Trying to hit the ball 300 yards from the first tee without warming up is the fastest way to ruin your swing. It happens more than you might think.
Many golfers believe, for some reason, that all clubs are the same. They might buy a set at a local department store when it's on sale and then wonder why their swing isn't working.
In the last few decades, the power side of golf has become more important than the skill side. The equipment makers are partly to blame because a lot of what they say about their products is how they can give you more power and go farther.
It could be because you are trying to swing too hard, but a common mistake is to hold the club too tightly. It's as if golfers are afraid that someone is going to come up behind them, grab their golf club, and run down the street with it.
You wouldn't turn your body towards third base if you were trying to throw a softball underhand from behind home plate to the pitcher's mound. Still, golfers do this every day. Bad shots are often caused by not being in the right spot.
Golfers make things harder than they need to be. They sometimes take a short backswing with the club and then rush it forwards at full speed. Sometimes, they move the club too far back and then too far forwards, which stops the follow-through.
Where the rubber meets the road is in the grip. It's the only thing your body touches on the club. When you don't have the right grip, you set off a chain of bad things that can only end in disaster.
Have you ever been in a car with someone who was learning how to drive a stick shift? The driver doesn't push down hard enough on the gas pedal while letting out the clutch. This causes the car to jerk to a stop and stall. For the clutch to engage smoothly in a manual transmission, you have to accelerate smoothly.
Leverage is what gives a golf swing its real power. When golfers don't turn their shoulders all the way, they lose this advantage.