19th Hole
PGA Tour pro reveals the common mistakes he sees amateur golfers make every week

Over the weekend, PGA Tour player Michael Kim took to social media to share some golf tips with amateur players.
I’ve played with close to a 1000 different amateurs during my career. Everyone is different but there are some common mistakes I see every week. Some basic concepts ?
— Michael S. Kim (@Mike_kim714) September 20, 2024
Below is the full post broken down into sections of advice.
Full swing:
“Full swing: 95% of ams go over the top and chop at the ball like they’re chopping wood. The reason it looks this way is because they don’t turn their hips and shoulders nearly enough in the backswing. You can go over the top from the top if you have good turn in the backswing. It’s a bit scary to swing with a big turn but it must be done. Many ams set up in a way that makes it harder. You shouldn’t look so robotic. Way more relaxed with your feet flared a little bit. Think of a heavy medicine ball throw. Use your entire body to turn back and thru. If you can get a better turn to your right side, then you can shift into your left side better (side bend) and get the club to not go over the top as much.”
Pitch shots:
“Pitch shots: with the set up, it should look like you’re trying to hit a shorter shot. Weight a little left, feet a little closer, a little bit closer to the ball, ball position middle to back, hands a little ahead. I see way too often a player setting up like it’s a full shot. You really should use ur body turn better in order to create a little in to out path that makes these shots way easier. Think Steve stricker, no wrist set, all body turn. If you want hands forward to create that nice descending blow, you need body turn throughout the entire swing”.
Chipping:
“Chipping: use your putter. If it’s fairway and less than 30 yards to the hole, just use a putter. Putter until you’re forced not to. From the rough, open the club at set up. The scoop action happens because your trying to add loft from a bad position and leads to chunks and mishits.
I went a bit deeper in chipping with the shallow vs steep stuff in a video few weeks back. You can search for that in my profile if you want.”
Bunker shots:
“Bunker: don’t try to hit behind it. Let your set up dictate that. Dig in slightly with ur feet, ball a little ahead, open the club face, weight 60/40 left. A little wrist cock on the way back and then undo that wrist cock and the way through. If you can do it without slicing across it too much, even better.”
Putting
“Putting: 95% of you don’t start your putts online and don’t know where you’re aiming. I can’t count the number of times I’ve given a read, the amateur aims it wrong, starts it way off my read and when it misses, tells me, it broke more or less than my read. If you’re serious about getting better on the greens, get something that tells you whether you pushed it or pulled it and get your setup right. You can do it with some tees and a stick but it’s easier to just buy something like a pelz tutor or something similar with a gate.”
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19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish

An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
19th Hole
How a late golf ball change helped Cameron Young win for first time on PGA Tour

Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
19th Hole
Rickie Fowler makes equipment change to ‘something that’s a little easier on the body’

Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.