Minor Swing Fix: Intentions Makes AND Breaks Your Swing

Most golfers manipulate their motion in one way or another, which eventually leads to the need for minor swing fix.

After all, most of your golf shots will be less than perfect. Or as Ben Hogan roughly said, “I hit two shots the way I want per round”—and he’s arguably the greatest ball striker of all time.

When you’re not manipulating your swing, it feels like you’re in perfect harmony with the game, and everything flows effortlessly. But for the rest of the time, we need a mindset that helps us understand where we stand in the balance of our intentions.

In my world, at least 50% of my golf swing is driven by intentions. Intentions are essentially brain coordinates that make mechanical instruction and thoughts feasible from an execution standpoint.

But intentions can also be strong manipulators. If relied on too frequently, they become swing poison—and need an antidote.

And just to be clear, this concept applies to swings that mostly work—not broken engines…

Minor Swing Fix – Example 1 – The Path Manipulator

If your intention is based on swing path, you’ll quickly move yourself out of the sweet spot for producing the shot shape you want.

Let these examples shed some light:

  • When Tiger Woods won the 1997 Masters by 12 shots, word inside the ropes was that he felt like he was hitting a fade most of the time—but in reality, he was producing a smooth push draw on most shots.
  • Wyndham Clark was in the absolute sweet spot during 2024, winning multiple big events in a short time. He has said that if he starts hitting too much fade, he trains his draw—and vice versa.
  • Jack Nicklaus was often seen hitting draw shots on the range, yet he played his signature open-stance push fade 95% of the time on the course.

To summarize:

If you love the draw and use swing path as your go-to manipulator, you’ll eventually drop the club too far behind you and create excessive blade rotation through impact.

If you love the fade feel, you’ll eventually get too steep and come too much from the outside.

Example 2 – The Lagger vs Releaser

In my other article, I explain how, if you use the swing arc as your power engine, you’re essentially balancing the relationship between releasing the club and dragging the handle.

If your go-to intention is hitting punch shots, the result is often an increased lag-holding tendency and less centrifugal force release. Over time, this can also lead to a more out-to-in path.

On the other hand, if you’re frequently hitting high, reach-for-the-sky shots with less compression, you’re likely applying a more upward intentional manipulation of the club.

The antidote?

Simply do the opposite—if you’re hitting too many punch shots, train high shots. If you’re hitting too many high shots, work on lower, more compressed strikes.

Example 3 – The Intentional Rotator

Some protocols emphasize rotation and pivoting as the main driver of the entire motion. This is especially common in the more modern, baseball-like swing that some tour pros use.

If you’re intentionally using rotation to control your strike, you’ll often start coming too much from the outside. Most of the time, this happens because you rotate too early, which puts the club on an outside path long before impact. The rotational movement then pulls the arms too quickly toward the ball.

The counter to this is to hit a non-rotational out-to-in shot (which isn’t exactly a great recipe for scoring well) or a sling hook. Why? Because you need to get your arms working back in relation to the target. In my opinion, this is a much simpler fix than trying to force some complicated transition drill that only makes real swing execution more difficult.

Summary – Minor Swing Fix Concept – The Antidote Mindset

I just gave three examples of slight manipulations, but there are many more. What’s your go-to manipulating intention?

Figure that out, then identify the antidote for overtraining it. Once you do, you’ll start to find the balance that leads to better, more consistent ball striking.

In the FMM swing system, I focus on teaching a motion where manipulation plays a smaller role than in most swing styles I’ve used. Check it out here.

Swing Knowledge and Flaws Articles

Golf Development Consulting

I offer some services for you that are into golf technique and want some assistance.

Major Swing Change Article Series

Some General Swing Tech Posts (with Videos)

The FMM Swing Articles