Claude Harmon: My 10 Best Golf Tips

Leading golf coach and Sky Sports analyst Claude Harmon can help you play better golf...

Best Golf Tips

Leading golf coach and Sky Sports analyst Claude Harmon can help you play better golf...

Claude Harmon: My 10 Best Golf Tips

One of the most respected coaches in world golf gives his advice on improving your long game, creating more power, holing more putts and more...

1 Reading greens

Most people dramatically under-read break and that means they struggle to marry speed with line.

My advice would be to over-read greens and factor in a little more break than you think.

Try it for a round and see if this approach helps improve your putting.

2 Long-game practice

Work on the quality of your contact between the club and ball.

For the average golfer, I don’t really care where the ball goes, but I want a solid contact with every club in the bag.

If you can do that, the rest is easier to improve and you will be a better player.

Related: Who do Butch and Claude Harmon coach?

3 Bunker play

The key here is to hit the shot harder than you think.

Most who struggle from sand do so because they don’t carry enough speed through the downswing.

If the club is moving too slowly, the sand will win.

Make a full follow through so the club accelerates through impact.

Be aggressive!

Rickie Fowler is one of the players in the Harmon coaching stable

4 Punch

Keep rotating!

Most people understand that when they hit a punch, they need to cut down the follow through.

This is fine, but what often happens is they stop turning their body through the ball.

The chest stops rotating and a poor shot is the result.

5 Chipping

You need to get the relationship between the backswing and follow through right.

Most people take too long a backswing and then decelerate through contact.

It is easier to make the backswing a little shorter.

6 Avoiding 3-putts

Most people practise putting in reverse.

They get to the practice green and work on holing out, but the majority of putts they face are from outside 30ft.

One of the ways to hole out better is to become a better lag putter.

7 Ball striking tip

My favourite drill is to hit shots from waist high back to waist high through.

This should help you collect the ball with a solid contact more often.

Alternate between going waist high back and through and full swings.

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8 Power

Power is created, stored and then released.

In the backswing you turn your body and this creates power, which you store as you start down and release through impact.

Take the club back at the start of the swing with a good body turn.

9 Match play

People worry too much about what their opponent is doing.

Don’t forget you are still playing the golf course and that challenge doesn’t change.

At club level, the key is to not make any big numbers.

Build your strategy with that in mind.

10 Slice

In my experience, golfers don’t allow for their miss.

If you’re hitting a bit of a slice, stop aiming straight and allow for the curve on the ball.

Pay more attention to the way in which you play and review your performances to form a strategy.

The Harmon Tour-Player Stable

  • Rickie Fowler
  • Dustin Johnson
  • Brooks Koepka
  • Yani Tseng
  • Adam Scott
  • Ernie Els
  • Gary Woodland
  • Peter Uihlein
Elliott Heath
News Editor

Elliott Heath is our News Editor and has been with Golf Monthly since early 2016 after graduating with a degree in Sports Journalism. He manages the Golf Monthly news team as well as our large Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. He covered the 2022 Masters from Augusta National as well as five Open Championships on-site including the 150th at St Andrews. His first Open was in 2017 at Royal Birkdale, when he walked inside the ropes with Jordan Spieth during the Texan's memorable Claret Jug triumph. He has played 35 of our Top 100 golf courses, with his favourites being both Sunningdales, Woodhall Spa, Western Gailes, Old Head and Turnberry. He has been obsessed with the sport since the age of 8 and currently plays off of a six handicap. His golfing highlights are making albatross on the 9th hole on the Hotchkin Course at Woodhall Spa, shooting an under-par round, playing in the Aramco Team Series on the Ladies European Tour and making his one and only hole-in-one at the age of 15 - a long time ago now!


Elliott is currently playing:


Driver: Titleist TSR4

3 wood: Titleist TSi2

Hybrids: Titleist 816 H1

Irons: Mizuno MP5 5-PW

Wedges: Cleveland RTX ZipCore 50, 54, 58

Putter: Odyssey White Hot OG #5

Ball: Srixon Z Star XV