Last Updated on April 18, 2024 by Britt Olizarowicz
As a former golf teaching professional specializing in female golfers, I see a lot of bad advice for female golfers. I’ve been playing golf for 30 years, and I know for a fact you have been given some bad advice at some point in your golf career. Golf tips for women tend to annoy me a bit. They are not always explicitly directed to the woman golfer. In addition, many tips are geared just to the new women golfers. If you want some practical golf tips to take to the range right now, I have you covered.
Utilize Your Legs For More Power
Utilizing your legs in your golf swing will help you gain more power. Your legs have some big muscles. Traditionally, women don’t have as much upper body strength as men, but lower body strength is quite good.
So use the legs!
Here’s how to go about doing that.
1) Do Some Exercises Off The Course
If you can use any of your off course exercising and training to improve on course play, it’s well worth it. Exercising off the course (even if it means walking a few days a week) will build up muscle in your legs.
Think about doing some squats, lunges, and leg curls. I also do a lot of running. It helps with stamina just as much as strength, but walking can also do the trick.
| Exercise | Description | Benefits for Golfers |
| 1. Squats | Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, bend your knees to lower the body as if sitting back, and then stand up. | It builds leg strength and improves lower body stability and power in the golf swing. |
| 2. Lunges | Step forward with one leg lower your hips until both knees are bent at about a 90-degree angle. | Enhances balance, flexibility, and strength in the legs and hips. |
| 3. Deadlifts | With feet shoulder-width apart, bend at the hips to lower and lift a weight while keeping your back straight. | Strengthens the back, glutes, and hamstrings, crucial for a powerful swing. |
| 4. Leg Curls | Use a leg curl machine or stability ball to flex the knees, bringing heels towards the buttocks. | Targets hamstring muscles, improving knee stability and control. |
| 5. Calf Raises | Stand on the edge of a step or platform and raise and lower your heels, working the calf muscles. | Strengthens calf muscles, aiding in stability and force during the swing. |
2) Get a Great Pair of Golf Shoes
You may need great golf shoes to maintain stability and traction. I notice that when I don’t have the proper shoes, my right foot (right-handed player) can slide or move on the downswing as I push off. Make sure that the toes of the shoes are also going to protect your foot as you rotate through the shot.
You want to feel stable, protected, and ready to attack. Some of the “cute” shoes made for women players don’t offer the same stability and feel as the more athletic shoes.
One of my favorites is the Puma Ignite. I’ve been wearing these, and they have helped increase my power.
3) Think About Pushing Off the Ground
Finally, if you want to benefit from the power your legs have to offer, think about using the ground as something to push off of as you swing. Take a practice swing, and when you are swinging through the golf ball, focus on your feet pushing off the turf.
As you make your way from the top of the backswing down through impact, you will rotate, but feeling that the help of the ground forces can make all the difference. This is one of those women’s golf tips that takes a little longer to feel and understand, but it will make all the difference.
Practice on the driving range and start to think about a connection between your feet and the ground. Start to use it!
Take a look her at a swing sequence for me and how I push off of the trail foot and push down through impact with the lead foot.
Start Tracking Your Rounds
Why are women golfers not tracking their rounds the way men are?
If you already track your golf scores, you can move on to the next tip, but we need to take a second and address the importance of round tracking.
Let’s say you are a 19 handicap. Do you know why you are a 19 handicap?
Sure, you may slice a drive here and there or make a three-putt; however, there is much more to the golf game than this. What is consistently causing you to shoot 19 shots over par?
Until you start tracking your rounds, that answer can be complicated to find. The good news is there are easy tracking apps that can help you collect information about your golf game and see where the real issues are.
I’ve used something called Pinpoint, and it’s a very in-depth look at strokes gained.
Some higher handicapper women will think this is a lot to manage because of the need to enter all of your shots. Another option is something like the Garmin app.
I use this in connection with my Bushnell Wingman View speaker and my phone, and it quickly inputs a score after a round. In the end, you get some excellent data and at least some idea of why your golf scores may be higher than you think they could be.
Don’t Pick Scoring Related Goals
Scoring related goals takes a lot of work to live up to.
Take it from my experience on this one. The first time I broke 100, I shot 93. My scoring goal was to shoot 99. It only worked for a short time, I was a beginner golfer, and I struggled with things like distance and short game consistency. However, when it was time to learn to break 90, I had a completely different goal.
The goal was to hit fairways.
If I hit fairways with my driver, the rest of the golf hole would be entirely different for me. I had to learn to pick a better target line. In addition, I worked on my slice to try to even things out a bit and get the ball in the middle.
Guess what happened the first time I hit “most” of the fairways on the golf course? I shot 84.
This is the way golf works. You have to pick goals that directly contribute to lower scoring instead of picking scoring goals.
Here are a few I would try out:
- Increase clubhead speed by 3 mph (use a launch monitor to calculate speeds; it doesn’t need to be fancy)
- Play a round with less than 30 putts
- Hit at least 3 greens in regulation
- Get on the green on each par 3
- Establish proper posture before each swing
- Maintain good balance on all drives
Tailor these to your golf game and where you find weaknesses.
Course Management Requires Planning
Proper golf course management requires planning and a pre-shot routine. If you are still just trying to hit the ball down the middle and get to the center of the green, you are limiting yourself.
The most effective way to improve golf course management and positioning is to have a plan.
Run through the golf course in your mind the night before. You probably know where you need to be on the first hole if you want to get the ball on or near the green. Here are the things you can think about as you plan through your golf course management.
- Always play your preferred shot whenever you can (if you like a fade, play it just aim to the left side of the pin)
- A pin on the right side of the green is easier to attack if you are coming from the left side of the fairway.
- Getting as close to the green as possible is not always an intelligent layup; put yourself at a yardage you like
- The spot you leave your golf ball on the green matters; you want uphill putts as often as possible; being on the green is not enough!
I’ll tell you one of my favorite golf course management stories from when I was a golf instructor and gave a lesson on the course.
We were on a par 5, and the female golfer I worked with played from the forward tees. She hit a perfect drive in the middle of the fairway, took out a 5 wood, and then laid up to the position of her 7 iron.
Before she hit this shot, she said, “I hate trying to approach a green with my 7 iron. It’s hard for me.” She then told me she was okay with hitting 7 iron shots on the range, just not as an approach.
So we picked up this golf ball she had hit and moved back to the position of her drive. In the center of the fairway.
I had her hit the 7-iron from this location. She hit it perfectly. There was plenty of fairway to work with, no trouble, etc.
Now, instead of being a 7-iron distance from the pin, she was a 5-wood distance from the pin. Guess who hits their 5 wood perfectly every time?
The end result was a par. It was the first par she had ever made on this hole. All we did was switch up the clubs to make more sense for her game.
As I said, course management requires planning.
A Great Takeaway Can Change Your Game
The first few inches of your backswing can set you up for a good or bad golf swing. If you don’t know what to do with your takeaway, it’s time for a bit of practice and understanding.
I love a pre-shot routine for women golfers that includes a practice of the takeaway.
My takeaway (and the one I recommend) includes bringing the club back low and slow along the ground and making a turn or pivot with the lower body. Your shoulder will turn back and away from the ball, and you will feel a rotation in your body.
The number one mistake I see in women golfers, especially beginner golfers, is to pick the club straight up.
That position is difficult to recover from and certainly won’t help when it comes to swing speed and consistency.
Practice Putting Everyday
For some reason, women find putting practice to be boring. Wait, maybe it’s all golfers who find putting practice boring!
The good news is, it doesn’t have to be.
The key to becoming a great putter is to put the time in. Not only do you need a good putting stroke, but you also need an understanding of slope, break, and distance control.
Find yourself a friend to practice putting with. Set up a putting station in your house. Work on short and long putts and find some training devices that make it more enjoyable to practice.
Here are a few of my favorites. Even if it’s 10 to 15 minutes a day (while you are watching a show or before you get into bed for the night), it will make a big difference in your putting ability on the course.
- Cheap but effective putting mat: SKLZ Putt A Bout
- Putting gates to improve mindset, aiming and alignment: Go Sports Putting Gates
- Putting clips for improving stroke accuracy: Dave Pelz Putting Clips
Customize Your Equipment
Finally, last but not least… please only buy the complete women’s golf sets after first making sure they are the right fit for you.
As a general rule, most beginners can get away with this type of equipment and have it actually be a good fit.
However, if you are playing in golf tournaments, participating in regular practice, and wanting to lower your scores, you need custom golf equipment. Here are some things you must consider when purchasing new clubs:
- Long irons vs. hybrids, which is best for your swing speed
- At least 3 wedges in the golf bag (pitching wedge, gap wedge, sand wedge)
- Shaft that matches your speed (doesn’t have to be ladies flex)
- Optimized center of gravity for your playing ability
- Proper loft gapping throughout the set
- Do not skip out on putter fitting; it’s essential
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, these women’s golf tips have helped you have a more positive attitude about your game and the actions you can take moving forward. The most important thing is to avoid the tips, like keeping your head down, left arm straight, taking a slow swing, etc. Analyze your golf game and then find tips that align directly with where you need improvement. This is the best way to take your game to another level. Let us know what other tips you want to see as we expand this guide for women players.
