The worst advice that I hear given to amateur golfers on a daily basis is, “keep your head down.” Most beginner and intermediate golfers top the ball or hit thin and are repeatedly told they “lifted their head.” I actually see more topped and thin shots come from bent arms and scooped wrists than from lifted heads. I’ve had students actually drop their head downswing and still top the ball because of how they used their arms and hands, and then say verbally they must have lifted their head. Rather than working on keeping the head down, these players should work on extending their arms downswing while releasing their wrists on time rather than early.
The danger of telling someone to keep their head down is that they tend to over-exaggerate and then don’t properly rotate through the shot. They often stare at the ground too long and finish incomplete. The head needs to rotate on the follow through to allow the body to fully rotate. The better saying would be to “keep your eye on the ball,” so that when the ball leaves the head rotates toward the target. Another better saying would be “stay in posture” because it is fine to rotate the head toward the target immediately after impact as long as you stay in posture. The beginner golfer tends to either stare at the ground too long or lose posture to look at the target rather than maintain the spine angle while turning their head. I look forward to getting the saying “keep your head down” out of the game of golf!