Instruction
Good golf swings are greater than the sum of their parts
I love to stop by a range and watch the brand new golfers. Even though most of their swings result in whiffs, tops and chunks, they usually manage to smash at least one shot long and straight. It seems to come out of nowhere, and provides the powerful feedback that they must have done something right. But what was it? Few golfers realize it at the time, but the early search to uncover what they did right, and their subsequent successes and failures, are the building blocks of the golf swing they will have for the rest of their lives.
The hardest part for me as an instructor is trying to understand why a person’s golf swing developed the way it did. Those first few shots that sailed high and far started a golfer on a path. But here is the problem: What if a golfer achieves success by lifting up 6 inches in the backswing and then diving down exactly 6 inches in the downswing? As you might guess, they think moving up and down is the right thing to do. So they try it again. Only this time they come down 7 inches, and their club crashes into the ground behind the ball. Now they are totally befuddled, and wish they knew what changed.
Correcting a fault with a fault, as it’s called, is how most golfers go through their golfing life. But not all unconventional moves are faults. There are what I call compatible moves and incompatible moves. If you’re a better golfer, it’s likely that your motions are compatible — not “textbook”necessarily, just more functional. If you’re a higher-handicap golfer, your moves are more likely incompatible.
Jim Furyk, one of the best players in the modern era, has what many refer to as a “funky” swing. I have never, however, met anyone who does not like the result it produces or the $56 million he’s earned on the PGA Tour. Furyk is great because he has a series of compatible motions in his swing: an extremely upright takeaway, followed by a massive vertical drop of his arms and a flattening of the club. He goes from over the hand path plane to under it in the blink of an eye, and then to keep him from getting too far under the hand plane path he completely opens his body and drives it through the ball. Furyk does this every time. It’s poetry if you like this kind of stuff.
Nearly all great golfers have a series of moves in their swing that aren’t textbook, including Arnold Palmer.
I love unconventional swings like Furyk’s because it’s a joy to me to learn how they put it all together. Was it natural for Furyk to lift the club straight up, OR was it natural to drop the arms way down? Whatever one started the motion, the other is clearly a motion that complements it. Fuzzy Zoeller bent way over at address and came up through the shot. Lee Trevino aimed way left, took the club outside and dropped it back in. Bobby Jones took the club WAY inside and across the line, but then flattened the club in transition. All their swings are gorgeous to behold. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Your job as a golfer who wants to improve is to find what works within the existing motions you have, because trying to change your whole swing is fruitless. Be wise and strive to be functional, not optimal. A little fade works, but a big slice doesn’t.
I’ve often thought that if golfers were house pets, they would be more like cats than dogs. If my cat falls from just about anywhere, she lands on her feet. Think about her fall like a compatible move in a golf swing: it may not be pretty, but it worked. If my dog falls, however, she will most likely land on her head. Hitting the ground 6 inches behind the ball is equivalent of falling on your head in the canine world. So if you’re really steep coming down, you may do one of the following: raise your swing center, chicken wing your left arm or back up your upper body, to name a few fixes. These moves would all be the equivalent of landing on your feet. You did what you had to do to avoid a “fall.”
Here a few more examples of things golfers do to avoid “falling on their head:”
- Running ahead of the ball with the upper body is almost always associated with a very early release. It’s a golfer’s way of getting the bottom of the arc near the ball. You may hear, “You’re getting ahead of it” from your well-intended friends. Your response should be, “Because if I don’t I’ll stick the club in the ground six inches behind the ball.”
- Coming over the top is a very natural response to a slice. As soon as the ball starts going right, you WILL swing left. It’s a very “cat-like” thing to do.
- When golfers play the ball well back in their stances, it is often the result of hooking the ball or hitting it fat. It’s their way of playing the shot to avoid disaster.
- Golfers who hang back on their rear foot in the downswing often do so because they moved too much weight on their front foot during the backswing. It’s a little thing called balance that our bodies are trying to do with every step we take. Or perhaps you are playing with too little loft on your clubs, or your shafts are far too stiff. In other words, you do what is necessary to get the ball in the air.
The list I could make with similar examples is endless, and I see these things every day. My job as a teacher is not to change a golfer’s swing as much as it is to balance it. Some part of the swing comes very natural to golfers, and are part of a golfer’s DNA. If at all possible, those moves should stay and a teacher should do their best to work around them. The best teachers work to make the swings of their students better, not prettier. What to leave in and what to take out is the essence of golf instruction.
As always, feel free to send a swing video to my Facebook page and I will do my best to give you my feedback.
The LPGA Tour is kicking off its 2026 season this week at Lake Nona Golf and Country Club in Orlando, and the pros are dealing with something most Florida golfers rarely face: freezing temperatures.
“It’s colder here than in the UK at the minute, which is a first,” said England’s Charley Hull during Wednesday’s media day at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions.
Even Lydia Ko, who lives at Lake Nona, seemed surprised by the cold snap. “We’re pretty much getting to below zero in celsius here, which maybe in other parts of the country they would be thankful, but when you’re in Florida it is a little bit of a surprise,” she said.
If the world’s best players are adjusting their games for cold weather, recreational golfers should, too. Here’s how to play smart when the mercury drops.
Understand What Cold Does to Your Game
Before you change anything, you need to know what you’re fighting against. Cold air is denser than warm air, which means your ball won’t fly as far. Period.
Hull noticed this immediately during practice rounds at Lake Nona. She mentioned hitting a gap wedge into the 18th hole during a previous win but needing a 4-iron during Tuesday’s practice round. That’s a difference of four or five clubs for the same shot.
Action item: Expect to lose 5-10 yards on every club in your bag when temperatures dip below 50 degrees. Plan accordingly and don’t be stubborn about club selection.
Layer Up Without Restricting Your Swing
Hull admitted she wore three pairs of pants during practice. While that might be extreme for most of us, staying warm is critical to playing well in cold conditions.
Your muscles need warmth to function properly. When you’re cold, your body tightens up and your swing gets shorter and faster. Neither of those things help you hit good golf shots.
Action item: Wear multiple thin layers instead of one bulky jacket. Look for golf-specific cold weather gear that stretches with your swing. Keep hand warmers in your pockets between shots. And don’t forget a good hat because you lose significant body heat through your head.
Take More Club Than You Think You Need
This is where ego gets in the way of good scores. When it’s cold, the ball doesn’t compress as well off the clubface. Combined with denser air, you’re looking at serious distance loss.
The pros at Lake Nona are dealing with a course that measures 6,642 yards but plays much longer this week. If they’re adjusting, you should too.
Action item: Take at least one extra club on every approach shot. In temperatures below 40 degrees, consider taking two extra clubs. It’s better to fly the ball to the back of the green than to come up short in a bunker.
Adjust Your Expectations on the Greens
Cold weather affects putting in ways most golfers don’t consider. The ball is harder and doesn’t roll as smoothly. Your hands are cold, making it harder to feel the putter. And if there’s any moisture on the greens, they’ll be slower than normal.
Ko mentioned that she still sometimes reads the greens wrong at Lake Nona despite being a member for years. Cold weather makes that challenge even tougher.
Action item: Hit putts more firmly than usual. The ball needs extra speed to hold its line on cold greens. Take a few extra practice strokes to get a feel for the speed before you putt.
Embrace the Mental Challenge
Hull said something interesting about cold weather golf: “I like the mental toughness of it.”
That’s the right attitude. Everyone on the course is dealing with the same conditions. The player who stays patient and doesn’t get frustrated by the extra difficulty will come out ahead.
Action item: Lower your expectations by a few strokes. If you normally shoot 85, accept that 90 might be a good score in 40-degree weather. Focus on solid contact and smart decisions rather than perfect shots.
Warm Up Longer and Smarter
This might be the most important tip of all. Cold muscles are tight muscles, and tight muscles get injured easily.
World No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul revealed she’s been protecting a wrist injury that bothered her late last season. Cold weather makes those kinds of injuries more likely if you don’t prepare properly.
Action item: Spend at least 20 minutes warming up before your round. Start with stretching, then hit easy wedge shots before working up to your driver. Keep moving between shots on the course to maintain body heat and flexibility.
The pros at Lake Nona this week will adapt and compete at the highest level despite the cold. You can do the same at your local course by following these tips and keeping a positive attitude.
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 “Playing Through” now on R.org, RG.org’s partner site, 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!
Brooks Koepka is back on the PGA Tour, and whether you love him or hate him, the guy knows how to win when it matters. After his LIV Golf stint, the five-time major champion returns this week at the Farmers Insurance Open.
What makes Koepka fascinating? He doesn’t fit the mold. His swing isn’t textbook. He doesn’t obsess over mechanics. Yet he’s won three PGA Championships and two U.S. Opens, regularly making it look easier than guys with prettier swings.
So, what can average golfers learn from someone who treats the game so differently? Quite a bit.
Stop Overthinking Every Shot
Koepka describes his approach as “reactionary” rather than mechanical. While most tour pros grind over swing thoughts, Brooks sees the target and hits it. No mental checklist.
This might be the most valuable lesson for weekend golfers who’ve watched too many YouTube swing videos.
How to actually do this:
On the range, hit five balls where you stare at the target for three seconds prior to addressing the ball. Don’t think about grip or stance. Just burn that target into your brain. You’ll be shocked at how pure you hit it when your brain focuses on where the ball is going instead of how you’re swinging.
Next time you play, give yourself a rule: Once you pull the club, you’ve got 15 seconds to hit. Koepka is one of the fastest players on tour because he doesn’t give his brain time to sabotage him.
If you feel tension in your hands at address, you’re trying to control too much. Koepka’s grip pressure is famously light. Loosen up until the club almost feels like it might slip, then add just enough pressure to hold on. That’s your swing thought: soft hands, see the target.
This approach works better under pressure. When you’re standing over that shot with water left and OB right, the last thing you need is a mental checklist. See it, feel it, hit it.
Play to Your Strengths (Even If They’re Not Pretty)
Koepka uses a strong grip that wouldn’t pass muster in some teaching circles. But he’s built his game around what works for him, elite driving distance and recovery skills. He doesn’t try to be someone he’s not.
Here’s how to build your game like Brooks:
Look at your last five rounds and figure out where you’re actually gaining strokes. Bombing it off the tee, but can’t hit greens? Lean into it. Play courses where distance matters more than precision. On tight holes, grip down on your 3-wood instead of trying to thread a driver through a keyhole you’ll miss seven times out of ten.
Koepka knows he can scramble, so he’s not afraid to miss greens. If you’re deadly from 50 to 75 yards, start leaving yourself those distances on the par 5’s instead of going for them in two every time.
Know when to take your medicine. Koepka in the trees at the PGA? He’s punching out to 100 yards, not trying to bend a 6-iron around three oaks. You’re in the rough with a flyer lie and water short? Hit your 8-iron to the middle and move on. That’s not playing scared, that’s playing smart.
Save Your Best for When It Counts
Here’s a wild stat: Koepka’s putting average in majors is often more than a full stroke better per round than in regular events. He elevates when pressure is highest.
How does an amateur tap into that gear? It’s not about trying harder, it’s about caring differently.
Here’s what actually works:
Decide which rounds matter to you. Club championship? Member-guest? That annual trip with college buddies? Circle those dates and treat them differently. Koepka doesn’t care much about regular tour events, but majors? That’s when he locks in.
Two weeks before your big round, change your practice. Stop beating balls mindlessly. Play nine holes in which every shot has consequences. Miss the fairway? Hit from the rough on the next hole too. Three-putt? Twenty push-ups. Koepka’s practice intensity ramps up before majors because he’s rehearsing pressure, not just swings.
Develop a between-shot routine that resets your brain. Koepka is famous for his blank expression after bad shots. Try this: After any shot, take three deep breaths while walking, then find something specific to notice, a tree, a cloud, someone’s shirt. That’s your reset button. By the time you reach your ball, the last shot is gone.
The Bottom Line
Brooks Koepka’s return reminds us there’s no single path to success in golf. His “substance over style” approach proves that results matter more than looking good.
You don’t need a perfect swing; you need a reliable one that holds up under pressure. You don’t need to hit every shot in the book; you need the shots you can count on. And you don’t need to play great every time; you need to play great when it matters.
Welcome back, Brooks. Thanks for the reminder that golf is ultimately about getting the ball in the hole, not winning style points.
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 “Playing Through” now on R.org, RG.org’s partner site, 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!
Blades Brown made a big impression last week in the California desert, and not just because he’s only 18. He put up numbers that would catch any weekend golfer’s attention. Most of us won’t hit 317-yard drives or find 86% of our greens in regulation, but there’s a lot to learn from how Brown managed his game at The American Express.
Here are three practical lessons from his performance that you can use on your own course this weekend.
Step 1: Give Priority to Accuracy Over Distance Off The Tee
Brown’s driving stats are impressive. He averaged almost 318 yards off the tee, ranking 12th in the field. More importantly, he hit 76.79% of his fairways, tying for fourth place in the tournament.
Think about that ratio for a second. Brown could have swung harder, chased more distance and tried to overpower the course. Instead, he played smart golf and kept his ball in play.
Your Action Item: Next time you’re on the tee box, ask yourself a simple question before pulling the driver. Do you need maximum distance here, or do you need to be in the fairway? If there’s trouble lurking or the hole doesn’t demand every yard you can muster, take something off your swing. Grip down an inch. Make a three-quarter swing. Do whatever it takes to find the short grass. Brown’s approach illustrates that fairways lead to greens, and greens lead to birdies. He made 22 of them last week, along with an eagle.
The math is simple. When you’re hitting three out of every four fairways like Brown did, you’re giving yourself legitimate looks at the green with your approach shots. That’s when scoring happens.
Step 2: Commit To Hitting More Greens
This is where Brown really separated himself. He hit 62 of 72 greens in regulation, an 86.11% clip that tied for first in the entire field. Read that again. An 18-year-old kid tied for the lead in one of the most important ball-striking statistics in professional golf.
How did he do it? By keeping his ball in the fairway (see Step 1) and giving himself clean looks with mid-irons and wedges.
Your Action Item: Start tracking your greens in regulation. You don’t need a fancy app or a statistics degree. Just mark down whether you hit the green in the regulation number of strokes. Par 3s in one shot. Par 4s in two shots. Par 5s in three shots.
Once you know your baseline, set a goal to improve it by 10%. If you’re currently hitting five greens per round, aim for six. The beauty of this approach is that it forces you to think strategically about club selection and shot shape. Brown’s strokes gained approach number was positive (0.179), meaning he was better than the field average. You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be on the dance floor more often.
When you hit more greens, you eliminate the need for heroic short game shots. Brown only had to scramble 10 times all week, and he got up and down 70% of the time. That’s solid, but the real story is that he rarely put himself in scrambling situations to begin with.
Step 3: Minimize Mistakes And Stay Patient
Here’s the stat that jumps off the page: Brown made only three bogeys all week. Three. In four rounds of professional golf against the best players in the world.
He also made just one double bogey. That kind of clean card doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when you play within yourself, avoid the big miss and trust that pars are never bad scores.
Your Action Item: Before your next round, decide that you’re going to play boring golf. No hero shots over water. No driver on tight holes just because you can. No aggressive pins when there’s a safe side of the green.
Brown’s performance shows us that consistency beats flash every single time. He didn’t lead the field in any single strokes gained category, but he was solid across the board. That’s how you post numbers and cash checks.
Give these three steps a try. Your scorecard will thank you.
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” now on R.org, RG.org’s partner site, 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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Tom
Dec 4, 2013 at 9:33 am
The cat and dog reference is what Jim Hardy once said on the Golf Channel.
Dennis Clark
Dec 4, 2013 at 2:23 pm
Jim is one of the finest teachers in the world. I agree with mostly all his stuff and he has helped a lot of golfers for many many years.
naflack
Dec 4, 2013 at 3:02 am
i think it really helps to be athletically inclined…having an educated idea of how to get your body to perform a motion with the strengths you naturally possess. i took to golf pretty well and made great strides until i had the grand idea to involve my brain with published do’s, dont’s and how to’s. i then regressed substantially for a fair amount of time until a friend thankfully pointed out that everything i have ever done in sport came natural…”quit reading and quit thinking, just play!”
i swing like annika, almost literally, minus her skill…obviously.
i thank the golfing gods often that i had the chance to see her play early in my golf career. if i hadnt i’d still be worrying about seeing the club hit the ball and creating lag. thank you annika!
snowman
Dec 3, 2013 at 10:23 pm
I’d say if you are 10-18 hdcp and make decent contact, you can get to a 5 if you follow this advice (maybe with a good teacher, maybe on your own), even if your short game is average. Hardly any of us will develop a pro-style swing, there are lots of legit single digit guys with ‘funky swings’. Good advice to quit striving for perfection, optimize what you got, work on your short game and voila you break 80……
“Your job as a golfer who wants to improve is to find what works within the existing motions you have, because trying to change your whole swing is fruitless. Be wise and strive to be functional, not optimal. A little fade works, but a big slice doesn’t.”
Scott G
Dec 3, 2013 at 7:43 pm
I’ve always had a theory that becoming a good golfer is part “luck” with the first few swings. Do you first hit it solid while experimenting with a bad swing thought? If so, you are thrust down the wrong path. Or do you get lucky and first hit it solid while experimenting with a good swing thought, sending you down a good path?
It would explain why some good athletes are bad golfers and some so-so athletes become great golfers.
Patrick
Dec 3, 2013 at 5:08 pm
I have always thought to be successful I must own the swing that I have created and this helps me to think about what my complimenting moves might be. Thank you sir.
alex
Dec 3, 2013 at 12:56 pm
Great stuff. Thank you Mr. Clark
Philip
Dec 3, 2013 at 12:41 pm
Great post – I totally agree.
For myself a chronic slicer I always believed too many work on placing a bandage on a visible fault than striving to fix the core issue(s). I have discovered every time I fix a core problem the rest of my swing just naturally gets better and better.
For the winter I have gone back to the basics, building my grip up from my left hand and I discovered a simple little thing that totally changed my grip and eliminated a slew of issues, from my grip tension, out-of-control back swing, reverse pivot and even de-accelerating into the ball.
Not too bad, for just changing how I place my left hand on my club.
Tom
Dec 3, 2013 at 12:09 pm
Great article with a lot of information to use. Especially the last line.
Finalist
Dec 3, 2013 at 11:09 am
I’d really like to see this evolve into a thread where people list compatible moves that pros and ams have. This is very interesting, and explains a lot of the roots of a move.
Why does Angel Cab. Left arm bend a little at the top?
Why does Lee W. Chicken wing through impact?
Etc etc.
Dennis Clark
Dec 3, 2013 at 12:04 pm
Send me a video.