Last Updated on August 1, 2023 by Britt Olizarowicz
Great golf partners can play in a match together one weekend and against each other the next. However, you always want to see your golf partner play well. It’s almost second nature to start spewing out all the golf tips you know when your partner starts to struggle.
Most of the time, that information is not all that helpful.
As a former PGA professional, I’ve seen scratch players that could not diagnose a swing flaw if their life depended on it. Playing golf and teaching golf are two different things. I’ll show you the golf tips NOT to give your golf partner (if you want them to play well!).
15 Golf Tips NOT to Give Your Golf Partner
When your golf partner starts struggling, go ahead and suggest they take a lesson or ask them what they learned in their last golf lesson. They may give you some information you could use to help them get back on track.
Here are 15 things you should not say!
“Just grip it and rip it.”
We have learned that going after the ball and swinging hard is your best chance for distance. However, if someone is struggling on the golf course and you sprinkle a little extra swing speed on top, the results may not end up all that well.
“Eye on the ball”
We know this, don’t we? Can we stop saying eye on the ball? Where else is the eye going to go? Somebody that is struggling with hitting a decent golf shot, that starts to think about eye on the ball, will probably stop rotating the way they should.
Eye on the ball can make people feel a little “stuck” in their golf motion.
“Put the driver back in your bag.”
Most golfers are a little scared of their drivers. If you take a swing and don’t hit it well, the ball speed and length of this club make for a messy mistake. However, the last thing you need to do is to tell your golf partner that they are terrible with their driver.
Let them hit the club they want off the tee; so much of this game is confidence.
“The greens are slow.”
The greens may feel slow to you. However, the only thing that will come out of you telling your golf partner that the greens are slow is their first putt flying 8 feet past the hole. Speed on the greens is a funny thing.
You have to feel the speed for yourself and how the ball comes off the face of your putter. Let people decide the speed for themselves.
“This hole is so hard; just play smart.”
My favorite hole could be your least favorite hole. Keep your opinions about the hole, the weather, and the course conditions to yourself until you finish the round. Again, the game is so mental you have to let people think for themselves.
“You are not turning.”
This is one of my all-time favorite lines that amateur golfers give each other. Not turning can be so different; it also assumes that the golfer you are talking to understands the proper turn in golf.
If you notice that someone is not rotating the way they normally do, just say something (if prompted) like, “I’m not sure, but sometimes it seems like you turn your hips more than you are today.”
“You just keep your head down; I’ll watch it.”
Some golfers truly change their spine angle through impact, and it causes them to top the ball. However, the concept of a player having to keep their head down so long that they can no longer watch their own ball flight is unrealistic.
Let people watch their shots. If you need to say something, you can say, “Keep the clubface in the zone just a little longer.” Let them focus on ensuring the club and the ball have great contact instead of gluing the head in place.
“Left arm stays straight.”
Yes, the left arm stays straight at impact. However, most amateur golfers take this tip to the extreme, and you can trust me that it doesn’t end all that well.
Keeping the left arm too straight in the backswing makes players get rigid and forget to rotate their lower body. Forcing the left arm straight can also cause issues with the upper and lower body working together.
The left arm does get straight during the golf swing, but unless you can explain how this is done maybe leave this one to the professionals.
“Take a wider stance so you are more balanced.”
A wider stance will certainly help your balance. However, it is possible to have too wide of a stance in golf. In fact, most golfers that try to get a little wider have difficulty transferring their weight in their golf swing.
Unless you see someone with an incredibly narrow stance, their balance issues may be from how they transfer their weight or where they set it, to begin with. Don’t assume a wider stance can fix this.
“Keep your elbow in.”
That flying elbow concept is a tough one. At the top of the swing, you can see a golfer is off-plane and about to come over the top because of their elbow position. The problem with telling them to keep their elbow in is that it could lead to a shallow swing.
Some golfers will feel like that elbow is sort of stuck to their side, and it gets the club off plane. You can
“Hit another one”
If your partner wants to hit another and get a penalty stroke for it, they can do that. However, this idea of just hitting another one doesn’t help anyone. This is why we have so many people who shoot 91 and 89, and then they sign up for a tournament and shoot 105.
Sure, tournament golf is a little harder, but it’s also hard for people when they finally have to count their shots. It’s not helping anyone to just throw another ball out.
“Take your time.”
Every golfer has a normal pace that they use. This pace includes the time it takes to do their pre-shot routine, the speed of their swing, how they walk to the ball, etc. Even if it seems like someone is rushing their golf game, let them figure out their own pace.
“Slow it down.”
Slowing the golf swing down is not a good idea. Golfers tend to slow down as the golf club gets closer to the impact position. Slowing the club down in this area of the swing often causes players to hit behind the ball.
If you have to say something to a golf partner about the pace of their swing, talk to them about the backswing and have them slow that down a bit.
“Practice swings will make you tired.”
A single practice swing before hitting a shot is a good thing. The practice swing helps us think about the areas of our game that we are working on and how we can improve them. Your golf partner isn’t getting tired because of an extra swing here and there; it’s probably what they did last night that is making them tired!
“Go at the flag.”
The flag is usually not the best target to aim at. In fact, aiming at the left side or ride side, or even center of the green, is probably the best target. If you must tell your partner something, tell them to forget the flag and get the ball on the green.
So What Should I Tell My Golf Partner?
Now that I’ve gone through the good, the bad, and the ugly of golf tips not to give your golf partner, it’s time to get a better idea of what you can say. It’s really hard to give too much golf advice on the course, but here are a few things that may work:
- Don’t worry about it; play with what you have today and then get a lesson after golf.
- Find your tempo, and you will be fine.
- One bad hole doesn’t equal a bad round.
- Try taking a practice swing with your feet together; it may help you feel more balanced and in control.
- Club up and hit one solid if you need to.
- Make sure you don’t have more than one or two swing thoughts.
- Focus on visualizing the shot you want to hit, not the shots you already hit.
- Give them a number to the center of the green using your GPS or rangefinder; that is a piece of helpful information!
All this really depends on what golfers are struggling with on any particular day on the golf course. For the most part, you are better off being a good friend than a golf instructor. Let the instructors do their job!
