Reclaim Lost Yards With This Simple Golf Swing for Seniors

The secret to more distance off the tee isn’t a fancier golf swing. It’s a simpler golf swing.

I’ve seen so many of my students get overwhelmed with complex strategies inspired by tour players, when what they really need is a technique that’s easy to repeat and perfect.

I just explored this exact problem with my student Richard. He’s passionate about golf, but he’s not putting in a pro golfer’s practice hours. He’s also dealing with a different set of physical abilities, between his knee problems and his age (or “experience,” as I like to say).

So we ditched the complicated technique he’d been using. I taught him a simple golf swing that focuses on two things and two things only:

A perfect pivot
The correct handle position

He not only overcame the contact issues that had been plaguing him, but he also hit a drive over 250 yards for the first time in more than a decade.

I’m going to teach you what I taught Richard, and you’ll learn why these two basic fixes are the cure for the most common senior swing faults.

The Senior’s Simple Golf Swing: Key Takeaways

To hit longer, more accurate drives:

Fix your pivot by practicing the Feet Together Drill, which trains your body to shift weight to the lead foot on the downswing.
Ensure an in-to-out swing path by bringing the handle up and to the right as you swing through and allowing the clubhead to release as you finish your swing.
Use a simple pre-shot routine to find the feel for these techniques before every golf swing.
Improve your contact on both the tee and fairway with the Pure Ball-First Contact Series.

That’s the short version. Here’s the detailed rundown:

Step 1: Fix Your Pivot

When we talk about the pivot, we’re talking about the way you shift your weight throughout your golf swing. You want to start with about 60% of your weight on the lead foot, shift most of your weight to the trail foot on the backswing, and shift your weight back to the lead foot as you swing through.

In other words, your weight should move with the clubhead.

A masterful pivot is absolutely crucial for a good golf swing. It improves your tempo and ensures the low point of your swing remains in the correct position for solid contact.

The pivot is also the senior golfer’s best tool for generating clubhead speed. That continuous weight shift builds momentum, no twisting or straining necessary.

And yet, a lot of “experienced” golfers—Richard included—wrestle with a major problem in their pivot.

The Problem: Hanging on the Trail Foot

One of the first things I noticed in Richard’s swing was that he was hanging on his trail foot even as he swung through. That error was destroying his contact and robbing him of yards.

Now, he’s not an outlier. A lot of experienced golfers get stuck on the back foot due to a loss of balance. We have less faith in our stability as we get older, and it tends to feel safer to hold weight on the trail foot.

But I promise you, a proper pivot won’t knock you off balance. The secret is to shift your weight to the inside of your lead foot, not the outside.

Richard had the added obstacle of knee problems. Due to his medical history, he’d gotten in the habit of favoring his lead knee, so he still avoided putting weight on it, even after recovery.

I taught him a drill that helped him overcome that habit and create a better one.

The Fix: Find Your Pivot With the Feet Together Drill

This drill is fun, easy, and teaches your body to bring your weight forward as the club moves forward. Here’s how you do it:

Take your regular driver setup without a golf ball.
Position your lead foot beside your trail foot.
Take a practice swing, stepping your lead foot toward the target as you swing through.
Repeat in slow, continuous swings.
When you’ve got the feel for it, step up to the tee and hit a drive.

Practice this regularly, and your body will begin to naturally shift weight with the club so you never have to think about it.

Step 2: Focus on Your Finish Position

In Step One, we simplified your golf swing by identifying a common error and training the body to correct that error naturally, so you don’t have to do a mental checklist every time you step up to the ball.

In this step, we’re simplifying by focusing on a single goal that instantly cures a complex problem.

The Problem: Coming Over the Top

I don’t know many amateur golfers who’ve managed to avoid this error, and it’s especially common among experienced golfers.

Richard was definitely doing it—swinging out and across, causing a weak fade.

If you also have a habit of coming over the top, you’re gonna want to see what I taught him.

The Fix: Work the Handle Up and to the Right

Rather than trying to analyze his swing path in the moment, I told Richard to just think about the way he finished his shot. The goal was to:

Work the club handle up and to the right as he swung through
Let the clubhead release a bit at the finish

When you do this, you can’t come over the top. It’s impossible. In order to come over the top, the handle has to work the opposite way: down and to the left.

As soon as Richard did this, his fade vanished and he was hitting nice, high draws like it was nothing.

This brings us to the Golden Nugget every experienced golfer should know:

You can improve your golf swing by focusing on your finish position.

You don’t need to engineer every segment of your swing. All you have to do is think about where you want to end up, and your body will find the proper swing in order to get there.

It doesn’t get much easier than that (aside from swapping your traditional driver for a senior-friendly driver, but that’s a whole other topic.)

But in case that’s not simple enough, here’s a pre-shot routine to ensure you can hit long, accurate drives with as little thought as possible:

A Simple Preshot Routine for Seniors

Before you hit a drive, do this:

Take your setup.
Bring the clubhead out in front of you, pointing toward the target as if you’ve just come through impact.
Take a practice swing from this position, noticing your weight shift and ensuring that you’re bringing the handle up and to the right as you swing through.

This pre-shot routine allows you to remind your body what a good golf swing feels like before you step up to the tee. It might seem too simple to work, but after 30+ years of coaching, I can tell you that the simplest methods are always the most effective.

A Simple Golf Swing for Pure Contact

Try the strategies you just learned. You’ll quickly understand why focusing on one or two objectives gets much better results than attempting to execute an entire checklist of do’s and don’ts.

That’s why my Pure Ball-First Contact Series is designed around one simple goal: controlling the low point.

That’s all it takes to achieve pure, center-strike contact, on the tee and on the fairway.

If you’re sick of chili dips, topped shots, slices, and shanks, you’re gonna want to check out this series for yourself. In five short video chapters, you’ll unlock a simple, senior-friendly system for better contact and discover fun drills to help you turn the concepts you learn into muscle memory.

Follow this link to start the Pure Ball-First Contact Series today.

Between the techniques you’ll learn there and the tips you learned here, you can look forward to your best season yet.

About the Author

PGA Teaching Professional Todd Kolb is a five-time Golf Digest Best-in-State Instructor, Amazon Best-selling Author, and Minnesota PGA Teacher of the Year. In over 30 years of coaching, he’s worked with from newbies to an LPGA major champion. He’s currently the Director of Instruction for VLS Golf and USGolfTV and dedicates his efforts to helping the everyday golfer cut through overcomplicated traditional instruction to find solutions that actually work for them.