Having good tempo is a big key to playing great golf. Many amateur golfers will struggle with their tempo at least some of the time. This leads to inconsistency and a variety of problems can occur. Good tempo in the golf swing will help a golfer to swing on a better path and this will also happen more naturally.
Here are some of my top keys to swinging with good tempo:
Slow your swing down in the right places. Whenever I tell a student to slow their swing down, I always make sure they understand that overall we want to slow down, but it's still important to accelerate through impact. The last thing I want happening is someone decelerating through impact because they are trying to slow their swing down. It's important to understand that the golf swing is a gradual building or progression of speed and the club should be accelerating correctly through the impact zone.
It's helpful to start the swing out smoothly in the backswing, then be smooth at the top in the transition, and smooth starting the downswing. Once the club is about halfway in the downswing this is the point where you want it to start picking up speed and continue accelerating through impact.
A good way to check if you are accelerating through impact is to make sure you are getting to your full follow through position. If a golfer isn't making a full follow through, it's likely they are decelerating through impact.
Even though we want the club to be accelerating through impact, you want to make sure it's not going too fast. A good way to tell if you are swinging too fast at any point in the swing is to check and see if you have a sense or feeling of where your club is at all times. If you are swinging too fast through impact, you will lose this feeling of where the club is. That's a good way to tell if you're swinging too fast.
Golf is a balance and there are a lot of things that can be overdone one way or the other. The key to good golf is having a balance of correct fundamentals and not getting too far off in either direction. We don't want a swing that's too slow or too fast, we just want to have the right amount of speed.
Having good tempo will help your golf swing be more effective and efficient. Your ball striking and consistency will also improve and you'll be on your way to lower scores.