8 Common Mistakes Plaguing Your Golf Game (And How A PGA Pro Would Fix Them)

Whichever area of the game is preventing you from reaching your potential, the remedies can sometimes be fairly simple, often changing your fortunes radically.

PGA Professional James Jankowksi has coached more than 3000 golfers, teaching everything from putting grips to ensuring a centred strike with driver, which has allowed him to develop a clear understanding of emerging patterns in the amateur game.

Throughout all of the golf lessons that James has given in his decade long coaching career, he cites a number of common mistakes that amateur golfers make regularly, which creates a viscous cycle that he hopes to break by offering his vast expertise.

The list below outlines eight examples where amateur golfers can improve their game, and in the article below James shares his best actionable tips and advice for how to sharpen up in these areas and banish the faults that plague our game.

James Jankowski's List Of Common Amateur Mistakes

1. Hitting up on fairway woods
2. Weight distribution on pitch shots
3. Changing mechanics unneccesarily
4. Grip issues
5. Not reading the lie
6. Manipulating the face through impact
7. Not adapting to various bunker lies
8. Complicating flight control

1. HITTING UP WITH YOUR FAIRWAY WOODS

Many golfers struggle with fairway woods because they try to hit them like a driver.

Fairway woods are designed with the sweetspot sitting pretty much at the equator of the ball. Therefore, off the deck, you want the low point to be just after impact. If you hit up on it, a centred strike with irons or fairway woods becomes more difficult, or perhaps even impossible.

A good image to have is that, if there were another ball placed an inch or two in front of the one you’re hitting, you would also get that one airborne.

Hit slightly down and you should see the ball will launch better due to higher face contact.

2. WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION ON PITCH SHOTS

A common short game mistake many club golfers make when pitching is too much weight on their lead side at set-up.

Maybe they know that they need to be forward at impact, so preset this position at set-up. The problem then becomes no space to move into the lead side as they swing.

Instead, start with a fairly neutral weight distribution and allow a gentle shift onto the left side during the backswing and transition so that you can move into the ball naturally.

You want the torso moving forward and up through impact with a fluid motion. The low point is after the ball and the club is delofted at impact. If you keep that in mind and allow a small, natural shift left, your contact will improve and you will start to control distance much better.

Often, golfers who preset impact at set-up actually shift backwards during the motion. This leads to poor low-point control plus too much loft, sending the ball high with less spin.

3. CHANGING MECHANICS UNNECESSARILY

When you’re looking to change your short-shot trajectory, there’s no need to change much in the motion.

The mechanics remain largely the same. For a lower shot, the perfect ball position is slightly back in your stance with the face square and your hands in front of your lead thigh, using shaft lean to deloft the club.

For a higher shot, set the ball further forward with little shaft lean and open the clubface. From these two differing set-ups, the motion that then follows remains essentially the same.

From here, it’s all about contact and controlling the low point. Your set-up, not the swing, influences trajectory.

I’m still making the same movement to the finish, with a fairly long follow-through and no forced wrist hinge or delofting, depending on the shot.

The elbows stay soft and relaxed. Changing set-up, not motion, makes it easier to control height without losing consistency.

4. GRIP ISSUES

A perfect golf grip may be one of the most crucial parts of building a functional swing.

‘Swing around a good grip’, as my friend Biv Wadden used to say. Start with the middle of the left wrist joint right above the butt of the club.

The grip must be in the fingers and the left thumb should run long down the grip to help stabilise the club at the top. Using just your left hand, hinge the club up and down quickly a few times and the face should stay square the whole time.

The most functional right-hand grip sees the pinky overlap between the left hand’s trigger and middle fingers. The thumb should sit on the front and it should feel like you hinge the wrist to push the right thumb pad up the grip onto the left thumb.

The right thumb shortens and the trigger finger separates from the middle finger. The right thumb and upper trigger finger point at the right shoulder.

5. NOT READING THE LIE

Understanding lies around the green is a huge part of scoring well and an area where many golfers second-guess themselves. Again, it’s all about the low point.

On a basic level, if the ball is sitting up on top of the rough, you want a shallower arc and angle of attack.

This means very little shaft lean, if any, exposing a little more bounce. The ball position should be further forward and you should stand a little further away, perhaps with a slightly wider stance.

In the motion, you may want to feel a slightly wider arc – the clubhead staying further from you. This all helps to ‘pick’ the ball off the top.

If the ball is sitting down, you want to do the opposite. Stand closer with perhaps a narrower stance, move the ball back a little and lean the shaft, removing some bounce.

You may also want to feel a little more wrist hinge to narrow the arc. This helps the club cut through the turf so that the low point is below the ball.

6. MANIPULATING THE FACE THROUGH IMPACT

Many golfers believe we want to ‘control’ the face through impact, even when putting.

But the reality is we want a free release without tension. If your grip and sequencing are good, you should be able to release the club freely without manipulation.

Learn to feel the sensation of the club whooshing past your body. The club should be travelling fast past the body while the hands and body are actually slowing down to get the speed out into the clubhead before impact.

You need to think speed through the ball, not at the ball. The finish tells you everything.

In the finish position of the swing the right arm is soft and folded, the elbows are pretty close together and the back of the right hand is by the left ear. The elbows should finish quite close together.

A straight right arm is often a big red flag – what we might call an umbrella finish. Yes, you may see this from some tour players but they’re a different breed.

Practise swings with a free release without tension, the club whooshing past you and then try to repeat that with the ball.

7. NOT ADAPTING TO VARIOUS BUNKER LIES

A big part of good bunker play is adapting to the sand and distance of shot.

First, some basics. The stance should be pretty square and wide with the hands low and the ball just forward of centre. The goal is for the club to enter the sand just behind the ball. Next, it’s all about adjusting for lie and distance.

Let’s focus on the lie in the bunker. In soft sand, much like the ball sitting on top in the rough, you want a wider arc and shallower angle of attack. A simple way to achieve this is to stand a little further from the ball.

You may also want to select a club with more bounce or to expose more bounce by opening the face. In firmer sand, you need to be steeper so stand closer. Here, you need more dig, so maybe keep the face square or use your lowest-bounce wedge.

The final thing to grasp is that we want to take a similar amount of sand for every shot, no matter the consistency of sand or the distance.

Remember, in a bunker, we don’t actually hit the ball. Control distance with swing speed and club choice. Play around in the practice bunker and you’ll start seeing results.

8. COMPLICATING FLIGHT CONTROL

Many club golfers have a poor concept of how to hit a low-flighted shot. They start manipulating the swing, delofting the club too much and hitting way down on it.

In reality, hitting a low-flighted shot can be very simple, with the mechanics of the swing staying relatively similar. Trajectory is controlled mostly by set-up and club selection, not by trying to deloft the club and squeeze the ball low.

To produce a low-flighted shot, the first and simplest thing to do is reduce the loft by clubbing up. Once you have more club in your hands, grip down, narrow your stance a little and stand closer. These will all contribute to producing a lower flight, mostly by reducing the clubhead speed at impact.

Now you’re in this set-up position, the best course of action is to make your normal swing.

You’ll notice the ball fly lower with less spin. Want the flight slightly lower still? Simply feel the wrists stay more ulnar (unhinged) in the follow-through. This again reduces speed and lowers the flight.

Lower-flighted shots are simple once you know how. Club up, adapt your set-up, perhaps add the follow-through cue above and see your scores improve in the wind.

Tips by...

Tips by...

James Jankowksi

James has been coaching golf for more than 10 years and specialising in putting for well over half of that time. In the past few years James has worked with more than 3000 golfers, including more than 200 professionals. If he was to single out a success it would be seeing Jamie Rutherford win the EuroPro Tour order of merit this year after working together for the past three years. His philosophy is simple – 'We do whatever it takes to make each individual better on the greens.’