We’d all like to swing like the pros. But should we? A PGA Pro’s swing reflects years of practice. If you’re an average weekend golfer looking to cut strokes from your golf handicap, copying the swing of your favorite PGA pro isn’t necessarily smart. Instead of helping your game, it could make it worse. Weekend golfers often lack the flexibility and core strength of the pros, so they can’t achieve the same swing positions as the pros do even after dozens of golf lessons. This makes it difficult to copy a pro.
If you compare videos of an average weekend player and a PGA pro swinging a club, you’ll see key differences in swing positions. Even weekend players who through studying golf tips and/or taking golf lessons acquire the right mechanics can’t always make up for their lack of flexibility and core strength. That doesn’t mean weekend golfers can’t have sound swings or achieve low golf handicaps. They can. But they must make adjustments that professional golfers don’t have to make. Let’s look at a couple of examples.
Dynamic Transition
Take the downswing. The biggest difference between the two golfers on the downswing is the pro’s dynamic transition. Thanks to his flexibility a PGA pro produces tremendous torque during the backswing. This torque is stored in the swing at the top. The pro unleashes this torque by starting his lower body toward the target before his backswing has finished, producing a great deal of lag. The lag has the potential for creating extraordinary clubhead speed—the kind seldom seen in golf instruction sessions for weekend golfers. It’s a lot like stretching a rubber band.
The weekend golfer also starts his downswing by moving his lower body. But weekend golfers don’t store as much torque in their swings as professionals because of a lack of flexibility and core strength, so they can’t create as much lag as a pro. Put differently, they can’t stretch the “rubber band” as tight as the pros can. This decrease in tension, combined with a less than dynamic transition, drains clubhead speed. Nevertheless, weekend golfers can achieve good power from their swings, if they make the right adjustments.
One adjustment is keeping the club on the proper swing path. When weekend golfers swing, a quick spin of their hips and shoulders force their clubs on a steep, outside paths. Starting a downswing with a smooth, lateral motion helps the weekend golfers stay more to the inside coming down, where they should be. This adjustment keys the weekend golfers’ power and compensates for his lack of flexibility and strength.
All About Flexibility
Another swing phase where a lack of flexibility and core strength hurts weekend golfers is the finish. It’s all about flexibility. With a stronger body and more flexibility, a professional golfer completes his finish by pointing his right shoulder (left shoulder for southpaws) at the target. The finish results in part from achieving the neutral centered positions the pros normally achieve during their swings, which allow professional golfers to add more body movement to their swings. More body movement means the pro needs to use his hands less during the finish, improving consistency.
Weekend golfers can’t rotate their hips and shoulders completely around like Tour pros. So their hands must play a more active role in the swing to make up for the lack of flexibility. But it’s hard to achieve consistency in our finish with active hands. Nevertheless, weekend golfers can still finish well. Instead of trying to force their cores to turn more than they can, weekend golfers should focus on staying balanced at the finish, and let their levels of flexibility and core strength determine their finishes. This approach also curbs injuries.
We all want to play like the pros. But should we? Weekend golfers who try to imitate the exact moves of their favorite professional golfers may be asking for trouble. They lack the average professional’s flexibility and core strength achieving key swing positions. Imitating the swing of their favorite pros can hurt not only weekend golfers’ golf handicaps but also their bodies. Learning to make the right adjustments to compensate for physical limitations can boost one’s game to the next level.
