As we head into the final month of 2025, it’s always a good idea to look back at the past year, assess what you’ve accomplished, and plan your goals for the following year. As you do so, will you recognize during this evaluation the things that prevented you from reaching your goals this year? Will you understand the distractions and excuses that kept you from reaching your potential? As you went about the business of finding out how to swing a golf club better, did you forget some details along the way that prevented your improvement from being sustainable? And you’ll realize you created a list of the Top 10 bad golf habits that prevent you from improving your golf skills.
Mid- to high-handicap golfers often overlook the everyday events, situations, and habits that are holding them back. If you’re eager to lower your scores, it’s time to address these Top 10 bad golf habits that are undermining your game. And there’s no better time than the end of a year to go through an evaluation or assessment that identifies the good with the bad and provides objective clarity to how you’ll reach your golf goals in 2026.
Within this blog post, we’re going to explore and expand on our Top 10 bad golf habits that prevent you from improving your golf skills, with real examples and practical fixes. As you read the post, you may identify with one or more of these habits when it comes to your golf game. As we detail these habits, we’ll also provide suggestions to help you avoid breaking them. But to create new habits that will replace the ones that are holding you back. These habits are not specific to the technique of swinging a golf club. These habits are also part of your mindset and decision-making skills. This is why we are always on the lookout for these Top 10 bad golf habits and suggesting alternatives when you’re being coached by one of my coaches or me. It’s one of the elements that makes my team of golf coaches and me some of the best golf instructors in Orlando.
1. Impatience – Wanting Results Now
The superpower of all great golfers is patience. Coming in at #1 of the Top 10 bad golf habits preventing you from improving is your impatience.
What Is Frustration?
You get frustrated when you think your handicap isn’t dropping fast enough because of one or two practice sessions or being hasty with every shot on the course because you’re eager for a birdie every time. Impatient golfers put little to no effort into their games and expect immediate results. They also might experience one bad hole early in a round and then force risky shots from there on to “catch up” quickly. The impatient golfer is why I wrote the book, Instant Golf Improvement.
Why Frustration Leads to Bad Golf?
Most games you play, indoors or out, board games or athletics, reward patience. When you expect instant success, every slow improvement feels like a lifetime and a failure. Impatience leads you to press your skills and abilities beyond their limits. Examples are you swinging out of your shoes to gain distance or abandoning a sound swing change because it didn’t work immediately. On the course, impatience shows up as poor self-management. Attempting improbable hero shots rather than playing smart golf. Or not executing your entire pre-shot routine because you’re upset about the last shot.
How Can You Fix Yourself from Becoming Frustrated?
Cultivating and improving patience is a skill in itself. Setting realistic expectations for your improvement, such as allowing a new swing adjustment multiple practice sessions to mature before judging its worth, can allow patience to creep into our skills and your golf game. Using deep breathing or a brief walking routine between shots to slow yourself down during a round prevents you from rushing.
A drill that will test your patience and provide a basis for measuring your improvement in patience is the Around the World putting drill using 10 golf balls. This drill commands that you make all 10 putts in a row from three to four feet. If you miss one, you must start over. When you have to start over, you’re training yourself to stay calm and focused for an extended period, just like staying patient through 18 holes. Patience is part of the gradual improvement process, not the flip of a switch.
When you play golf, be ready for a marathon, not a sprint. Embrace the small gains, or small wins, as I pointed out previously, to learn the process of patience. By managing your expectations and staying calm, you’ll make steadier strides and enjoy the game more.
2. Complaining About External Factors
If I were to take a picture of you on the course, would you look like a grumpy golfer with a sour puss face of negativity? Complaining is a sure sign you’re weak inside and out. Of the Top 10 bad golf habits that prevent you from improving your golf skills, complaining fuels a lot more bad habits on and off the course.
What Does Complaining Look Like?
Blaming the course, weather, playing partners, or equipment for your poor performance. For example, a high-handicap golfer might finish a round and immediately complain that the greens were too slow or the wind ruined their drives.
This habit shifts responsibility away from yourself, preventing honest self-evaluation.
Why is Complaining Bad for Your Golf Game?
Constant complaining creates a negative mindset. It stops you from learning from your mistakes because you’re busy making excuses. Other golfers will avoid you if you’re a chronic complainer. And your own focus will drift away from what you can control, your decisions and reactions that constitute your internal factors and conditions. To what you can’t, which are external conditions.
How Can You Fix Your Complaining?
You must stop making excuses for yourself and take ownership of your actions. In other words, be accountable to yourself! The next time you catch yourself grumbling about a bad lie or a gust of wind, pause and reframe. First, realize that all the golfers playing that day are playing in the same conditions. And instead of complaining in your mind, such as saying “the fairway was too wet, that’s why I duffed it,” you need to reword the entire complaint to an objective evaluation. An example would be saying, “I didn’t adjust to the wet turf. I’ll learn from that and not repeat the same mistake the next time.”
I tell my clients it’s all about finding the small wins. There’s always at least one positive you can find in your decisions and in your performance as a golfer. You must have a mental game goal to find one positive every time you swing a golf club, even in harsh conditions. This mental toughness exercise trains you to accept challenges without losing your cool. Over time, you’ll complain less and strategize more. Which is something better golfers do most often. Some even keep a journal of post-round reflections to help them remember the positives and use those thoughts more often on the course. These notes of doing well and what and why you’ll improve can readily avoid the complaints and place ownership within you to succeed. And begins the erosion of one of the Top 10 bad golf habits you can readily fix.
3. Riding the “Swing Tip Hamster Wheel”
When you endlessly chase swing fixes based on the ‘flavor of the day’ tips you consume, it’s the equivalent of running in a hamster wheel. You put a lot of effort in, with little to no progress. The hamster wheel is one of our Top 10 bad golf habits that prevent you from improving your golf skills.
What is the Swing Tip Hamster Wheel?
Jumping from one swing tip to the next every week. If not every day. A lot of my clients come to me explaining how they are using a tip they saw on a YouTube video about their grip. And then the following day, watching a video from another source about another aspect of a golf swing, thinking they can do both, improve their grip and their swing. On the third day, they’re enamored with a backswing change. I think you got the picture. Trying something new every week, if not every day, is not the path to sustainable success. Your endless search for ‘magic dust’ is never-ending, which is why it is sometimes called the “swing-tip hamster wheel.” It’s common for mid-to-high handicappers to devour the multitude of golf improvement content that bombards us every day for the latest quick fix.
What’s so Bad About Trying Something New?
Chasing too many tips can confuse your brain and, in turn, make your movements inconsistent. You never stick with any change long enough to see real improvement. It’s like constantly switching directions while using a treadmill. You’ll end up going nowhere. Your swing becomes a patchwork of half-implemented advice. With not a lot of it matching what your body can do. Resulting in you losing the feel for yourself and your golf swing.
How Does a Golfer Get off the Hamster Wheel?
Adopt an improvement plan that is focused and purposeful. During each practice session, limit yourself to one improvement. And that one improvement can ideally be identified with the guidance of a qualified coach, such as my staff of qualified coaches or me. For example, spend a dedicated month working on your balance. Or three to five weeks focused solely on improving your top hand grip position. Use drills that reinforce the singular improvement you’re focused on. And stick with this method through all the ups and downs of the process. As one of the leading golf instructors Orlando golfers trust, I often remind my clients that real improvement takes patience, time, and focus. When you step off the hamster wheel of endless tips and follow a structured improvement plan, you’ll see faster, more lasting results. And you’ll forever end the possibility of repeating this avoidable habit of the Top 10 bad golf habits.
4. Getting Stuck in Your Comfort Zone
Doing something the same way every time can become comfortable, but unproductive. When was the last time you accepted feeling comfortable as a part of your improvement process? This can sometimes be the hardest of the Top 10 bad golf habits preventing you from improving, and the hardest to replace.
What is Getting Stuck in Your Comfort Zone?
Falling into routines that are way too familiar will, at some point, lose their value and productivity. Practicing the same way all the time for the sake of checking the ‘practice box’ and avoiding the awkward feelings of differences will lead to stagnation as well. An example is always using a 7-iron off a mat and avoiding any drills or shots with that club that feel awkward. Only to go to the course and be forced to hit from the grass from uneven lies and fail miserably doing so. Everyone loves being comfortable. But being willing to be uncomfortable when it comes to improving your golf skills is where the rubber meets the road.
Why is Getting Comfortable Bad for Your Golf Game?
Humans hate change. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Golf is no exception. If you never stretch your boundaries, you’ll never expand your horizons and limit your ability to improve in anything. Particularly, the weakest parts of your golf game. When you opt to stay comfortable, you reinforce all of your personal top 10 bad golf habits, rather than learning to make new and improved habits. An example is always hitting at the range, never on the course, and not being able to adapt to the constantly changing conditions the course offers. Getting stuck also leads to plateaus. Your scores seem to level off because you’re not introducing any new challenge or focus to spur growth.
How to Become Comfortable Being Uncomfortable?
You must intentionally be willing to leave your comfort zone at any time, for any reason. Being able to do so starts with practice. What is your planned practice session a week focuses on a situation you experience or a skill you’re weak at, that you always avoid practicing? Not confident with greenside bunkers, but spend no time practicing the skill? Spend 30 minutes solely hitting bunker shots. Doing so will be uncomfortable at first. But within a few minutes, your adaptation abilities will provide you with the atmosphere that will start the learning curve you’re looking for. Have you ever randomly gone through your bag, hitting one club at a time and not repeating that club for at least 10 shots? Another way to get out of comfortable routines and into accepting variations and change. As well as simulating what you do on the golf course. You should also consider playing unfamiliar courses or entering a local tournament. Doing so pushes your comfort zone.
The bottom line when it comes to familiarity and comfort is that if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. Pushing yourself in practice translates to growth on the course. And if you’re not sure where to start your new path to being uncomfortable, you may want to consider scheduling a golf skills assessment with one of my coaches or me. Doing so will identify which skills lie outside your comfort zone, so you know what to tackle first. And begin your quest to eliminate one of the Top 10 bad golf habits.
5. Having No Framework or Game Plan
Challenging situations require a clear plan of action before jumping in headfirst. Finding yourself in these difficult situations without a plan is a sure way to make unnecessary mistakes. Of the Top 10 bad golf habits preventing you from improving your golf skills, this one bad habit begets a lot of others.
What Does a Golf Game without Framework Look Like?
You’re winging it every time you play or practice! You show up to practice with no specific goal or purpose, other than to get the required minimum swings in to hit all the balls in the basket. No framework in the course looks like a deer staring into headlights over the simplest of shots. Always asking someone else, “What would they do?”
Why is Not Having a Plan Bad for Your Golf Game?
Without a framework, you can’t measure progress or make consistent decisions. You’ll play erratically because there is no process to follow. No plan or framework makes you more impulsive and less methodical on the course or at the practice facility. No structure means you will neglect elements of your game that are holding you back. No plan equals no progress.
How do You Fix Not Having a Framework or Plan?
Believe it or not, it’s sometimes hard for the mid-to-high handicapper to come up with or adopt a set of routines and framework that represents a plan they can execute on the course. Why, due to a lack of experience. Again, a reason to engage with a good golf coach to assist you with this part of your game. With a coach in tow, you’ll most likely begin by creating a simple practice plan each week. For instance, allocating 50% of your practice to your biggest weakness, 30% to maintaining your strengths, and 20% to playing “simulated holes” on the range. To do so, you should write down what you do well within each portion of each practice session, and stick to those points.
A pre-shot routine is the beginning and continual tool you need to have a plan that is adaptable and works, regardless of the shot you face. Have a plan for each round, identifying which holes you’ll play conservatively and where you can be aggressive. Set obtainable yet straightforward goals and objectives, like hitting the middle of greens and using a 3-wood on holes that are less than a specific yardage.
Having a framework eliminates indecision. It provides you with a basis of evaluation. And an organized method to continue progress without digging your hole any deeper. With structure comes trust, with trust breeding confidence. With a solid game plan, you’ll make more intelligent choices and see more consistent results.
6. Glorifying the Wrong Things (Hero Shots vs Smart Golf)
Experiencing the joy of hitting a miraculous shot is an incredible feeling. But placing your worth as a golfer into ‘hero’ shots will soon place you on the street of despair, looking for handouts. Hero shots are not the shots that allow you to play smarter and reduce your scores consistently. And they are certainly a part of the Top 10 bad golf habits list preventing you from scoring lower.
You shot 95 today, and you made the statement that doing so was a waste of a good afternoon. How? You were outdoors, not working, and doing something you enjoy. How is that a waste of time? And oh, by the way, there were 18 different chapters of that scorecard called ‘your golf game’ that you failed to judge. Maybe just one hole determined your emotional outburst and displeasure, not the entire round?
Life is not as easy, nor is golf, as writing a score down, and by existential conclusion, the score is a measurement of your enjoyment. If you shoot a good score, you’re happy; if not, you’re miserable. What about the details that made up the sum of the score? Any enjoyment in those details? If so, why not wallow in those details, regardless of the score, and find out how just one shot or one hole can make your day?
Why is it bad to Judge Enjoyment By Score Only?
Golf is hard; it’s not easy. And if you use the enjoyment level equals score calculation, you’re setting yourself up to fail and feel miserable 99% of the time. Great golfers have rough days. But they look at the positives to understand how the round got away from them. They remember the shots they executed well, even when the score did not reflect the experience they just completed.
When tying your self-worth to score, every round becomes a pressure cooker. Can you handle the pressure? Are you practicing under pressure? Are your practice sessions harder than actually playing a round of golf? Ask those questions first before you make yourself feel miserable all the time, because pressure and your lack of handling pressure are why you shoot the scores you do. And those scores will not improve until you stop placing all the value in an entire round and start placing value on each shot you hit. Over time, this mindset leads to burnout and loss of love for the game, as you ride a constant emotional rollercoaster.
How do You Stop Placing Enjoyment Value on Score Alone?
If it has not become evident by now, you have a real need to redefine the word ‘success’ and how it is defined within your current abilities as a golfer. You can do so by setting non-scoring goals, such as “I’ll clear my mind in my pre-shot routine before addressing the golf ball.” Or, “No matter the shot, what is the ‘win’ I can take from each shot I hit?” Doing so gives you something to be proud of, even if the number is higher than you’d like. Some golfers find it helpful to rate the day by experience: “Did I enjoy myself? Did I learn something? Did I appreciate the nice weather or the challenge?” These can be successes that establish enjoyment, not just scores. The memories of each round inspire you to come back again, no matter your score. Doing so should lighten your mood and remind you that golf is supposed to be fun.
Finally, remember that even pros don’t win or set personal records most days. They find satisfaction in incremental progress and the love of competition. The ultimate goal is to play your best golf and enjoy doing it. When you stop tying your happiness 100% to the score, you free yourself to play better because you’re more relaxed and engaged. Paradoxically, you’ll likely start shooting lower scores once you’re not so obsessed with them!
10. Trying to Control Everything
The more you try to micromanage every aspect of your golf game, the more you realize some things are out of your control. Of the Top 10 bad golf habits that prevent you from improving your golf game, this one habit is the one skill everyone must learn to be successful on and off the golf course.
What Are You Doing About the Items Under Your Control?
Has anyone ever told you that you’re a “control freak” as a golfer? Or as a person? Meaning, you attempt to dictate every variable in golf, a game inherently full of uncertainty. This habit shows up as anger at things like a sudden gust of wind, a bad bounce, or another group making noise. Because these things violated the perfect scenario you wanted, this tendency also appears when you’re overthinking, trying to calculate and perfectly execute each swing thought, becoming tense and robotic. Essentially, you don’t trust anything outside of your direct input. In addition, you have a hard time letting go of the uncontrollable.
Why is Being a Control Freak as a Golfer Bad for You and Your Game?
In one word, insanity!
Trying to control everything in golf is exhausting and futile. You get emotionally, mentally, and physically tense, which hurts your performance. Tension is the killer of all golf swings. And tension can be directly caused by your unrealistic need to control everything around you. Nothing in golf always goes as planned, which can mentally disorient and unravel even the best-laid plans.
Typically, when you are a control freak, you lack the coping mechanisms required to ‘get over it!” Because you assume nothing should or will go wrong. Additionally, focusing on uncontrollable factors like weather or course conditions distracts you from the items you do have control over, such as the strategy you choose, your attitude, and your pre-shot routine. When you learn to let go as a golfer, you learn to accept variances and bad breaks with more calmness. That allows you to bounce back quicker with less emotional baggage. Those golfers who don’t know this process tend to spiral into uncontrollable frustration.
How Can You Fix Being a Control Freak and Play Better Golf?
You’ve heard it before, and you’ll reread it. Learn what you can and cannot control, and choose to stay in the presence of what you can control. As well as learn the art of acceptance of those things you have zero control over.
A great exercise to learn these coping mechanisms is a game called “Acceptance Challenge”: During a round, purposefully accept every outcome with a neutral or positive response. Hit an incredible drive? Good. Hit a terrible drive off a tree? Instead of losing it, tell yourself calmly, “That’s golf, I’ll deal with it.” By doing this repeatedly, you train your brain to expect unexpected outcomes as usual, not catastrophic. Physically, work on swings or putting strokes that emphasize flow rather than steering. A great way to do so is to hit shots with your eyes closed. This teaches you to let go; let the swing happen.
Another strategy is to establish what’s within your control and what isn’t before you play. Make two lists: on one side, “I Can Control,” which could include but is not limited to your club choice, your effort level, your pre-shot routine, and your practice frequency. The other list, “I Can’t Control,” could include the score my friend shoots, the weather, the ball’s bounce after it lands, and hole locations. Acknowledging, while you review your list, that the second list is off-limits to worry about begins your process of letting go.
Over time, you’ll transform your mindset to one of enjoyment and fulfillment, recognizing that you can control only those things you can. You’ll play more freely. And you’ll accept the things you cannot change, the courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Apply that to the course, and you’ll finally get out of your own way.
Conclusion
Breaking these Top 10 bad golf habits that prevent you from improving your golf skills is key to unlocking your potential on the course. By now, you’ve likely identified a few areas where you can improve your habits. The good news is you don’t have to do it alone. You can choose to find another golfer who is after the same things you are. Or you can choose to work with a seasoned coach who can accelerate your transformation. John Hughes, an award-winning golf instructor in Orlando, has helped countless mid- and high-handicappers overcome these issues, from mental game tweaks to practice overhauls. With the proper guidance, you’ll replace bad habits with championship habits faster than you think.
Are you ready to play your best golf? Are you ready to start replacing your top 10 bad golf habits? Don’t let bad golf habits hold you back any longer. Schedule a coaching session with John Hughes Golf (https://johnhughesgolf.com) and get a personalized roadmap to improvement. Whether it’s refining your swing, learning how to practice with purpose, or building mental toughness, John will help you break through and reach your goals. Remember, the fastest way to lower scores is not just hitting balls – it’s changing habits. Let’s work together to make that happen!
