Golf tip: Women golfers’ top 10 mistakes and how to fix them

Golf tip. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

This golf tip from my interview with Tommy Pendley will help you fix common mistakes.

This ForeGals golf tip comes from my favorite teaching pro and personal coach, Tommy Pendley. Tommy is a certified PGA instructor who, I’ve learned, has a magic touch with women of a certain age. He understands our bodies and our limitations – mental as well as physical.

One day, when I was hacking away with my 7- iron that had been behaving like a truculent toddler, and he was patiently talking me through my swing problems, I asked him if he didn’t get tired of dealing with old women who’re losing their game.

He laughed and told me if he didn’t enjoy us he wouldn’t be working with us. His laugh was all the affirmation I needed that day to keep at it and grind through my swing glitch.

I’ve watched Tommy take women who’ve never held a golf club and have them out on the course, enjoying the game and winning a little money at LGA events, within 8 weeks of their first lessons.

He’s seen me through shoulder surgery, meniscus repair, and knee replacement, helped me get my game back, and adjust my swing to fit new physical limitations. He’s also guided me through putting yips and back to 30 putts per round.  I trust him implicitly. I even allowed him to add bright green marks to my precious Spider with his sharpie so I could sharpen up my putting alignment.

At one point, when I was especially frustrated with declining my physical strength and resultant loss of distance, I turned my bag set-up over to him and told him to fix my problem. Without blinking or hesitating, he took my long irons out of my bag and replaced them with hybrids. Then he took me out on the range and taught me to use them.

So when I sat down with Tommy after my weekly thirty-minute coaching session and asked him to tell me what he’s found to be the top ten mistakes women golfers tend to make, I knew I was asking someone whose teaching skills are impeccable.

Some of these mistakes apply specifically to women who are new to the game, but others can plague all of us, no matter how long we’ve been swinging the sticks!

Tommy started where we all start our round, at the first tee.