There are lots of points you have to pay attention to in your golf swing. By that, I mean the points that make your golf swing work. There are likely more than one or two. I have six.

What I’m getting at today is that you don’t have to exaggerate any of them. Don’t overdo them. Just hit each mark in a relaxed way as you proceed through the swing, and you will be just fine.

Harvey Penick said it well when he advised us in his Little Red Book that if he asks you to take an aspirin, please don’t take the whole bottle.

The hands lead the clubhead going into the ball? Just by a few inches. Not by a whole foot.

Retain your lag at the start of the forward swing? Yes, just at the start. Don’t hold on for dear life all the way into the ball.

And so on.

Another way to put it is that when you swing the club, a beginner watching you should say, “That looks so easy to do!”

They shouldn’t think, “Oh, my. I could never do that.”

I think the hardest part of the golf swing is learning how to keep the clubface square. This is how I practice it.

I use a driver. This club is, in my opinion, the easiest club to hit because we are standing the most upright. It is therefore the club to use when you are learning how to keep the clubface square.

I pay lots of attention to my grip and to how I take the club away. From there, it’s figuring out how to swing without upsetting the clubface’s alignment.

How do you do that? Because everybody is different, I can’t say. Either make it your own exploration, or get a lesson(s). Hint: If the clubface is still square at the end of your backwing, you’re ninety percent there.

Once you have the matter figured out, transfer that swing to the rest of your clubs, always referring back to the driver as you do. Let you driver bleed into your 5-iron, not the other way around.