The Most Common Golf Myth: Looking Up

I have found that one of the most common misconception among golfers that looking up causes a multitude of bad shots. I have checked with golf professionals from around the world on social media and none of them have ever had a student that actually “looked up” on a shot.

I have found that there are three major reasons for topped, whiffed, or thin golf shots. Of the three, none are looking up or not keeping your head down.

The number one reason for these three shot types is that golfers try to “hit” the ball with the club head causing them to deliver the club head to the ball too soon. This results in the club head to passing the hands prior to impact and starting up too soon. The result is the leading edge of the golf club contacts the ball instead of the face of the club. Any time the club contacts the ball on the upswing the ball will not get airborne. It is essential to get the handle of the club or the hands past the ball before impact.

The number two reason for the shots is a “V” shaped or “U” shaped golf swing. This means the club is picked up too sharply on the back swing and has to come down too steeply on the downswing resulting in coming up sharply on the upswing. This can be particularly frustrating because you will, on rare occasions, hit a good shot. The swing feels the same as it does on the bad shot. Whenever the ball happens to be right at the bottom of the arc the result is a good shot. It is however, impossible to be consistent swinging like this. There is no margin of error at the bottom of the arc in this type or shaped swing.

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The club should approach the ball on the downswing in a gradually descending plane rather than sharply down and back up again too quickly.

A simple cure for both of this is to place a broken tee or blade of grass on the ground just in front of the golf ball and concentrate on hitting that after you hit the ball.

A third, but less common, reason is changing your posture. If you use your legs or upper body to try to lift the ball it will cause the head to move up or lift. This will prevent the club from returning to the proper impact position. Try to concentrate or focus on keeping the club low to the ground for a few inches after impact.