5 Golf Swing Basics
The best golfers make their swing look effortless.
The economy of motion and smooth arc that great golfers put on display belie all the training and effort put into perfecting their swing.
However, sometimes even the best golfers have to go back to the drawing board and relearn those initial golf swing basics all over again.
If you’re looking to get into golfing, or just looking to improve your game, here are five golf swing basics to get you started.
Golf Swing Basics
Getting in Position
The start of learning proper golf swing basics is to first get into that proper swing stance.
- Set both feet with your weight distributed evenly on the middle part of your feet.
- Set your hips back, and then angle your upper body and spine forward, facing the ball.
- Then bend your knees a bit to get some added stability.
Now you’re ready to take your best shot at learning the basics of a proper swing.
Backswing
Ironically, sometimes the best way to learn golf swing basics is to learn to avoid golf swing mistakes you see other golfers making.
Many beginners have a tough time with keeping their right arm close to their body as they swing.
Instead they force a straight back takeaway that doesn’t produce a natural swing and sends you on a trip to the woods.
Instead, keep your right arm close and bring the club back and around you, transferring your weight to your back right foot.
As weight transfers to your right foot, you should feel the club rising at a 90-degree angle to the ground.
The downswing starts by moving the left knee across the left foot.
You’ll find your arms naturally dropping as you keep your wrists in a hinge position.
Your hips and chest are now rotating as you make sure your head stays behind the ball.
Follow Through
Some beginners tend to try and stop their momentum after hitting the ball, not knowing that this affects their natural club movement.
After striking the ball, your right shoulder at this point should be down and your arms should extend fully.
The right knee should have completed the transition by moving towards your left knee and all of your weight should be transferred to the heel of your left foot, and your right foot is on its toes.
Heads Up
Many times you’ll be instructed to “keep your head down” while going through your swing.
The issue isn’t so much that your head placement is affecting the shot, but that raising your head changes the tilt of your spine, which in turn causes your swing to go off target.
Practice maintaining that golf swing basics posture of leaning over the ball, going through your backswing and following through without straightening your upper back and losing your swing trajectory.
Golf Swing Basics
While the basic golf swing basics are the same, you’ll discover that the best golfers build upon those fundamentals to create a swing that works best for them.
Constantly work on improving your golf swing, and even try new techniques that can help you improve as a golfer.
Check out this Golf Swing Technique
Careers in Golf
Want to make your passion for golf a rewarding golf career? Of course you do! Keiser University’s College of Golf can help you out with that – contact us today to get started.
Updated from a blog originally published Feb. 5, 2015.
I’m a professional baseball player and I must start by saying my golf swing does not play well with my baseball swing. No matter what I tried I would continuously slice the ball to the right. In baseball we’re taught to keep our hands inside the ball to drive it gap to gap. But when I try to do that with a golf ball, it misses the fairway by about 50 yards to the right every time.
I tried just about everything to hit the ball straight, especially my driver. I switched my grip so the “v” in my top hand was facing my right shoulder. I placed the ball in different parts of my stance. I eventually just stopped using the driver and only played with irons until I found this amazing online training by pro golfer Jeff Richmond that completely changed my game.
The training breaks down how to get onto the correct swing plane to consistently strike the ball correctly and drive the ball down the fairway. It uses a simple approach that is very easy to replicate on the course. He breaks down the golf swings of many pros on tour and compares them to amateurs. He explains how to read the ball off your club and adjust as needed.
After not making a par in about 50 holes on Par 5s I was finally able to drive the ball off the tee down the fairway. I can finally consistently reach the greens without any problems. It has boosted my confidence and love for the game.
When I first started using this program I was playing off seven. Now my handicap is down to two. I have developed a much lower ball flight as well. I can hit the ball on the sweet spot on almost all my shots. It’s amazing how much progress I’ve made.
Basically I am a beginner for golf and here it is a great article for beginners.
I like what you said about keeping your arms fully extended after hitting the ball in golf. My brother has been telling me about how he wants to get better at golf so that he can improve his odds of making some business deals. I’ll share this information with him so that he can look into his options for hitting the ball properly.
I think I’ll go to a public golf course so I can play golf with my best friend. He told me that he wants to try it out since it seems like a low-impact sport, and since he’s tired of playing chess and wants to improve his spatial abilities, he thought that maybe this is something that can train him. Thanks for the tip that we should evenly distribute our weight on both of our feet so we won’t fall when we swing, so we’ll be sure to try that when we finally have our first game.
Thanks for sharing such awesome information. I think I’m a bit late reading this.
When I was a beginner, it was a pain not to get it right even after trying so hard until I changed my technique. An evenly distributed swing, no matter how easy it seems, is not a piece of cake to execute.
I credit this upgrade to an awesome resource which was the turning point for me.
I love the content you have been posting lately!
I would think the swing plane angle with the horizontal ground would change from club to club. I am going to measure the angle with each club to demonstrate.