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‘It’s easy to fall into the trap’: Justin Thomas on the common mistake golfers make
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‘It’s easy to fall into the trap’: Justin Thomas on the common mistake golfers make

By: Luke Kerr-Dineen
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May 19, 2021
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Trying to be perfect — and more specifically, look perfect — is something most golfers think about too often.

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Justin Thomas is one of the best golfers in the world. A major-winner and multi-millionaire. But he’s also a golfer, and like all golfers, he falls into the same traps as the rest of us: Trying to make their golf swing look “perfect.”

It started in junior golf, when he tried to keep his feet planted on the ground to mirror what his golf swing idols (Adam Scott and Tiger Woods) did.

“I’d work on keeping my heels lower, but I always ended up hitting it shorter,” he said. “After a while, I simply stopped caring what my swing looked like and went back to swinging hard.”

Ahead of the PGA Championship, Thomas spoke candidly once again about how he falls into the “trap” of trying to make his golf swing “look perfect.”

“It’s easy to fall into the trap of wanting to perfect [your golf swing] and wanting to maybe get it to look a way that you want it to look. I’ve done it in the past with my golf swing.”

Specifically, Thomas says he didn’t like “how high his hands looked,” at the top of his backswing, or his foot action “halfway down.”

KIAWAH ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA - MAY 19: Justin Thomas of the United States looks on from the second hole during a practice round prior to the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah Island Resort's Ocean Course on May 19, 2021 in Kiawah Island, South Carolina. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Thomas is one of the favorites this week. getty images

JT says he still struggled with that in his putting. But he’s working hard on caring less about those superficial elements in his putting stroke, which is his advice to every golfer: it doesn’t matter how something may look. All that matters is the results.

“In reality if I’m hitting the shots I want it doesn’t matter how it looks,” he says. “It’s just trying to simplify it…being very feel based and very artistic. Seeing and hitting different shots. I need to take that same outlook into my putting”

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Luke Kerr-Dineen

Golf.com Contributor

Luke Kerr-Dineen is the Game Improvement Editor at GOLF Magazine and GOLF.com. In his role he oversees the brand’s game improvement content spanning instruction, equipment, health and fitness, across all of GOLF’s multimedia platforms.

An alumni of the International Junior Golf Academy and the University of South Carolina–Beaufort golf team, where he helped them to No. 1 in the national NAIA rankings, Luke moved to New York in 2012 to pursue his Masters degree in Journalism from Columbia University. His work has also appeared in USA Today, Golf Digest, Newsweek and The Daily Beast.

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