Fix your Swing: Common Amateur Golf Swing Faults

Do you want to build a more consistent golf swing for more distance and accuracy on every shot? If so, you need to avoid the most common amateur golf swing faults that plague so many players.

When you avoid the common mistakes below, you’ll have the foundation for a solid golf swing. Paired with good course management skills and a solid short game, you’ll break 80 in no time. 

Most Common Swing Faults 

Key Takeaways

• Many common golf swing faults can be avoided by looking at grip and setup positions.
• One of the most common swing faults from everyday golfers is a swing that is too slow. This crushes distance potential and makes sequencing very difficult.
• Training aids and purposeful practice can help avoid some of the common mistakes and catch them quickly before they develop into bad habits. 
• A golf coach can also help you fix certain issues fast and help improve your ball striking without the hassle of trying to figure it out yourself.

Keep reading to avoid common swing faults and build a consistent, repeatable golf swing that you can trust. 

Weak Grip

A weak grip is arguably the most common swing fault in golf. 

There are three ways to grip the club; weak, neutral, or strong. Each type of grip has its own pros/cons, but a weak grip has the most cons with few upsides.

The biggest problem with a weak grip is that it leads to an open face at impact… aka the dreaded slice. This is why most golf instructors address the grip before suggesting any swing changes. 

In fact, changing your grip might be the only thing you need to change that will immediately improve your golf swing. 

Let me clarify, this doesn’t mean you need a strong grip and everything else will take care of itself. However, getting your hands into a neutral or slightly strong position can help with contact, distance, and ball flight. It also makes it much easier to achieve forward shaft lean at impact, which is a position that all professional golfers strive toward.

Use the resources to make grip changes simple:

• How to Grip the Golf Club
• Golf Grip Trainer – This is a great tool to use on an extra club to get your hands in the right position. Scottie Scheffler has been seen regularly using it, which just goes to show how important the grip is in golf (even for the best player in the world). 

Incorrect Setup

Once your grip is addressed, then it’s time to look at your setup position. So many swing issues also happen from incorrect addresses as you address the golf ball. 

When it comes to the setup, you’ll want to consider posture, alignment, and ball position above all else.

Posture is key to making sure you don’t stand too far away or too close to the golf ball. The right posture can also help you avoid common golf injuries. 

Alignment is the second part of a good setup and one of the most important parts of golf. If you’re aimed left or right of your target, you’ll need to make some swing

Lastly, don’t forget about ball position, which is not a one size fits all approach. Instead, ball position changes with every club in your bag. 

In general, the longer the club, the further up in your stance. 

With driver, ball position is key as it’ll help you hit longer drives, improve launch angle, and avoid the dreaded pop-up (which usually occurs from a ball position that is too far back in your stance).

You can also alter ball position with irons and wedges to hit different shots. 

For example, if you want to play a draw, you can move the ball position slightly further back. Or, if you want to hit a wedge higher, you can move it more up in your stance. 

Too Slow of Tempo

The third common swing fault that so many amateur golfers make is a slow swing tempo. This typically stems from the golf myth that you need a “low and slow takeaway.” 

As noted in the book, Tour Tempo, “The great golfers have always swung more quickly and aggressively than middle and high handicappers. If you don’t believe me, take a stopwatch and time a typical tour player’s swing from takeaway to impact. The elapsed time will be between .93 seconds and 1.20 seconds, or about as long as it takes to flip a pancake.” 

That’s right, professional golfers swing the club twice as fast as most everyday golfers! In fact, the incorrect tempo can not only hurt your full swing but wedges and putting too.

To learn more about tempo, read these guides next:

• Forgotten Fundamental: Find the Perfect Tempo
• Why Short Game Tempo is Different 
• Putting Tempo

Also, you should consider overspeed training as it can help with improving speed and sequencing as well. Plus, a lot more distance off the tee! 

Inside Takeaway

The next common swing mistake that is frequent among amateur golfers is an inside takeaway. Like the grip, there are three main positions to evaluate your takeaway – which is when the club is parallel to the ground on your backswing. 

You can be inside, outside, or on plane. 

An inside takeaway typically leads to rolling the hands open, having the club open at the top of your swing, and a steep downswing. This generally leads to a lot of plane issues, chunked shots, and slices. 

If you want to build a consistent, repeatable golf swing, work on your takeaway relentlessly. 

This is one of the most important parts of the swing, as it sets up the rest of your backswing and downswing. Plus, if you have a neutral to strong grip and solid setup position, you’ll be ready to hit a lot of quality golf shots.  

Poor Weight Transfer

Most golfers don’t make clean contact – many of the reasons are the ones listed above. However, even if your grip, setup, and tempo are good, a poor weight transfer might be to blame. 

If you hit a lot of fat and thin shots, chances are you aren’t moving your weight through the shot properly. If most of your weight is on the trail leg at impact, it’s easy to change your plane and hit up on the shot – thus, missing the sweet spot.

Learning to transfer your weight is key to making clean contact and getting the most distance from every club. Read our full guide about a proper weight transfer here, and consider using the Pressure Plate as a helpful training aid in practice. 

Trying to Lift the Ball

One of the biggest mistakes most high handicappers make is trying to lift the ball in the air. When in reality, you need to learn how to use ground force to hit down on the shot and let the loft of the club do its job.

Remember, each club has loft, which makes the ball get airborne. More loft can help the ball go higher – especially with wedges and short irons. However, if you try to help the ball in the air, this will lead to a lot of thin shots. 

The only shot you want to hit up on is a driver, since it’s teed up quite high! The others, you need to hit down, so the divot is ahead of the ball. 

Read our article on how to stop standing up in the golf swing.

My Experience

Like most golfers, I’ve struggled with nearly every one of these issues at one point or another in my 25+ years of playing golf. If I could go back in time, I would make tell my younger self:

• Strengthen your grip. A weak grip and slice makes golf so much more difficult. 
• Record your swing, short game, and putting more. This makes it easier to learn how to “swing your swing” and become your own coach. 
• Improve your swing speed and tempo. Not only does it help with distance, but a faster tempo also makes it easier to sequence your swing properly. 
• Don’t listen or watch too much swing advice from others. Sure, you might need a lesson from time to time, but be careful who you let influence your swing. More isn’t always better when it comes to golf swing tips. 

Finally, just remember that your swing is always a work in progress. It might change as you get older, deal with injuries, or other circumstances.  

Also, don’t be afraid to swing your swing. As Bubba Watson once said, “Everybody can see that my swing is homegrown. That means everybody has a chance to do it.” 

Final Thoughts 

While there is no “perfect swing” in golf, there are a lot of good positions that consistent golfers find in the swing. If you can get in these positions – like a good grip, setup, alignment, etc. – you can hit it better and avoid big misses. Which should help you break through plateaus and reach your true potential.

However, don’t fall into the trap of spending all your time on the range and neglecting short game. Your wedges, putting, and mental game also play a pivotal role in playing your best golf.