I have the No. 1 reason why you should never watch YouTubers if you’re a Classic Golf Swinger, and it’s the only reason you really need.

That’s because of the same reason you shouldn’t try to swing exactly like Ben Hogan, even if you are a Classic Golf Swinger.

Emulate Hogan’s pivot, by all means – but leave the rest of his swing alone, because it will only come to grief due to his personal compensations and club manipulations, just as if you watch the YouTubers.

The reason is that the moves and tips from YouTubers do not work for someone with a mechanically-sound golf swing.

They are all, to a point, manipulations to compensate for the fact that they’re not standing correctly over the ball, nor are they pivoting properly over the ball once in motion.

So, they require a raft of compensation moves in their swings just to be able to make contact with the ball.

I have spent a good deal talking about those compensation moves through the swing bottom, impact and follow-through, but there’s one that will absolutely kill your swing if you’re trying to swing in the Classic Golf Swing methodology, and it’s this one:

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Yes, that old “shut face” going back is absolute disaster for a proper swing, because these guys are no longer swinging down from the top with a leverage generated by the hips shift back to towards the target and rotating.

When the hips start moving back and turning, they pull the leading arm and shoulders with them, and that’s just the natural kinetic chain in action.

But these guys are reverse-pivoting without transferring weight, so the down swing, as I’ve called it various ways, is either a squat & dump or a top-drop, spin and chase.

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That is why they want a shut club face going back so that they don’t come into impact wide open with the face, because they are spinning in place – therefore, the face must be pre-shut because the arms and hands aren’t working the way they do naturally in a pivoting swing.

When you swing naturally using the proper pivot, the toe of the clubface will be pointing upwards at the parallel phase of the back pivot:

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It’s the concept that I call “square to square to square,” when I’m talking about the clubface at parallel going back, at impact and at parallel post-impact.

The last thing you want to be doing when swinging a golf club is manipulating the face with your hands – that is a disaster waiting to happen, and it’s why the best golfers in the world are so bloody good.

Whatever type of swing model they’re using, the absolute best and most coordinated of them are who you watch day in and day out on television – the average person has no chance of swinging with these manipulations with any degree of success.

When I swing a club, I have no worries about my club face being square at impact if I’ve set up with a proper grip and a square face in my address.

Watch the vertical toe going back and how the face is square to my left arm at the top:

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In that swing above, I had the proper neutral grip in the setup, without that strong right hand grip I used to use:

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** Here again is why my over-strong right hand grip would come back to haunt me at times on the course – when I was relaxed and swinging confidently, I could delay the turning over of my right hand and strike the ball with a square face:

My Grip Before & After Changing The Right Hand

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When I would lose focus or try to really pound one off the tee, my right hand would turn over and my dreaded snap hook would rear its head.  So, I’m speaking from experience here, and I was a pretty decent athlete in my day, but still couldn’t overcome the issue of the grip.

So, you definitely don’t want to be trying to shut the face of your club going back – that’s a Modern Golf Swing compensation for a stance and pivot that aren’t even close to being optimal, and it’s also why so few golfers these days play solid golf for more a season or two before beginning to struggle.

Why was Jack Nicklaus so good for so long?

Because his swing was fundamentally basic and mechanically-sound, so much that he was very close to optimal – so when he was over the ball, he could just swing away with all the confidence he had, and expect a great or good result.

When he got careless with his setup was when he would struggle briefly before righting the ship.

Scottie Scheffler has issues with his swing, but his consistency is a testament to his athleticism and hand-eye coordination, not to the way he swings.

I’m not Scottie Scheffler, and neither are you, so do it the easy way – properly and without compensations and manipulations.