Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.
Novice golfers almost always struggle to make solid contact with the ball. They eye their target, draw the club back and make a wicked lash, only to be perplexed when they make weak contact — or worse yet, miss the ball entirely.
“You’ve gotta remember to keep your head down!”
The refrain is all too common from amateur swing doctors on driving ranges around the world. The advice comes from a well-intentioned place, but is it actually good advice? According to GOLF Top 100 Teacher Tony Ruggiero, the mantra typically does more harm than good. Check out why in the video below, which we shot last winter at Cabot Citrus Farms.
Should you ‘keep your head down?’
Having the feeling of keeping your head down might give you the impression that it’ll help you make more solid contact, but that’s not often how it works out. While it’s true that you don’t want excessive movement of your head and spine, that doesn’t mean you want to keep your eyes down too long after impact.
“It’s actually one of the worst things you can do,” Ruggiero says. “[Keeping your head down] really restricts the ability of your upper body to keep moving through, which tends to make the club bottom out behind [the ball].”
Watch any professional golfer hit the ball and you’ll see that after impact their head turns and their eyes continue tracking the ball. That’s because when you’re swinging in the most efficient way, you have to allow your upper body to rotate through impact — and that includes your head.
When you restrict your head and focus on “keeping it down,” it usually leads to inconsistent contact. Instead of bottoming out the club just in front of the ball, you’ll either hit behind it and chunk it, or catch it thin and blade it.
In fact, if you want to hit the ball your best, try allowing your head to turn quite quickly post-impact.
“Find that ball awful quickly down range,” Ruggiero says. “Keeping your head down is not good for good golf.”
So, next time you hear someone tell you to keep your head down — ignore them! If you want to hit the ball your best, your eyes will have to follow the ball as it flies down the range.
