Padraig Harrington is talking about the don’ts of golf, and he admits that’s strange, though there certainly are don’ts. 

It’s just the word itself. 

“I’m normally a very positive person,” he said.

Still, Harrington was ready for what he called “the mega lesson of don’ts.” The thoughts came in a recently posted video to the three-time major winner’s YouTube channel, which has become an instruction must-visit, and his latest post is a must-watch, despite that un-positive vibe. You can view it below, and below that are some comments. 

Padraig Harrington’s don’ts of the golf swing 

Don’t keep your head down 

You’ve heard this one. But it needs to be repeated. “By all means, keep an eye on the ball,” Harrington said in the video, “but your head is nice and relaxed. It doesn’t tuck down onto your chest. For most people, it will rotate a little bit in the backswing, and certainly in the follow-through, it will come up to a high position. … Your head must move.”

Don’t keep your feel still or locked to the ground 

During the swing, Harrington wants to avoid a set position. “You can create no speed, no power; you’ll go offline,” he said in the video. “Your feet should move at address … and then move back and forth. So simply little stepping. That’s why we do all these stepping drills. You’ve got to move your feet if you’re going to hit the golf ball.” 

Don’t stay down during the swing  

Harrington said this is “nearly sacrilege.” “So when you hit the golf ball, you must pop up to hit the golf ball. … OK, so our chest is somewhat staying down, but everything else is coming up. You pop up on the left-hand side. … So, we’ve got to make sure that you do that natural thing. Keep an eye on the ball, but make sure you’re jumping up with those legs. You can keep an eye on the ball, but make sure you’re accelerating up.” 

Don’t swing slowly

Your backswing, Harrington said, should be set “at your natural rhythm, whatever that is.” “Some people will be quick, some people will be relatively slow,” he said in the video. “What we do know is that professional golfers, I think, swing three times quicker than amateurs in the backswing. So, the backswing is quite for a natural rhythm at that sort of pace. … So, nice speed to it.” 

Don’t swing easy 

At times, you will, though, Harrington said. “But you must practice swinging as fast as you can sometimes and then tone it down to play,” he said in the video. “Not tone it down every shot because there’ll be some open drives where you should go flat-out. But in general, do not swing slow and easy. Swing hard and fast some of the time in order that you can swing at a comfortable 90 percent and keep your rhythm.”

Don’t cast 

“You’ve got to release the club with your hands as much as you can,” Harrington said in the video. “So absolutely throw that club like you’re going to throw it down the range. … People who cast — and this is like everything else in golf, it’s nearly the opposite — so people who cast put no pressure on the grip at this point and then the force of the club gets thrown out and they lose all their speed and power and strike. … So release the club as hard as you can with your hands from the top of the backswing.”

Don’t spin 

“So a bad thought is turning your hips when they’re not connected to anything because that generally brings the hands with it, causing you to swipe across the ball and hit a slice,” Harrington said in the video. “Do not rotate your body. At impact, your shoulders are going to be close to square, maybe 10 degrees open. Your torso would be 30 and maybe your hips 45. … We don’t try and rotate. What we actually do is we push. We push. So, we go down into the left side. And as we’re springing up, we push from the ground, which pushes our hip back, which opens this up, our body stays reasonably square at impact. So don’t think turning is not going to add anything and is usually counterproductive. If you have to think about that, you push your way out by getting on the left side and pushing.” 

Can Harrington describe what to do?

He could. 

“if you finish your golf swing, post it up on your left leg with the left leg straight, your chest up and high, slight little bit of arch, your right shoulder closest to the target, your head up in the air like that, you’ll probably have done all those other things correctly,” Harrington said in the video. “But remember, avoid the don’ts and try and get that lovely pose at the end and you’ll be doing everything — you’ll be doing it well enough to be a good golfer.”

Cameron Young’s post-Players press conference was an unexpected delight. Young has always been more interesting than he’s presented outwardly — there’s humor and perspective hiding beneath the beard — but even by those standards, this was a terrific showing. The glow of victory combined with the exhaustion of four days at TPC Sawgrass was an effective combination: Young was honest, direct, thoughtful, insightful. He even grinned a couple times.

I appreciated his forthrightness on several topics, including the specific challenge of executing under the gun down the stretch at one of the hardest, most chaotic finishes in golf.

One example: Just how hard was that tee shot at No. 17? Young offered two interesting details.

“You know, it is really hard. That wind was really difficult, downwind. I just so happened to have the best number you could have possibly asked for. I felt like if I hit just a full hard sand wedge it would carry that bunker by a yard or two, and trying to hit a softer gap wedge would have been a lot more difficult.”

It shows a certain humility when a winner has the self-awareness to credit good fortune for helping him get across the line.

Another admission: Young gave himself a pep talk before his tee shot at No. 18, tied for the lead with Matt Fitzpatrick, with death to the left and trouble to the right.

“My thought process over that ball is, one, making sure that I’m committed to my line, and two, the overarching thought is I’m going to hit the best shot of my life right here,” Young said. “I don’t know if I can think of one that’s better.”

Sure enough, he pummeled driver 375 yards down the right-center fairway — the longest drive in the recorded history of TPC Sawgrass’ 18th. (Downwind, yes. Still!) Preposterous.

So, is that a pep talk he gives himself often?

“No, honestly I don’t know if I’ve ever had that thought before,” he said. If he’s in a similar situation, I’d recommend he try it.

Young’s most vulnerable admission was perhaps his most interesting. After his playing partner — and only remaining competitor — Matthew Fitzpatrick missed his par putt at No. 18, Young suddenly had a one-foot putt to win. And he felt something sudden: sheer terror.

Just how nervous was he?

“I was really, really good until I had to make the eight-inch putt on the last hole, and I just about fell apart,” Young said. ShotLink recorded the final putt at 16 inches; we’ll split the difference and call it about a foot. Young struggled to put his ball down after re-marking it.

“I couldn’t get my line to point anywhere near the hole, and I went and hit it anyway, which maybe I shouldn’t have. But it went in, so all is well,” he said.

Pros have talked about this before, how short putts are the nerviest shot in golf because there’s no good outcome; everyone assumes you’ll make it and it’d be a disaster if you didn’t. Plenty of pros have missed remarkably short putts in similar circumstances. Young would have had company. Still, it showed a certain self-assuredness that Young was willing to admit his fear.

And now all is well indeed. Young is golf’s newest Players Champion, the owner of 4.5 million U.S. dollars, first-time entrant to the top 10 in the world ranking (and first time into the top five, if my math checks out — we’ll see on Monday morning) and certified winner. His future on Tour is secure, at least until the PGA Tour reshapes its future; he’s exempt on Tour through 2031 and he’s exempt into all four majors for the next three years. A year ago this time Young was outside the top 50 in the world. He’s ascendant, in every sense of the word.