Johnny Miller: How to keep your swing healthy as you age

Golf instruction is ever-evolving, but the best advice stands the test of time. In Timeless Tips, we’re highlighting some of the greatest advice teachers and players have dispensed in the pages of GOLF Magazine. Today we go back to our July 1981 issue where Johnny Miller shared how he changed his swing to keep his body healthy as he aged. For unlimited access to the full GOLF Magazine digital archive, join InsideGOLF today; you’ll enjoy $140 of value for only $39.99/year.

Golf is a game that can be played for a lifetime — but that doesn’t mean you’ll always be able to swing the same way. As we get older, our bodies change, and these changes can make certain movements from our youth nearly impossible.

This is a truth that every golfer faces at one point or another. Even if you’re a bomber now, once you reach retirement age, you won’t be able to touch 120 mph of ball speed. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have success on the course as you get older. You just need to make the necessary swing adjustments.

Back in 1981, former U.S. Open winner Johnny Miller joined GOLF Magazine and shared some of his best tips for keeping his swing — and body — healthy as he aged. Follow them, and your golden years could become your prime.

Johnny Miller’s keys for keeping your swing healthy

There’s been a lot of talk about my “new” golf swing, and how well I’ve been playing with it. Actually, it isn’t “new” in the strict sense of the word. There’s nothing revolutionary about it. However, it is new to me because it is a departure from the way I’ve swung the club in the past.

Most of the changes in my swing have come about as a result of the changes in my physique. When I was younger I was extremely flexible, and my legs were the strongest part of my body. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve lost some suppleness (as almost everyone does) and I’ve become stronger from the waist up. I think my slump was, to a large degree, the result of trying to perform my “old” swing with my “new” body.

The “new” swing is the product of a lot of thought and trial and error. And in the same way it’s helped me, it can help a lot of amateur golfers who aren’t as supple as they once were or would like to be. Here’s how it works.

Takeaway

The first change I made was in my takeaway. Until recently, I experimented with fanning the club open during the takeaway, as Gary Player does. And before that, in my early Tour days, I used an early set of the wrists . This helped me establish an upright backswing plane, from which, using my suppleness, I could lay the shaft onto the downswing plane starting down. Finally, I settled on starting back in one piece, a coordinated movement of the arms, shoulders, hands and club, while keeping the clubface square. This method is simplest and best for golfers of all levels.

Backswing

The changes in my backswing were actually corrections of faults I had developed. When I was younger, one of my best backswing keys was to feel as though I got behind the ball on the backswing. With the degree of flexibility I had then, I could get behind the ball while still making a good, full turn. But as I gained weight and strength in my upper body and lost some suppleness, this key led to a “false” backswing turn. In fact, I didn’t turn at all. I just moved my hips and upper body laterally to the right and sort of lifted my arms up to the top. This move got the club to the top, but there was no coiling of the muscles of the upper body. This is a fault of many golfers who are stiff or heavy. 

Approach Shots

I corrected the error by working on staying more over the ball as I turned during the backswing. The feeling of this reminds me of that old instructional saw, “Feel as if you’re turning in a barrel during the backswing.” The result has been a genuine backswing turn, with an improved use of the large and strong muscles of my upper body, instead of a false turn. If you’ve developed a false turn as a result of trying to get behind the ball, try this: Set yourself behind the ball at address, so that your head is slightly to the right of the ball, then key on a full turn of the body from there.

Downswing

One of my favorite downswing keys during my younger days was “stay behind it and hit it.” I was flexible enough then to do that effectively. But this key became less and less effective in time, and I began to push long shots off line. The push was the shot that truly fueled my slump, although I wasn’t hitting every shot that way. I hit most of my shots well, but on one or two key holes a round, I’d get nervous, hit the push, and wind up with a double bogey. That led to a lot of 73s and 74s.

I stumbled across the solution to this fault when I was playing at the Silverado course in Napa, California, near my home, about two years ago. I wanted to see how far I could hit the ball to the right by moving forward instead of hanging back during the downswing. I hit a shot keying on moving hard onto my left side, and the ball went about 15 yards right of where I was aiming. I thought, “Gee, I’m sure I can do better than that.” I hit another shot and tried harder to move onto my left side. The ball only went about 20 yards right of where I was aiming. From that experience, I learned that in trying to stay behind the ball, I had been hanging back on my right side. As a result, I couldn’t get through the ball with my arms. That was causing the pushes. 

I also found that as long as I made a solid move back to the ball in the downswing, I couldn’t push the shot too far to the right, and that as long as I didn’t exaggerate the move, the ball wouldn’t go to the right at all. As it turned out, the solution was the opposite of what I first thought it was. This move has made my swing look a little different. Since it is more upper body oriented, my right side comes through the ball higher than it used to. But that’s a trait I now share with a lot of other fine swingers. And with this type of swing, my head doesn’t drop the way it used to. All in all, it’s a simpler, more repeatable and, therefore, more dependable, downswing.

Instruction

No matter what his method, every good golfer has a good weight shift. Practice making a solid move to your left side to start the downswing and you’ll hit straighter and longer shots.

Follow through

I’ve always thought the follow-through was the result of the swing that came before it. And as you can see here, my follow-through reflects the changes I’ve made in my swing. As a result of the solid move onto my left side at the start of the downswing, my weight has shifted completely to my left foot. In fact, that’s one of my new follow-through keys, feeling as though I’ve shifted all of my weight onto the little toe of my left foot at the finish. Before, when I was hanging back, I’d finish with my weight distributed between my right foot and my left heel. Now my weight has shifted to the left side so completely that when I follow through on shots with the 4- iron through the wedge, I feel I can lift my right foot off the ground.

The other change in my follow-through is that I don’t have as big a bend in my back as I used to. As you get older, finishing in that big “reverse C” position becomes increasingly difficult. Coming through the ball with the right side higher, and swinging more with the upper body instead of the legs, results in a straighter back in the follow-through.

Use these keys as checkpoints for your own follow-through. By ingraining the feel of the correct finish, you’ll make it easier to correctly perform the moves that precede it.