Every golfer makes mistakes. Even Tour pros hit bad shots. But the difference between players who improve and those who stay stuck? Identifying and fixing the mistakes that hurt them most.

Here are the 10 most common golf swing mistakes—and how to fix each one.

1. Coming Over the Top

The Mistake: Your upper body leads the downswing, throwing the club outside the proper swing plane. This creates an out-to-in path that produces pulls and slices.

Why It Happens: The arms start the downswing instead of the lower body. Or you’re trying to “hit” the ball instead of swinging through it.

The Fix: Focus on starting your downswing with your hips. Feel your belt buckle rotate toward the target before your hands move. The pump drill helps: make a backswing, then pause and pump your arms down twice while rotating your hips, then swing through.

Video Check: Film your swing from behind. The club should drop inside on the downswing, not loop outside.

2. Poor Grip Pressure

The Mistake: Gripping the club too tightly (or occasionally too loosely). Death grips create tension that kills clubhead speed and feel.

Why It Happens: Anxiety, trying to control the club, or copying a grip without understanding the pressure needed.

The Fix: On a scale of 1-10, your grip pressure should be 4-5. Hold the club firmly enough that it won’t slip, but relaxed enough that someone could pull it from your hands with moderate effort.

The Test: If your forearms are tense at address, you’re gripping too hard.

3. Open Clubface at Impact

The Mistake: The clubface points right of target at impact, sending shots right with a weak, high ball flight. Often causes slices.

Why It Happens: Rolling the face open during the takeaway, cupped lead wrist at the top, or failing to release through impact.

The Fix: Work on clubface control drills. The motorcycle drill helps: at the top of your backswing, feel like you’re revving a motorcycle with your lead hand, bowing the wrist to close the face.

Video Check: At impact, the leading edge should be perpendicular to your target line, not rotated open.

4. Casting the Club

The Mistake: Releasing wrist angle too early, losing lag and throwing the club at the ball from the top. Results in weak, high shots and fat strikes.

Why It Happens: Trying to add power by “hitting” harder instead of letting lag release naturally through rotation.

The Fix: The lag drill: Make slow swings where you feel like you’re dragging the clubhead into impact. Your hands should reach the ball before the clubhead does.

Feel: Imagine your wrists are made of rope. They can’t “throw” anything—they just get pulled along.

5. Early Extension

The Mistake: Your hips thrust toward the ball during the downswing, forcing you to stand up through impact. Leads to blocks, hooks, or toe strikes.

Why It Happens: Physical limitations (tight hip flexors), compensating for an overly steep downswing, or poor posture at setup.

The Fix: The wall drill: Set up with your glutes against a wall, then make practice swings keeping contact throughout. This teaches your hips to rotate rather than thrust.

Physical Check: If you can’t deep squat with your heels down, hip mobility work will help your swing.

6. Swaying Instead of Rotating

The Mistake: Moving your body laterally instead of rotating around your spine. Creates inconsistent contact and power loss.

Why It Happens: Misunderstanding “weight shift” as sliding rather than rotating. Or trying to generate power through horizontal movement.

The Fix: Feel your hip rotation happen around a fixed spine. Put an alignment stick in the ground outside your lead hip—your hip shouldn’t touch it during the backswing. It should rotate toward it, not slide into it.

Drill: Hit balls with your feet together. You can’t sway when your base is narrow.

7. Incorrect Ball Position

The Mistake: Ball too far forward, too far back, or inconsistent between shots. Leads to thin shots, fat shots, and directional issues.

Why It Happens: Never learned proper ball position for each club, or letting it drift over time.

The Fix:

  • Driver: Inside front heel
  • Irons: Center to slightly forward of center
  • Wedges: Center of stance

Place alignment sticks perpendicular to your target line during practice to calibrate.

8. Standing Up Through Impact

The Mistake: Losing your spine angle during the downswing, with your chest rising toward the sky. Causes thin shots, tops, and heel strikes.

Why It Happens: Trying to help the ball up, early extension, or losing balance during the swing.

The Fix: Practice maintaining your posture by keeping your chest “down” through impact. Feel like you’re covering the ball with your chest. The head-on-wall drill helps: press your forehead gently against a wall during practice swings to feel the proper spine angle.

9. Ignoring the Short Game

The Mistake: Spending all practice time hitting driver instead of developing chipping, pitching, and putting.

Why It Happens: It’s more fun to smash drivers. Less exciting to work on 10-foot putts.

The Fix: The 60/40 rule: Spend 60% of practice time inside 100 yards. This is where scoring actually happens. A typical round has 30-40 putts and 10-15 chips—far more shots than drives.

Reality Check: Gaining 10 yards off the tee might save you 0.5 strokes per round. Holing one more 6-footer saves you a full stroke every time.

10. No Pre-Shot Routine

The Mistake: Walking up to the ball and hitting without a consistent pre-shot routine. Leads to inconsistency and poor focus.

Why It Happens: Feels unnecessary, takes extra time, or never developed one to begin with.

The Fix: Create a simple routine you can repeat every shot:

  1. Stand behind ball, pick target
  2. Take practice swing
  3. Address ball with alignment check
  4. One look at target, then swing

The key is consistency. Same routine for driver and 3-foot putts.

How to Fix Your Mistakes

You can’t fix what you can’t see. Here’s the path to improvement:

Step 1: Video Your Swing

Use your phone to record your swing from face-on and down-the-line angles. Compare to what you think you’re doing.

Step 2: Identify ONE Priority

Don’t try to fix all 10 mistakes at once. Pick the one that’s hurting you most and focus there for 2-4 weeks.

Step 3: Get Feedback

Whether it’s a swing analyzer app, lesson with a pro, or knowledgeable friend—you need objective feedback on whether your changes are working.

Step 4: Make It Stick

Changes take time to become automatic. The motor learning research shows you need many repetitions before new patterns feel natural. Be patient.

The Biggest Mistake of All

The biggest mistake isn’t any of the technical issues above. It’s giving up too soon.

Golf improvement isn’t linear. You’ll have days where you feel worse before you feel better. Changes create temporary chaos before they create consistency.

The golfers who improve? They stick with their fixes long enough for the changes to take hold.

Quick Reference

Mistake Primary Symptom Quick Fix
Over the top Slices/pulls Start downswing with hips
Grip pressure Tension, distance loss 4-5 on 1-10 scale
Open face Weak fades/slices Motorcycle drill
Casting High weak shots Drag handle into impact
Early extension Blocks/hooks Wall drill
Swaying Inconsistent contact Feet together drill
Ball position Thins/fats Calibrate with sticks
Standing up Tops/thins Head-on-wall drill
Ignoring short game Wasted strokes 60/40 practice rule
No routine Inconsistency Create 4-step routine

Next Steps

Pick one mistake from this list. Just one. Work on it for the next two weeks before adding another focus.

For immediate feedback on your swing, try Swing Analyzer—you’ll get a personalized analysis in 90 seconds that highlights the specific issues in YOUR swing.

Your best golf is ahead of you. It starts with fixing one mistake at a time.