Any tips that hurt your game?

[acegolfer]

I believe every golfer is different. A tip may work for some but not necessarily for others. I'd like to hear some tips that didn't work for you and why.

Here's one.

After 5 year lay off, I was hitting every shot fat. My partner told me to put the ball back in stance so that I'll hit the small ball before the big ball. After that I always played the ball back of center for the last 1+ years and my fat shot got worse because of steeper angle of attack.

Recently, another buddy (4 handicapper) saw my swing and told me never to put the ball back of center. My swing is much shallow. I still hit fat shots occasionally but they are not chunk shots.

[Gordon McTavish]

"Roll the hands over through impact." Because this obviously prevents an out-to-in swing path...

[J_Bone]

Get your weight over your back leg on the back swing and TRY to get it back over the front leg on the down swing. Not the exact words, but what was happening. I got stuck with too much weight on the back side and had horrific results.

[saevel25]

oh god, i can forsee the wrath of iacas now with thse two posts..

[JetFan1983]

My partner told me to put the ball back in stance so that I'll hit the small ball before the big ball. After that I always played the ball back of center for the last 1+ years and my fat shot got worse because of steeper angle of attack.

Yup, suffered from this one in my first year. Wasn't til I realized that I need to slide my hips to start my downswing that I was able to get my weight left. On my good swings, the club bottoms out well ahead of the ball.

"Roll the hands over through impact." Because this obviously prevents an out-to-in swing path...

A paid for a $70 dollar, hour long lesson at my local range/par-3 course and that's what the guy was teaching me the whole time. I told him I wanted to hit a draw and this was his solution. I developed a nice duck hook. If I got lucky, I'd hit a playable banana slice. It wasn't until I learned about the "flying wedge" that I was able to hit a more consistent, predictable ball flight.

Get your

My very, very first lesson- which I got something like 2-3 days into first touching a club- the instructor had me doing this. A massive weight shift right and then a massive weight shift left. Developed a nice sway there for a while.

Moral of the story: There are a lot- and I mean ALOT- of bad teachers out there. Good thing this forum exists or I'd be doomed to shitty golf for my whole life.

oh god, i can forsee the wrath of iacas now with thse two posts..

As far as I can tell, the subject of the thread is to post some piece of bad advice that has hurt your game.

[sean_miller]

The two worst tips I ever received (that I didn't filter out as pure bulls**t upon hearing them) were "make sure you take enough club" and its cousin, "don't be short".

Once I allowed myself to play short of the pin my errors were short of the green, rather than flying the green. It's way easier to get up and down from short the green where you have an uphill chip off better grass. Trying to get up and down from scraggly grass (often going against the grain) off a sidehill to a downhill pin makes if nearly impossible to make par. btw Tom Watson's chip in on the 17th at Pebble was a one in a million shot - even he says that.

[Wiley]

Advised to try a medicus and weighted clubs. I felt both took me out of a natural swing plane.

[Mizzoujohn]

I wasn't helped much by 'turn the hands over' either, I think that masks a swing flaw instead of corrects it.

[Rexx]

The two worst tips I ever received (that I didn't filter out as pure bulls**t upon hearing them) were "make sure you take enough club" and its cousin, "don't be short".

I get what you're saying and it's probably applicable to you, but man... I don't know how many times I've played with people that insist on trying to kill a 8 iron, when a nice 7 or even 3/4 6 iron would be more effective. Inevitably, the 8 (WHEN they make decent contact) comes up 5-10+ yards short. Now I agree, it's often worse to be long than short, but these guys aren't even giving themselves a chance to get one close to the pin. Again, these are higher handicappers, so it may not apply to your situation.

[sean_miller]

I get what you're saying and it's probably applicable to you, but man... I don't know how many times I've played with people that insist on trying to kill a 8 iron, when a nice 7 or even 3/4 6 iron would be more effective. Inevitably, the 8 (WHEN they make decent contact) comes up 5-10+ yards short. Now I agree, it's often worse to be long than short, but these guys aren't even giving themselves a chance to get one close to the pin. Again, these are higher handicappers, so it may not apply to your situation.

I stopped going long when I started taking 1 more club and swinging a lot easier - true story.