‘Because I’m an idiot’: Why this major winner turned to Instagram for swing advice

There probably isn’t a golfer on the planet who hasn’t been sucked into watching some random piece of golf advice on social media. And while mid-handicap players like you or I may be guilty of it, many of us assume that pros are immune to the draw of online golf instruction.

Well, that isn’t necessarily the case — at least for major champ Darren Clarke.

In the video below (courtesy of the PGA Tour Champions’ Twitter account), the always entertaining Clarke quips about how he found himself going down the dark hole of Instagram golf tips. As any golfer does, he didn’t just digest the advice, he then questioned how actionable it really is for himself — leading Clarke to a hysterical admission.

Darren Clarke jokes about getting Instagram golf tips

Admitting that the video was about “shallowing [the club] and coming down,” Clarke said there was one major problem with the instruction — it might not work for a 56-year-old like himself.

“The problem with that is, I’m 56, a little bit too old and my hips don’t move fast enough,” Clarke jokes. “All the young kids can do it, so, for some people, it works. But for a lot of people, it doesn’t work.”

Clarke admits that trying to mimic what he saw on Instagram just wasn’t going to work for him — but it did lead him to revisit the swing that’s most suitable for his frame.

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“I’ve always got on top of the golf ball, so when the young kids rotate their hips and [shallow the club], I can’t do that. I just can’t,” he adds. “For me, it’s more about getting the club up and getting it more on my hands — or, if anything, outside my hands [where the club’s parallel to the ground] so I can rotate, since I’ve always been a barrel-chested guy.”

Due to this, Clarke tends to cover the ball up by rotating hard down towards the ground — which gets the club out in front of him as he comes through impact — rather than how younger, more limber golfers might do it with more hip action.

While both methods are functional ways to hit a golf ball, Clarke uses some self-deprecation about listening to social media golfers for swing tips.

“I’m the idiot for listening to all these so-called knowledgeable people on Instagram — and a lot of them are — but for me, it just didn’t work, I’m too old,” he says.

Hey, with the amount of golf tips available on social media, Clarke’s admission is a reminder that not everything you see online is suitable for your game.

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Nick Dimengo

Golf.com Editor