Beginner golf tips 24 Aug 2026 10 min read

3 Golf Swing Mistakes That Stop You Making Consistent Contact

If your golf swing feels inconsistent, it is tempting to look for a bigger, more technical fix. But a lot of poor contact and right-miss patterns start with simpler mistakes: standing too close, trying to help the ball up, and holding the club face open through the strike.

Abraham came into this lesson wanting to break 100 and find more confidence with his driver. The useful part for most golfers is not his scorecard. It is the way a few simple checks changed the strike, the ball flight, and the way he understood what to practise next.

The goal here is not a perfect swing. The goal is clear feedback and a repeatable routine you can take to the range.

Watch the source lesson here:

Why These Golf Swing Mistakes Make The Game Feel Hard

Poor contact can be confusing because the shot does not always feel like what actually happened. Abraham described a bad strike that felt like a top. When Andy checked it, the ball was actually coming from the heel and hosel area of the club.

That matters because the fix for a topped shot and the fix for a heel or hosel strike may be completely different. If you guess wrong, you can spend the whole range session working on the wrong thing.

Andy narrowed the lesson down to three priorities:

1. Find the middle of the club face more often.
2. Remove the right miss.
3. Understand how to strike the ball before the turf with irons.

That is a useful order for any golfer who feels lost. Start with contact. Then check direction. Then make sure your concept of impact actually helps the club arrive in the right place.

Mistake 1: Standing Too Close And Too Tall

The first big change was setup. Abraham was a little too close to the ball and too upright. That crowded his hands, left very little space for the club to move through, and made the heel strike more likely.

The fix was not to rebuild the whole swing. It was to create space.

Use this simple consistent golf posture check:

1. Stand tall first.
2. Hinge forward from the hips.
3. Soften the knees.
4. Let the arms hang naturally.
5. Check that you have roughly a hand-span of space between your hands and body.

The posture should feel athletic, not stiff. Your weight should feel around the middle of the feet, as if you are ready to move. If someone gave you a light push, you should not fall straight back onto your heels.

This is why posture is such a high-value first check. If you are too close and too tall, your swing may look more complicated than it really is because your setup gives the club nowhere to go.

Mistake 2: Trying To Scoop The Ball Up

Abraham said he was trying to scoop the ball up and did not really understand compression. That is common. Golfers see the ball on the ground and instinctively try to help it into the air.

For most iron shots, the better concept is ball first, then turf. The club already has loft. Your job is not to add more loft by hanging back and flipping the club under the ball. Your job is to strike the ball, let the club keep travelling down, and move the low point slightly ahead of the ball.

That does not mean you should force a huge divot. It means your body has to move enough toward the target that the club reaches the ball before it reaches the ground. If this is the contact you are trying to build, the next step is understanding ball then turf contact without turning it into a forced downward hit.

A useful feel is to finish with more pressure on the lead leg. If you stay back, the low point often stays back with you. If you shift and turn through, the ground contact has a better chance of moving forward.

Use Strike Feedback Instead Of Guessing

Once the setup changed, the strike pattern improved quickly. Not every shot was perfect, but the misses became more playable. Andy called one of them a good bad shot, which is exactly the kind of progress most golfers should look for.

The club can also give you feedback. If impact twists the club one way, you may have caught it toward the heel. If it twists the other way, you may have caught it toward the toe. That does not mean you change your whole swing after one ball. It means you have information.

The goal is not to hit the exact middle every time. Better players miss the middle too. The goal is to move your strike pattern from extreme heel or hosel contact into a tighter area around the center of the face.

When the miss gets smaller, the game feels calmer.

Mistake 3: Holding The Club Face Open

The right miss came from more than setup. Abraham also had a chicken-wing look through the ball, with the lead arm folding and the club face staying open. That pattern can make the ball start or curve right, especially with the driver.

The fix was to let the club release. In simple terms, the toe of the club needs to be allowed to work past the heel through the ball. If you keep trying to hold the face square for too long, you may actually leave it open.

A good rehearsal is to swing through and hold the finish with your arms soft and the weight on the lead leg. Let the club finish over the shoulder. You are not trying to steer it. You are letting it swing.

This will probably feel strange if your normal pattern is to guide the face. That is fine. The test is simple: if the right miss starts disappearing, you are learning to deliver the face differently.

How To Adjust The Same Ideas With Driver

Driver needs the same release idea, but the setup changes because the ball is on a tee.

With an iron, you are generally trying to strike the ball before the turf. With driver, you are trying to sweep the ball off the tee with the club travelling level or slightly upward. That is why driver setup deserves its own check rather than simply copying your iron address.

Use this driver checklist:

1. Ball forward in the stance.
2. Wider stance for stability and speed.
3. Slightly more pressure on the trail side at setup.
4. Right shoulder a little lower and back.
5. Same soft-arm release through the ball.

The key is not to abandon the plan after one poor strike. Abraham hit a few shots that were not perfect, but the routine stayed the same: set up, rehearse the release, stay low enough to brush the grass, and move through into balance.

That is how a slice pattern starts to change. Not by adding five thoughts, but by matching the setup to the club and learning to release the driver without holding the face open.

A Simple Practice Routine For Better Contact

Take the range session in this order:

1. Check your posture and space first.
2. Make a slow rehearsal where the arms hang and the club can move freely.
3. For irons, brush the ground after where the ball would be.
4. For the right miss, rehearse a soft release and hold the finish.
5. For driver, set the ball forward, add tilt, and sweep it from the tee.
6. Hit a shot, read the feedback, then repeat the same routine.

The hardest part is not the checklist. The hardest part is sticking with it when one shot goes wrong. If you change the plan after every ball, you never find out whether the fix is working.

Use same routine, same process. Better contact comes from clearer feedback and better repetition, not from chasing a new swing thought every two minutes. For beginner golfers, that kind of simple structure is often more useful than adding another technical position.

If you want help knowing what to work on and whether your swing is actually changing, try Swing Coach here:

FAQs

What are the most common golf swing mistakes for high-handicap golfers?

Three common ones are standing too close and too tall, trying to scoop the ball into the air, and holding the club face open through impact. They are not the only mistakes, but they are simple to check and can have a big effect on contact and direction.

Why am I hitting the heel or hosel of the golf club?

One possible reason is that you are crowded at setup. If your hands are too close to your body and your posture is too upright, the club can move out toward the ball through impact and strike the heel or hosel.

How far should I stand from the golf ball?

A useful check is to hinge from the hips, soften the knees, let the arms hang, and make sure there is roughly a hand-span of space between your hands and body. You should feel balanced in the middle of the feet.

What does ball then turf contact mean?

It means the club strikes the golf ball first and then reaches the ground after the ball. For most iron shots, this is a better concept than trying to scoop the ball up.

How do I stop slicing my driver?

Start with setup, then check the release. A driver usually needs the ball forward, a wider stance, a little shoulder tilt, and a freer release through the ball. If you hold the face open, the slice pattern can stay even when the rest of the swing looks good.

Should my driver setup be different from my iron setup?

Yes. With irons, you are normally looking for ball-first contact with the low point after the ball. With driver, the ball is teed up, so the setup should help you sweep it from the tee.

How should I practise these swing fixes?

Pick one priority at a time. Start with posture and space, then work on ball-first contact with irons, then rehearse the release. Keep the routine the same long enough to learn from the feedback.