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    Golf IQ

    This is the biggest swing mistake for 17% of golfers—even pros stress about it

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    Sean M. Haffey

    February 03, 2025

    Listen to pros talk about their golf swing enough and you'll hear them talk about the importance of turning through the ball with their body.

    Jordan Spieth has talked about the importance of "turning and burning."

    Brooks Koepka has, too. It's why he practices off a side slope.

    Rory McIlroy has spoken about it in the past.

    And then last week on the range, Max Homa.

    It struck me that this is one of those things that we've all heard is important, but may not understand actually why it's important. So here's a quick explainer.

    Why pros stress about it not turning enough

    Why do pros stress so much about turning through the ball? That's what I asked Golf Digest Best in State teacher John Scott Rattan, who started working with Max Homa over the offseason. Here's what he said:

    "Most good players feel when they stall [with their body rotation] they have to use their hands to 'save' it, creating a two-way miss. The opposite of that would be to not use your hands and use your body to turn more, instead of feeling the save with your hands."

    That, in a nutshell, is it. When your body stops, your hands have to go. They have to work extra hard, which means rolling and flipping and all sorts of other things that can make consistency difficult.

    The Mistake: When turning too much can backfire

    The solution isn't simply turning as much as you can and ignoring your hands altogether.

    Turning too much too soon on the backswing often causes golfers to swing the club over-the-top.

    I actually pulled the numbers from our friends over at the Mustard Golf App on this (you can check out Mustard's app here, it's great), and it turns out that that more than 17% of golfers measured suffer from exactly this as their primary swing thought. Their upper body outraces their lower body because they turn too much, too soon.

    Thoughts and prayers for my boss Sam Weinman, who is amoung the sufferers:

    Anyway it's why Homa's coach Rattan explains it's about the timing, or sequencing, of when you turn. That's what allows you to use your hands correctly.

    (You can learn more about the basics of sequencing right here).

    "When a player's sequence gets off, the bottom of the swing relies too much on timing," he says. "If you get that right, and you get the club aligned earlier, the result will be the feeling of using your turn to create a hit, when in fact you just used your hands to manage the club better."

    The goal is to feel your body and your hands working together. A couple things that may help with that:

    • Fellow Golf Digest Best in State teacher Erika Larkin explains here that some golfers like the feeling of dropping their hands toward their right pocket, and then turning through.