• When you approach the ball, let your club be your guide for how far back you need to stand.  Lay the club head down next to the ball facing it squarely.  Drop it into your hands lightly at a 45 degree angle and then adjust the distance between you and the ball according to your club length.  Do not walk up to the ball and then hold your club according to how far away you are.  Your club length should determine where you stand, not the other way around.
• Get into the proper stance.  Your shoulders should be square across but relaxed and rounded.  While you’re standing over the ball, your posture should be good with only a slight bend at the waist.
• Grip the club correctly.  This should be loose but firm.  If you’re developing calluses, you’re probably holding it too tightly.  If the club feels like it’s going to fly out of your hands during any part of your swing (or if it ever has flown out of your hands!), your grip is not firm enough.  Your thumbs should be aligned, one behind the other, both pointing straight down the shaft and at the ball.
• Keep your arms straight.  Your golf swing originates from the shoulders, not the elbows.  If your forearms move before your upper arms, you’re not originating your swing from the shoulders.  Your entire upper body moves as one.
• Your elbows need to be in alignment as well.  Unlike in baseball, you do not keep one above the other and should not be pulling them up toward your body as you roll into your swing.  This is very important because if your elbows are out of alignment when you start your swing or at any time during the swing, the club will be pulled out of its proper arc.
• Remember the illustration of swinging inside a barrel.  With your entire upper body, you need to roll around, not sideways, into your swing.  You are not reaching above you and shouldn’t be pulling the club away from your body but are just making a round movement that originates from the shoulders and involves the whole arms and upper part of the body.
• As you come back down from your swing, the arms should remain in that barrel roll.  You are not coming straight at the ball; if you try to do this you may just hit the ground on your way down!  Your entire swing is in an arc, not a choppy motion that is trying to whack the ball.
• Your wrists should cock only at the last moment as you strike the ball so that your arms can continue in their arc.  Don’t make the mistake of locking them or getting them out of alignment when the club is above your head.
• During your follow-through, you need to continue in that arc.  Remember that your navel should be pointing at your intended target when your swing is done.  If your belly is still pointing forward at the end of your swing, you’re probably tossed sideways and your upper body will put your entire swing out of motion.  That last part of your swing is vitally important as it determines the trajectory of the ball.  Those that hook or slice often find that they’ve gotten out of that good barrel roll, not during their back swing but in their follow-through.  Remember that the swing isn’t over until the club is across the body, not when it hits the ball.
• And of course you need to keep your head down through this entire swing.  Would you believe that many golfers actually not only jerk their head up but have a tendency to close their eyes during their swing?  If you do this you may be trying to put too much power behind your swing, closing your eyes against the force of the club hitting the ball.  You need to keep your eye on the ball throughout your entire swing.
• Make sure everything is smooth and relaxed.  Golf is not about power and strength but the easy skill of the swing.  Resist the urge to “jerk” your club around or “smack” the ball upon impact.  Notice how smooth and fluid the swings of professional golfers are; there’s no overpowering the ball or pulling the swing too far with them.

If you keep everything in the right arc and remember to start from the shoulders and keep your entire body working together, you’ll notice your swing improving immensely.  Most poor golf swings are caused by one or two elements working against each other, such as the midsection not moving during the follow-through or the arms moving before the shoulders.  A simple, smooth swing will win out every single time!

Think seriously about where you wind up after your swing.  Your entire body should move in a position that is around and not to one side or another.  If you wind up off balance then you’re moving sideways and not in a circular motion.

Everything about golf is smooth and steady, not forceful and powerful.  If you’re winding up sideways then you may be trying to overpower your swing.  Hitting the ball hard really isn’t going to give it the distance it needs.  The way that a ball gets distance is through the momentum of the club not through the actual strength or power you put into it.  This is borne out by the fact that many seniors and yes, even women can get as much distance on their ball as the strongest of men!  While you do need some strength behind your swing, too much will throw your body off balance and this is usually how you wind up sideways.

An overly upright swing will also knock you sideways.  Be mindful of your arms especially in the backswing.  Many have a tendency to “jerk” their swing around behind their heads which puts the club too far above them.  Remember the illustration of being inside a barrel and try to keep your swing in a round, circular motion.  This will mean your entire body comes around and won’t wind up off balance or off center.

It’s good to remember too that when your swing is done, your belly button should be pointing at the direction where you want your ball to go.  When you’re knocked sideways by an overly upright swing or one that is too powerful, you will probably be twisted around and your navel will wind up off to one side.  This is an indication that your swing is not coming around the way it should.

Arm rolls cause the wrists to cock too soon; they should do this only at the very end of the follow-through.

One problem with an arm roll is that the club is not held properly throughout the swing.  Many amateur golfers tend to hold is too straight like a large stick or bat, thinking this is necessary to hit the ball head-on.  The arms do need to stay straight but the roll needs to come from the shoulders, not the arms themselves.

Watch your arm roll when you swing, especially during your forward swing.  An arm roll is a quick way to correct a swing that is set up incorrectly.  Your arms are probably not being held straight and the plane of your swing is probably off.  In any case, the arm roll shouldn’t be necessary in a properly executed swing.

The dominant arm should be level with the opposite arm and elbow on the plane.  Pulling one arm up or letting it drop is a common mistake; the correction of this is to remember that your swing involves both arms, not just the one that is dominant.

Pictures or video of your own swing can tell you if you have one dominant arm that floats above the other; if so, this needs to be corrected!  Those who are baseball players often have a hard time with this when they get on the golf course since in baseball, the dominant arm is often above the other in order to produce the power needed to hit the ball.  But again, golf is not a game of power but of smooth skill.  The arms need to be even for there to be an even swing plane.

If your dominant arm drops, you may notice the club dragging into your body when you’re ready to release.  This causes a block that many golfers try to correct at the last moment by changing the direction of their club face.  One way to correct this is to put your club down next to the ball as you approach it and then back yourself up until it is the correct distance in front of you.  Many golfers make the mistake of doing just the opposite – they walk up to the ball, stand a foot or two behind it, and then line up their club.  If you’re too close to the ball at this point, your club will come inside the body and drag.  However you can and should get used to setting the club down first and adjusting your body, not the other way around.

The proper stance will also help you with your swing plane.  Many use clubs that are too short and so they hunch over the ball, causing them to drag the clubs too close.  Others use clubs that are too long which means they’ll be pulled too far out from the body.

The arms need to swing in a plane so that there is a clear path where the club can move freely around the body and without being blocked.

The proper swing has more of a round component than many people realize and than what many people use.  Perhaps because they’re aiming for the ball and so see it as a direct path, their swing too often has hard angles which result in a jerky motion and a poor coil and uncoil movement.  The tendency to want to smack a ball with force and power is very difficult to overcome, but the way the body coils and uncoils is very important.

A barrel roll is often encouraged in golf; this doesn’t mean turning the entire body around the way it does with swimming.  Instead it means imagining that you’re swinging inside a large barrel and are following the curved lines.  This will help the body to coil properly as you twist gently around and then to uncoil as well since you’re still following that curve with your follow-through.

Some golf instructor shy away from the barrel illustration because many golfers take it too far, swinging too far back, but if you simply concentrate on the round shape of the barrel as if you’re inside of it, you’ll improve your coil and uncoil abilities.  This will give you great control and you’ll be less likely to hook or slice when you hit the ball.

With a proper release, the clubface is square at impact so there is no need to rely on timing such as golfers do when they’re attempting to square the club upon impact or with manipulations.  This means greater consistency and better swings even under pressure.  All of this adds up to a good release of the club and an effective contact with the ball itself.  The release is critical because it sets the golf ball on its path and the impact is what gives it the distance it needs.

Pay attention to your own release.  Does you club seem to smack the ball?  If so, you may not have the clubface open during your release.  Many golfers tend to manipulate at the last minute of their release, which is an artificial way of correcting.