6 worst golf tips ever, according to Hall of Fame teacher Hank Haney
Haney reveals all in his latest book.
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Hank Haney is a member of GOLF’s World Golf Teachers Hall of Fame, and he has seen it all through the years. From the very best in Tiger Woods to everything else in between. He’s revealing all in his new book: How to Play Better Golf Today (which you can buy right here), and while promoting the book on his most recent podcast, he talked through some of the worst golf tips ever that are featured in the book’s “Bad Golf Tip Hall of Fame.”
There are six of them, and he says each tip is both “extremely common” in the amateur ranks and “extremely wrong.”
Here they are, and remember, these are Haney’s BAD tips. So if your buddies tell you to do any of them, tell them to speak with Hank Haney instead.
1. Keep your head down
“This might be the No. 1 bad tip ever,” Haney said, one usually given by amateurs after they hit a topped shot. He goes on to explain that while topped shots are usually the result of coming out of your posture, “your head and neck joints don’t actually have all that much to do with it….Keep your eye on the ball would be a more accurate thing to say, although even that’s not very necessary.”
You can hear him expand more on it here:
Episode – Bad Golf Tip Hall of Fame:https://t.co/FIrIoVXRbs pic.twitter.com/W5sgbloxMm
— Hank Haney (@HankHaney) May 11, 2020
2. Finish through the swing
“Remember that 90% of golfers slice the ball,” Haney says. “When the clubface curves, that means the clubface is open relative to the path of the swing. Wherever you’re swinging the club through the ball, the face is some degree of open. So if you’re swinging across the ball, and you’re slicing the ball…[finishing through the swing] will make your path go more across the ball, and it actually slows down the closing of the clubface.”
3. Keep your lead arm straight
“A lot of people mistake keeping your arm straight…for stiff, rigid, tight; in such a position where it can’t move,” Haney says. “As long as it comes back to where it comes from, that’s fine…you don’t want it to be so stiff; so rigid that you can’t swing.”
4. Hit down to help the ball go up
“Hitting down does not make the ball go up,” Haney says. “What makes the ball go up is loft and spin, and you get spin from speed. The more speed you have, the more spin you’re going to have.”
5. You’ve got to get your body into it
“The problem is with a lot of players trying to get their body into it is that they don’t get their hands and arms going at all,” Haney says. “The fact is your hands and arms are holding onto the club. Your arms are attached to your shoulders, and the hands and arms have to be the basis of your swing. All this body stuff is important, but if you don’t get your hands and arms going, you’re just going to be dead in the water.”
6. You’re swinging too fast
“You’re not swinging too fast. In fact, there is no such thing as swinging too fast. But people say it all the time, ‘you’re getting quick,’” Haney says. “The only way you’re swinging too fast is if you’re hitting the golf ball too far, and nobody is hitting the golf ball to far.”
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