Your shoulder plane is flattening at the top of the back swing. That’s the main reason it looks odd.
At the top of the back swing, try and point your left shoulder down at the ball. This will increase the ’tilt’ of your shoulders.
SmokinHotNot
The swing is used to coil the body on the backswing and uncoil on the way down. Your backswing seems to involve all body parts at the same time. On the backswing, it’s arms, then shoulders, then hips. Not all at once. The downswing is the reverse to release the stored energy. Hips slide forward, and the arms drop down, almost like you’re trying to jam the butt end of the club onto the back of the ball. Uncoil the shoulders, and pull the arms through to the target, staying on plane. At contact, the shaft should be leaning forward slightly, with the hands just slightly ahead of the ball, potentially starting a divot under, or just ahead of the ball. Finish the swing and keep it rhythmic.
This your downswing just before impact – besides being way outside , you are still on your trail side and now have to just recover by swinging with just your arms.
Now look where the club is with the pros at about the same spot in the swing
Golfnerd27
Agree with some comments here for sure. (Coming to you as a +1 hcp who passed his PGA swing exams but opted not to turn Pro in the end…I love amateur golf too much)
You have some solid fundamentals, congrats! Set up looks really good, maybe weight a tiny bit too much towards your heels, that’s the only thing.
First thing to address here is your posture as you start your swing and get to the top of your backswing. Try to maintain your spine angle in the backswing, and imagine someone is holding your head, so it stays in position, as you make your backswing. Keep your butt back also, in the same place it started the swing. The reason is that as golfers we want to keep our spine angle the same, and rotate around it. Moving it too much can cause all kinds of problems. You’re young and seem athletic, so for sure you can do this. (Also agree with the comment about feeling your left shoulder low, under your chin, at top of backswing, to improve your shoulder tilt).
Now, downswing. On the way down you’ve got to work the club inside and we’ve got to neutralise your path as it’s very out to in at the moment. Losing a lot of power and control from this. There are all kinds of ways to feel the right path through manipulation – I like the headcover on the ground that you have by the ball, but you’ve got to put it closer to the ball than that – you’re being too lenient on yourself. You can also put an alignment stick in position to your right so you have to miss it by coming from the inside in your downswing.
I would recommend you tackle all of this in 2 steps.
1 = work on the backswing posture things first. You can do this at home in front of a mirror as well as at the range. You should notice an immediate improvement in your strike.
2 = Go and see a Pro for a lesson and tell them the ONLY thing you want to fix is your path. Help them show you what the right path is and suggest a couple of drills. They’ll get you sorted out.
I suggest asking the Pro to only fix that because most Pro’s tend to start overdoing it IMO and give you too much to work on – unless you go in with a specific request (but golfers don’t really do this as they have zero ownership of their swing). If you’re not careful, Pro’s can start tweaking your posture, your grip, your takeaway, they’ll get you hooked up to 3d analysis software…start throwing loads of data and numbers at you your head will be in a spin before you know it.
But you already have a lot of good fundamentals, I’m confident the changes I recommend can lead to a big improvement in your ball striking – straighter, further, and more consistent.
nglatzhofer1
Everyone on this sub needs this video. Pro Bryson DeChambeau breaking down the golf swing. Watch the whole thing, practice what he says. I’ve seen a million golf swing videos; this is the best one. I wish I had it 20 years ago.
![[ Swing Advice] long irons are bad right now how do I fix it? First shot 5 then 9 and 56 seemed to be ok on range.](https://www.fogolf.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/1756280288_NHdjMTZrcjhoaGxmMQEkSxFS0q605CZVmv_11bfcoTKJV0C6cO9xSqKqxyl_-770x515.png "[ Swing Advice] long irons are bad right now how do I fix it? First shot 5 then 9 and 56 seemed to be ok on range.")
6 Comments
Your shoulder plane is flattening at the top of the back swing. That’s the main reason it looks odd.
At the top of the back swing, try and point your left shoulder down at the ball. This will increase the ’tilt’ of your shoulders.
The swing is used to coil the body on the backswing and uncoil on the way down. Your backswing seems to involve all body parts at the same time.
On the backswing, it’s arms, then shoulders, then hips. Not all at once. The downswing is the reverse to release the stored energy. Hips slide forward, and the arms drop down, almost like you’re trying to jam the butt end of the club onto the back of the ball. Uncoil the shoulders, and pull the arms through to the target, staying on plane. At contact, the shaft should be leaning forward slightly, with the hands just slightly ahead of the ball, potentially starting a divot under, or just ahead of the ball. Finish the swing and keep it rhythmic.
https://preview.redd.it/dmo33xabbjlf1.jpeg?width=885&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=65b1068cc4c308367f2e2b3fd3a1abb7b6900c3f
This your downswing just before impact – besides being way outside , you are still on your trail side and now have to just recover by swinging with just your arms.
Now look where the club is with the pros at about the same spot in the swing
Agree with some comments here for sure. (Coming to you as a +1 hcp who passed his PGA swing exams but opted not to turn Pro in the end…I love amateur golf too much)
You have some solid fundamentals, congrats! Set up looks really good, maybe weight a tiny bit too much towards your heels, that’s the only thing.
First thing to address here is your posture as you start your swing and get to the top of your backswing. Try to maintain your spine angle in the backswing, and imagine someone is holding your head, so it stays in position, as you make your backswing. Keep your butt back also, in the same place it started the swing. The reason is that as golfers we want to keep our spine angle the same, and rotate around it. Moving it too much can cause all kinds of problems. You’re young and seem athletic, so for sure you can do this. (Also agree with the comment about feeling your left shoulder low, under your chin, at top of backswing, to improve your shoulder tilt).
Now, downswing. On the way down you’ve got to work the club inside and we’ve got to neutralise your path as it’s very out to in at the moment. Losing a lot of power and control from this. There are all kinds of ways to feel the right path through manipulation – I like the headcover on the ground that you have by the ball, but you’ve got to put it closer to the ball than that – you’re being too lenient on yourself. You can also put an alignment stick in position to your right so you have to miss it by coming from the inside in your downswing.
I would recommend you tackle all of this in 2 steps.
1 = work on the backswing posture things first. You can do this at home in front of a mirror as well as at the range. You should notice an immediate improvement in your strike.
2 = Go and see a Pro for a lesson and tell them the ONLY thing you want to fix is your path. Help them show you what the right path is and suggest a couple of drills. They’ll get you sorted out.
I suggest asking the Pro to only fix that because most Pro’s tend to start overdoing it IMO and give you too much to work on – unless you go in with a specific request (but golfers don’t really do this as they have zero ownership of their swing). If you’re not careful, Pro’s can start tweaking your posture, your grip, your takeaway, they’ll get you hooked up to 3d analysis software…start throwing loads of data and numbers at you your head will be in a spin before you know it.
But you already have a lot of good fundamentals, I’m confident the changes I recommend can lead to a big improvement in your ball striking – straighter, further, and more consistent.
Everyone on this sub needs this video. Pro Bryson DeChambeau breaking down the golf swing. Watch the whole thing, practice what he says. I’ve seen a million golf swing videos; this is the best one. I wish I had it 20 years ago.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V0-eYfUI2pY&pp=ygUcYnJ5c29uIGRlY2hhbWJlYXUgZ29sZiBzd2luZw%3D%3D
Don’t worry, the only reason it looks bad is because it is bad.