-impact tendency helped the ball stay a touch more right than would be expected for this face-to-path ratio.
- His ball speed, spin rate, launch and dynamic loft all looked reasonable for a golfer of his level.
So what can we deduce from his goals and the data listed above?
- His aim tended to be slightly right, which I confirmed through observation on the range.
- His driver was fit for length. It was 43.5 inches, which fit him in a perfect manner based on his arm length, etc.
- Ed tended to be a touch too far away from the ball at address.
Now as an instructor armed with this information, my data and my observations on video, how should I proceed? This is where experience comes in from the instructors’ side. I thought the easiest thing to do to help Ed was to fix his propensity to aim right. The farther left he aimed, I imagined, the better his path would be if everything else was constant. So I experimented with that first.
Ed tendency to be a bit “outstretched” at address was also a likely a cause for his in-to-out swing path, because it leads to an overly rounded swing. And that change was next. It’s my belief that it’s in a student’s best interest not to change too many things at first, particularly for a non-practicing golfer who has played at a high level his whole life. Ed basically had one issue, so there was no reason to reinvent the wheel for. However, I still had to test my hypothesis.
So I took the time to explain to Ed that his swing was moving too much in-to-out, and by aiming too far right he was tending to aid this process. So I wanted him to audit and monitor his aim with a few practice sticks and hit a few balls. I let him hit about 10 to 15 balls so that his body had a chance to figure out where it was, and watched him to make sure he was lined square to slightly left of the target line.
As he did that, this I was checking the Trackman and his numbers to make sure his path did indeed change to something that was less from the inside. If the ball flight was up to his standards and the numbers agreed, then we would have been done. However, if the path didn’t change enough, we’d move him a touch closer to the ball.
So after a few shots, the path was better, but it was still a touch too in-to-out for my liking, not to mention that his shots were still a touch off line. So I moved him up closer, which will cause a golf swing to become more vertical. I hoped that second change would cause the path to fix itself, but if it didn’t, we’d have to focus on more full-swing fixes.
Luckily, we didn’t have to. By lining him up a touch more square to open, as well as moving him closer to the ball, his numbers and subsequent ball flight was fixed to his liking.
As you can see from the data above, several things improved:
- His attack angle went up slightly, from 0.8 degrees to 3.2 degrees, which is perfect. Sometimes when you fix the right thing, others follow.
- His swing direction moved from 9.7 degrees in-to-out to a very manageable 4 degrees in-to-out.
- Ed’s path was 0.3 degrees from in-to-out, while his face angle was dead down the line at 0, giving him a very tight face-to-path ratio.
- The only negative we saw was that his spin rate that went up slightly, and he tended to have an impact point on the heel of his club that pushed the ball a touch too much to the right.
Ed proceeded to hit some more balls, testing this “fix” with a few different clubs. At that time, it was up to the student to let me know if we had indeed moved him into a more manageable position and one that he felt he could play from in all situations. But what did we do about the higher spin rate and slight heel impact, you might be asking? At that point, nothing. I know it’s tough to swallow, but sometimes saying less is better.
What did we learn from this lesson? Simpler is always better than a more complex “fix” for a player who does not practice. Based on what goals this player expressed to me — stop the left shot and everything else is OK — I helped him do exactly what he asked for.
Since we didn’t really fix anything mechanically during the lesson, I asked that he come back to see me in a few days that that we could double check his spin and impact point. If the numbers for the path and face stayed reasonable, and he wasn’t missing the ball left any longer, we could then we can move forward to improve the higher spin rate and impact point. In my opinion, those problems were being caused by an impact point that was too low on the face, and that the arms were running away from the body through impact, usually a byproduct from the old pivot.
Remember that golf instruction and technology is here for students in order to help them reach their goals easier and quicker than ever before. Take the time to ensure that you are not making things too complex on the lesson tee. Only change the things that need to be changed, and pick the ones that will make the MOST difference. You will find that your students will be much happier golfers because of it!
There may be no more painful affliction in golf than the “yips” – those uncontrollable and maddening little nervous twitches that prevent you from making a decent stroke on short putts. If you’ve never had them, consider yourself very fortunate (or possibly just very young). But I can assure you that when your most treacherous and feared golf shot is not the 195 yard approach over water with a quartering headwind…not the extra tight fairway with water left and sand right…not the soft bunker shot to a downhill pin with water on the other side…No, when your most feared shot is the remaining 2- 4-foot putt after hitting a great approach, recovery or lag putt, it makes the game almost painful.
And I’ve been fighting the yips (again) for a while now. It’s a recurring nightmare that has haunted me most of my adult life. I even had the yips when I was in my 20s, but I’ve beat them into submission off and on most of my adult life. But just recently, that nasty virus came to life once again. My lag putting has been very good, but when I get over one of those “you should make this” length putts, the entire nervous system seems to go haywire. I make great practice strokes, and then the most pitiful short-stroke or jab at the ball you can imagine. Sheesh.
But I’m a traditionalist, and do not look toward the long putter, belly putter, cross-hand, claw or other variation as the solution. My approach is to beat those damn yips into submission some other way. Here’s what I’m doing that is working pretty well, and I offer it to all of you who might have a similar affliction on the greens.
When you are over a short putt, forget the practice strokes…you want your natural eye-hand coordination to be unhindered by mechanics. Address your putt and take a good look at the hole, and back to the putter to ensure good alignment. Lighten your right hand grip on the putter and make sure that only the fingertips are in contact with the grip, to prevent you from getting to tight.
Then, take a long, long look at the hole to fill your entire mind and senses with the target. When you bring your head/eyes back to the ball, try to make a smooth, immediate move right into your backstroke — not even a second pause — and then let your hands and putter track right back together right back to where you were looking — the HOLE! Seeing the putter make contact with the ball, preferably even the forward edge of the ball – the side near the hole.
For me, this is working, but I am asking all of you to chime in with your own “home remedies” for the most aggravating and senseless of all golf maladies. It never hurts to have more to fall back on!
Over the last couple of decades, golf has become much more science-based. We measure swing speed, smash factor, angle of attack, strokes gained, and many other metrics that can really help golfers improve. But I often wonder if the advancement of golf’s “hard” sciences comes at the expense of the “soft” sciences.
Take, for example, golf instruction. Good golf instruction requires understanding swing mechanics and ball flight. But let’s take that as a given for PGA instructors. The other factors that make an instructor effective can be evaluated by social science, rather than launch monitors.
If you are a recreational golfer looking for a golf instructor, here are my top three points to consider.
1. Cultural mindset
What is “cultural mindset? To social scientists, it means whether a culture of genius or a culture of learning exists. In a golf instruction context, that may mean whether the teacher communicates a message that golf ability is something innate (you either have it or you don’t), or whether golf ability is something that can be learned. You want the latter!
It may sound obvious to suggest that you find a golf instructor who thinks you can improve, but my research suggests that it isn’t a given. In a large sample study of golf instructors, I found that when it came to recreational golfers, there was a wide range of belief systems. Some instructors strongly believed recreational golfers could improve through lessons. while others strongly believed they could not. And those beliefs manifested in the instructor’s feedback given to a student and the culture created for players.
2. Coping and self-modeling can beat role-modeling
Swing analysis technology is often preloaded with swings of PGA and LPGA Tour players. The swings of elite players are intended to be used for comparative purposes with golfers taking lessons. What social science tells us is that for novice and non-expert golfers, comparing swings to tour professionals can have the opposite effect of that intended. If you fit into the novice or non-expert category of golfer, you will learn more and be more motivated to change if you see yourself making a ‘better’ swing (self-modeling) or seeing your swing compared to a similar other (a coping model). Stay away from instructors who want to compare your swing with that of a tour player.
3. Learning theory basics
It is not a sexy selling point, but learning is a process, and that process is incremental – particularly for recreational adult players. Social science helps us understand this element of golf instruction. A good instructor will take learning slowly. He or she will give you just about enough information that challenges you, but is still manageable. The artful instructor will take time to decide what that one or two learning points are before jumping in to make full-scale swing changes. If the instructor moves too fast, you will probably leave the lesson with an arm’s length of swing thoughts and not really know which to focus on.
As an instructor, I develop a priority list of changes I want to make in a player’s technique. We then patiently and gradually work through that list. Beware of instructors who give you more than you can chew.
So if you are in the market for golf instruction, I encourage you to look beyond the X’s and O’s to find the right match!
Most pros take months, even years, to win their first tournament. Lottie Woad needed exactly four days.
The 21-year-old from Surrey shot 21-under 267 at Dundonald Links to win the ISPS Handa Women’s Scottish Open by three shots — in her very first event as a professional. She’s only the third player in LPGA history to accomplish this feat, joining Rose Zhang (2023) and Beverly Hanson (1951).
But here’s what caught my attention as a coach: Woad didn’t win through miraculous putting or bombing 300-yard drives. She won through relentless precision and unshakeable composure. After watching her performance unfold, I’m convinced every golfer — from weekend warriors to scratch players — can steal pages from her playbook.
Precision Beats Power (And It’s Not Even Close)
Forget the driving contests. Woad proved that finding greens matters more than finding distance.
What Woad did:
• Hit it straight, hit it solid, give yourself chances
• Aimed for the fat parts of greens instead of chasing pins
• Let her putting do the talking after hitting safe targets
• As she said, “Everyone was chasing me today, and managed to maintain the lead and played really nicely down the stretch and hit a lot of good shots”
Why most golfers mess this up:
• They see a pin tucked behind a bunker and grab one more club to “go right at it”
• Distance becomes more important than accuracy
• They try to be heroic instead of smart
ACTION ITEM: For your next 10 rounds, aim for the center of every green regardless of pin position. Track your greens in regulation and watch your scores drop before your swing changes.
The Putter That Stayed Cool Under Fire
Woad started the final round two shots clear and immediately applied pressure with birdies at the 2nd and 3rd holes. When South Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim mounted a charge and reached 20-under with a birdie at the 14th, Woad didn’t panic.
How she responded to pressure:
• Fired back with consecutive birdies at the 13th and 14th
• Watched Kim stumble with back-to-back bogeys
• Capped it with her fifth birdie of the day at the par-5 18th
• Stayed patient when others pressed, pressed when others cracked
What amateurs do wrong:
• Get conservative when they should be aggressive
• Try to force magic when steady play would win
• Panic when someone else makes a move
ACTION ITEM: Practice your 3-6 foot putts for 15 minutes after every range session. Woad’s putting wasn’t spectacular—it was reliable. Make the putts you should make.
Course Management 101: Play Your Game, Not the Course’s Game
Woad admitted she couldn’t see many scoreboards during the final round, but it didn’t matter. She stuck to her game plan regardless of what others were doing.
Her mental approach:
• Focused on her process, not the competition
• Drew on past pressure situations (Augusta National Women’s Amateur win)
• As she said, “That was the biggest tournament I played in at the time and was kind of my big win. So definitely felt the pressure of it more there, and I felt like all those experiences helped me with this”
Her physical execution:
• 270-yard drives (nothing flashy)
• Methodical iron play
• Steady putting
• Everything effective, nothing spectacular
ACTION ITEM: Create a yardage book for your home course. Know your distances to every pin, every hazard, every landing area. Stick to your plan no matter what your playing partners are doing.
Mental Toughness Isn’t Born, It’s Built
The most impressive part of Woad’s win? She genuinely didn’t expect it: “I definitely wasn’t expecting to win my first event as a pro, but I knew I was playing well, and I was hoping to contend.”
Her winning mindset:
• Didn’t put winning pressure on herself
• Focused on playing well and contending
• Made winning a byproduct of a good process
• Built confidence through recent experiences:
- Won the Women’s Irish Open as an amateur
- Missed a playoff by one shot at the Evian Championship
- Each experience prepared her for the next
What this means for you:
• Stop trying to shoot career rounds every time you tee up
• Focus on executing your pre-shot routine
• Commit to every shot
• Stay present in the moment
ACTION ITEM: Before each round, set process goals instead of score goals. Example: “I will take three practice swings before every shot” or “I will pick a specific target for every shot.” Let your score be the result, not the focus.
The Real Lesson
Woad collected $300,000 for her first professional victory, but the real prize was proving that fundamentals still work at golf’s highest level. She didn’t reinvent the game — she simply executed the basics better than everyone else that week.
The fundamentals that won:
• Hit more fairways
• Find more greens
• Make the putts you should make
• Stay patient under pressure
That’s something every golfer can do, regardless of handicap. Lottie Woad just showed us it’s still the winning formula.
FINAL ACTION ITEM: Pick one of the four action items above and commit to it for the next month. Master one fundamental before moving to the next. That’s how champions are built.
PGA Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer. You can check out his writing work and learn more about him by visiting BEAGOLFER.golf and OneMoreRollGolf.com. Also, check out “The Starter” on RG.org each Monday.
Editor’s note: Brendon shares his nearly 30 years of experience in the game with GolfWRX readers through his ongoing tip series. He looks forward to providing valuable insights and advice to help golfers improve their game. Stay tuned for more Tips!
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Sam Soonthorn
Jan 8, 2014 at 6:34 am
Hi Tom,
I played golf for about 35yrs+. Just got a chance to hit on Trackman for the first time with my driver. The results are..attack angle 2.6 degrees, Club path 7.5 degrees, Face angle 1.3 degrees and Face to path -6.2. My situation similar to Ed.
Would you agree if I set myself to an open stance and aim a little left, Will I overcome my hook shot?
Do you have any other suggestions that I can try on Trackman next time?
Sam
Martin Fincham
Nov 5, 2013 at 7:25 pm
I had an instructor that changed my whole swing and it sucked. Then after years of not taking lessons I finally took some lessons from an experienced LPGA Pro. She took what I had and worked with that. She also made it easy for me to self analyze and correct my own creeping swing issues. Then every so often I have a tune up lesson with her and tighten things up. It was amazing to find someone that could teach that way rather than change everything. Great article BTW. 🙂
jeff
Nov 4, 2013 at 8:11 pm
Excellent work.
naflack
Nov 4, 2013 at 3:54 pm
its good to know there are teachers out there who are willing to teach to those of us like ed.
i am self taught to a 3/4 and have always been hesitant to take a lesson.
i dont practice other than a couple buckets in the spring and i have no interest in ever practicing, it’s hard enough to find time to play. i play 1 ball flight because i like the way it looks, i can control it and it makes the game simpler. i also have no interest in overhauling my swing because it isnt textbook to some standard.
again, good to know there are guys out there who are open to players like me and ed. maybe 1 day i’ll even take a lesson…maybe 🙂
yomomma
Nov 4, 2013 at 1:04 pm
The 9 ball flight laws will teach you everything you need to know about your swing. I feel swing analysis has gotten way out of hand for the average golfer. Who honestly needs to know what their face-to-path ratio is? I have done the PGA thing and received my class A and the one thing I learned about instruction was the really great teachers used simple terminology and made everything more simple instead of complicating the students thoughts. Just one mans opinion though.
tom stickney
Nov 4, 2013 at 5:05 pm
Sadly the 9 ball flight laws are flawed…we now understand that the ball begins in the direction of the face and curves away from the path provided centered impact NOT the other way around as the old laws told us. You might want to check out some the new stuff; I’m sure you’ll find it interesting for your clients. All the best sir.