Six Bad Golf Swing Habits: What They Are and How to Fix Them
By Brad Turner, Keiser University College of Golf Executive Director – MBA, PGA
A golf swing is a highly coordinated athletic motion that blends balance, timing, strength, and precision. While it may look fluid when performed by skilled players, the swing is vulnerable to ingrained bad habits that can sabotage consistency, distance, and accuracy. These habits often develop unintentionally—through lack of instruction, compensations for physical limitations, or repeated trial-and-error practice. Once embedded, they can be challenging to break because the body naturally prefers familiar movement patterns, even if they are inefficient. A habit does not know whether it is good or bad. One thing is for sure: under pressure, your golf swing habits are going to show. It makes good sense to create good habits, as they will serve you when it counts.
Understanding everyday bad golf swing habits and learning how to correct them is essential for players seeking long-term improvement. This essay explores the most frequent swing faults, explains why they occur, and offers practical strategies to fix them through awareness, drills, and purposeful practice.
#1 Poor Grip Fundamentals
One of the most damaging habits in golf begins before the club even moves: an improper grip. Golfers often grip the club too tightly, place their hands incorrectly, or use grips that are excessively strong or weak. A poor grip compromises clubface control, leading to slices, hooks, and inconsistent contact.
Why It Develops
Many players adopt their grip intuitively, without instruction, or copy others without understanding grip fundamentals. Nervousness, lack of confidence, or a desire for control often leads to over-gripping, which restricts wrist mobility and reduces swing speed.
How to Fix It
Correcting grip habits starts with education. A neutral grip – where the hands work together, and the clubface naturally returns to square – provides a reliable foundation. Golfers should practice gripping the club with light pressure, often described as holding a tube of toothpaste without squeezing it out. Repeatedly re-gripping the club during practice builds awareness and gradually replaces the old habit. Believe it or not, you can change your grip in about a week with some spaced practice sessions and hitting golf balls without concern for the outcome. Day one may be discouraging, but by day seven, you will have a grip that lasts a lifetime.
#2 Poor Setup and Target Orientation
Slouched posture, excessive knee bend, standing too upright, or poor alignment at address are common setup errors. These habits affect balance and restrict the body’s ability to rotate effectively.
Why It Develops
A lack of education is almost always the reason for a poor setup and a lack of target orientation. I do not think there is a serious golfer on the planet who is seeking a poor setup or starting point. Recreational golfers often rush into the swing without paying attention to setup fundamentals. Physical limitations, such as tight hips or lower back discomfort, may also encourage compensatory posture habits.
How to Fix It
Good posture begins with a neutral spine, slight knee flex, and the hips hinged back. Alignment sticks or clubs placed on the ground can help players learn proper aim and body alignment. Almost every professional golfer uses alignment sticks on the practice range…that is how important it is to develop consistency in the game. Practicing setup positions in front of a mirror reinforces correct posture and helps golfers develop a consistent pre-shot routine that promotes balance and stability.
#3 Incorrect Concept of the Hands and Wrists
Many golfers rely too heavily on their hands and wrists to generate power. In addition, a common bad habit is to help the ball into the air, resulting in “flipping” at impact. This causes inconsistent contact, weak shots, and a loss of compression. Most golfers are unaware of the proper movement of the hands, forearms, and wrists in the golf swing.
Why It Develops
This habit often stems from a misunderstanding of how power is generated in the golf swing. Players may believe that faster hand action equals more distance, or they may compensate for poor body rotation by using their hands.
How to Fix It
To break this habit, golfers should focus on body-driven swings, in which the torso and hips initiate movement and generate power in the swing. Impact drills that emphasize pre-impact, impact, and post-impact, with training in proper hand, forearm, and wrist movement. Slower swing speeds during practice allow players to feel the correct relationship between the arms and body.
#4 Lack of Body Rotation
A restricted backswing or minimal hip and shoulder rotation reduces power and encourages arm-dominated swings. This often leads to slices, pulls, and loss of distance. Golf is an athletic sport that requires a golfer to be in good physical condition to perform at their best.
Why It Develops
Fear of losing balance, physical stiffness, or poor flexibility can limit rotation. Some golfers intentionally restrict their turn to “stay controlled,” not realizing they are sacrificing efficiency.
How to Fix It
Improving rotation starts with flexibility and balance. Stretching routines targeting the hips, shoulders, and thoracic spine support better motion. Drills that encourage a full shoulder turn, such as placing a club across the shoulders and rotating, help players feel a proper coil without overswinging.
#5 Over-the-Top Downswing
An over-the-top move occurs when the club approaches the ball from outside the target line, producing a high percentage of slices and weak fades. The over-the-top downswing is likely caused by bad habit #3, as golfers do not understand how to release the club properly.
Why It Develops
This habit often results from an ineffective club head release and poor kinematic sequencing. Golfers with this bad habit tend to use the upper body to initiate the downswing instead of the lower body. Anxiety, tension, or a desire to “hit” the ball can also contribute.
How to Fix It
Golfers should focus on initiating the downswing with the hips and allowing the arms to follow. Shallowing drills, such as dropping the club halfway down before turning, help retrain the swing path. Practicing with slower tempos builds trust in proper sequencing.
#6 Practising Without Purpose
Mindlessly hitting balls without feedback reinforces bad habits rather than correcting them. I see that every time I go to a practice range. A large percentage of golfers are exercising, not practicing with a purpose. Simply pounding the ball as far as they can is not practice.
Why It Develops
Many golfers equate quantity of practice with improvement, overlooking the importance of quality. Without clear goals, practice becomes repetition of flawed mechanics.
How to Fix It
Find a good golf coach who can guide you on your golf journey. Effective practice is deliberate and structured. Golfers should focus on one specific swing change at a time, use training aids or video feedback, and reflect on each session. Short, focused practice sessions are often more productive than long, unfocused ones.
Conclusion
Bad golf swing habits are common, persistent, and often deeply ingrained, but they are not permanent. From improper grip and posture to flawed sequencing and ineffective practice, these habits typically develop as natural responses to misunderstanding, physical limitations, or lack of guidance. The key to improvement lies in awareness, patience, and purposeful correction. Fixing bad habits requires slowing down, breaking the swing into manageable components, and reinforcing correct movement patterns through consistent practice. With time and commitment, golfers can replace inefficient habits with sound fundamentals, leading to more consistent ball striking, greater confidence, and long-term enjoyment of the game. Ultimately, the journey toward a better golf swing is not about perfection, but about progress built on understanding and intentional change.
