Reading only gets you so far.
A golf swing is a physical motion happening in about a second. No amount of prose fully substitutes for watching someone do it. Here's who to watch and, more importantly, how to watch without wrecking your progress.
Watch one video. Take that one idea to the range. Come back next week.
Golf YouTube is infinite and contradictory. Bingeing twelve tips before your first session will make you worse, because you can only install about one swing thought at a time.
Rick Shiels is the safest starting point. Filming your own swing is more useful than any of it.
First, a warning
There is an infinite quantity of golf instruction online and much of it directly contradicts the rest. It is possible to spend a year watching swing tips and get worse, because you're trying to install six different swings simultaneously and never grooving any of them.
The rule: one tip at a time, and take it to the range before you watch anything else. Watch a video, pick one idea, hit fifty balls with only that idea, and see if it helps. If it does, keep it. If not, discard it and try the next one. That's the whole method.
Start here
🎥 Rick Shiels: Simple Golf Tips
A UK PGA pro with one of the largest golf channels anywhere and, importantly, a good communicator who doesn't drown you in swing-theory jargon. This is his playlist of simple, digestible tips.
Why he's a good starting point: he explains things at beginner level without being condescending, he demonstrates clearly, and his advice is mainstream and uncontroversial. You won't get some exotic swing theory that only works for one body type.
Don't binge it. Watch one video. Take that one idea to the range. See if it does anything for you. Come back next week and watch the next one.
The instinct is to watch twelve videos before your first range session so you'll be "prepared." That instinct will make you worse. Your brain can install roughly one swing thought at a time and it takes hundreds of reps.
Other channels worth knowing
All well-regarded, all free, all different flavors. Pick one voice and mostly stick with it, because mixing instructors is how you get contradictory advice.
Me and My Golf
Two UK coaches, very structured, big on drills you can actually do. Their beginner series is well built and progresses in a sensible order. Good if you like a curriculum rather than a grab bag.
Danny Maude
Extremely beginner-friendly and calm. Specializes in the "here's why you're doing that and here's the simple fix" format. Great for diagnosing a specific miss like a slice.
Clay Ballard / Top Speed Golf
Detailed and technical. His short-game and putting content is especially good. Can get deep into mechanics, which is useful later and possibly overwhelming on day one.
Good Good
A dedicated golf channel: a group of friends playing matches and challenges. Not instruction. Useful for a different reason, because it shows you what a casual round looks and sounds like between friends. Watch one before your first outing.
Bob Does Sports
A general sports-comedy channel that does golf frequently but not exclusively. Funny, loose, and firmly not instructional. Same value as above: it's a window into the vibe of a normal round, if a rowdier one.
Your own phone
The single most useful video on the internet is the one of your own swing, and it costs nothing. See below.
What to search for, in order
If you want a curriculum rather than an algorithm, here's the sequence. One per range session.
| # | Search this | Why now |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | "golf grip for beginners" | The only thing touching the club. Everything downstream depends on it. |
| 2 | "golf setup and posture" | Requires zero athleticism and fixes an enormous amount. |
| 3 | "golf alignment drill" | You are almost certainly aimed further right than you think. |
| 4 | "how to hit down on the golf ball" | The big one. The single concept that fixes iron play. |
| 5 | "how to fix a slice" | By now you'll know if this is your miss. It probably is. |
| 6 | "golf chipping basics" | Around the green is where beginners bleed the most strokes. |
| 7 | "putting basics setup" | A third of your strokes. Almost nobody practices it. |
| 8 | "how to hit out of a bunker" | Watch it before you're standing in one with people waiting. |
| 9 | "golf swing tempo drill" | Once the pieces exist, tempo is what ties them together. |
| 10 | "course management for high handicappers" | This lowers your score more than any swing change. Nobody watches it early enough. |
Course management, meaning aiming at the middle of greens, laying up, taking your medicine from the trees, picking the right club for your real distances, will save a beginner more strokes than any swing change, and it requires no new physical skill. It's pure decision-making. Watch it early even though it feels boring.
Film yourself
The single most useful video on the internet is the one of your own swing, and it's free.
- Two angles. "Down the line" means camera behind you on your target line. "Face on" means camera in front, perpendicular. Every instructional video uses these two, so yours will be comparable.
- Prop your phone on your bag. Slow-mo if it has it.
- Watch for the big stuff first. Are you finishing balanced? Is your weight on your lead foot at the end? Is your posture bent from the hips? Is the divot after the ball?
- Don't nitpick. You're not looking for wrist angle at the top. You're looking for the obvious things, and there will be obvious things.
- The gap will shock you. Everyone's swing looks different from the outside than it feels from the inside. That gap is the most useful information you'll get all year.
You'll feel like you made a huge change and the video will show you basically did nothing. That's not failure, that's how motor learning works, and it's exactly why a coach with an outside eye is worth so much. Which brings us to the last page.