This is why right-handed Phil Mickelson swings lefty (should you do the same?)

PHIL MICKELSON IS MY ALT TEXT

No, you should not.

Getty Images

You’ve probably heard it before about how Phil Mickelson became Lefty. Or maybe you haven’t! In which case, the story goes like this: Phil Mickelson Sr. was practicing his chipping in the back yard when his son and future six-time major champ picked up a golf club and started swinging — left-handed.

The legend goes that Phil was trying to be a “mirror-image” of his right-hand swinging father, so even though he does everything else right-handed, the lefty swing stuck.

Which made me wonder: Is there something we can learn from the story?

Should right-handers swing lefty?

The idea that right-handers should actually swing lefty is hardly a new one; it’s been kicking around for a while. There have been all manner of opinions on it, including the idea that golfers ideally should swing in the opposite direction of their dominant hand. To get a quick tune-up on the idea, I called up GOLF Top 100 Teacher Terry Rowles. Rowles dismisses the idea of right-and-wrong in the golf swing; instead, he believes different types of swings based on people’s unique bodies. Phil Mickelson aside, he’s not sold on the idea that right-handers should swing lefty, or vice versa.

If you’re a right-hander who swings lefty, your stronger right arm becomes your lead arm, which can create issues.

“Playing the other way around will make it harder to release the club, because your lead arm is stronger,” Rowles says, citing Spieth, who plays baseball left-handed but swings a golf club right-handed, as another example. “Jordan Spieth is the other way around…they tend to hold their angle [between their wrists and arms] for longer as their stronger lead arm is pulling the club down.”

JORDAN SPIETH IS MY ALT TEXT
Switch-hitting won’t solve your issues, it’ll just create different ones. Getty Images

When your stronger lead arm prevents the clubhead from releasing, it leaves the clubface more open and can cause the club to steep like Phil’s — which, for the average golfer who doesn’t have as much hand-eye coordination. It can also be the cause of your golf swing’s chicken wing — all of which is a recipe for a slice.Many more accomplished right-handed Lefty’s match-up this release with a stronger grip.

But as for switch-hitting being a solution to your problems? Or a better way to start the junior golfer in your life on the game? Rowles isn’t convinced.

“Personally, I wouldn’t try it,” he says.

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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.