If there is one thing Paul Azinger loves to do it is to give terrible advice to the amateur golfer. He once claimed that PGA Tour pros could spin their wedges so well solely because of the ball. Yeah, the spin and check has absolutely nothing to do with contact or swing path, it is just the ball. The latest bit of advice he has given (during the Friday round of the WGC Workday Championship) is that amateurs would be better off to have their weight on their heels rather than their toes in the golf swing. Oh boy.
So, why is this terrible advice? This is terrible advice because amateurs do not turn their body to create speed in the golf swing. They lift with their arms and shoulders. If amateurs turned their body I could understand the point of being on the heels rather than the toes. If you are too far on your toes with a big shoulder turn it is hard to get back to the ball with space. That is another lesson for another time.
What amateurs hear is “you should be setting up with your weight on your heels.” Now, amateurs are going to be sitting back, lifting with their arms and throwing the club at the ball and hoping for a miracle to make solid contact.
An amateur should always start learning a rotational golf swing with their weight on their toes. How else are they going to create space between their midsection and their arms? The goal of the golf swing is to let the arms hand below the chin and rotate the upper body around the lower body. Does Paul Azinger think an amateur is going to be able to rotate their upper body around their lower body with their weight on their heels?
If you are an amateur weekend golfer that tees it up with the boys at the country club on Friday afternoons and the weekends, please do not try to improve your golf game by putting all your weight on your heels. If you want to improve anything by putting your weight on your heels it would be putting. I can almost accept this but definitely not in the full swing. You are going to get more and more armsy and handsy which will lead to inconsistency. One would hope this is not what you want out of your golf game.
