Beginners Golf

Assessing your level of commitment is very important before you begin your golf journey.  We call it a journey because the game of golf can never be conquered.  Along your path there will be times when you think you have found the secret of golf only to return the next round and wonder how the game could have deserted you so quickly.  The game of golf is an endless journey of discovery that will tell you alot about yourself.

If your commitment is to play serious competitive golf, then you need to set aside lots of time each week to practice skills development.  If your commitment is to play golf occasionally, and you are not willing to schedule practice time, then your expectations should be minimal.  It is very difficult to learn the game without making the right investment. 

As you move up the skills development ladder from basic skills to advanced skills, you will find the required investment in instruction and practice becomes significantly greater.   

Golf is an amazing game.  Golf is very unique, partly because the game is played outdoors and the conditions including the weather, the maintenance of the course, and the condition of the course left from the groups playing in front of you, can change from hole to hole and day to day.

Golf is a game perception verses reality, what you think is happening with your golf swing, generally isn’t.  If you stand behind a typical golfer and ask him to tell you what is happening in his/her swing, more times than not, "what they feel is not real".  This happens because the swing is made from the side of the ball and with a tilt of the spine towards the ground.  The ball is at rest which makes it different than all of the reaction sports like football, basketball, tennis, baseball, etc.

To become the best player you can be it is important to understand the fundamentals of golf.  Most people think the fundamentals of golf, are all swing related.  The fundamentals of golf include setup, grip, posture, and alignment. The list also includes the fundamentals of swing plane and sequence of motion. 

Learning how to play golf requires that you also learn the fundamentals of proper practice, golf course strategy, short game mastery, and the mental game.

Golf is a cause and effect sport.  Ultimately the best way to understand what is happening with your golf swing (cause) is to understand what your ball flight is telling you (effect).

Basically there are nine variations of ball flight:

• Three Trajectories – Low, Medium, and High
• Three Ball Flights – Left to Right, Straight, and Right to Left

Ultimately the cause of these ball flights is determined by what the club face is doing when it comes into contact with the ball.  This is called the impact position, the most important thing for you to consider when swinging a golf club.  The reason,  it does not matter what you look like or what positions the club takes away from and back to the ball. If the club face is square to the target line and coming into the ball on the right angle of approach at impact,  the ball will fly straight with the optimal trajectory.

As a beginner you should know that all great tournament and low handicaps players have learned the proper swing from a swing coach.  The reason is that is virtually impossible to identify what you are doing without a trained eye, video equipment, and golf analysis software.  Your local PGA Professional can give you beinner golf lessons that will teach you a simple swing resulting in  fairly predictable results.

If you insist on learning the golf swing without the help of a PGA pro, then consider these points:

• The "perfect swing" is a myth. Your goal is to find a simple swing that produces reasonably predictable results.  If you pursue the path of the perfect swing you will only find dissappointment.
• The average distance off the tee for  PGA Tour players in 2009 was 287 yards.  Only 12 of the 192 players averaged 300 yards off the tee.  Do not be fooled by promises of learning the 300 yard swing.  If it was that easy every Tour player would be hitting the ball that far.
• Learning a simple and effectice golf swing will take effort on your part.  Promises of teaching you a great golf swing in a matter of days or weeks should be dismissed for what they are.

Your desire to speed up this process and shoot lower golf scores is only natural.  Swing fads and quick fixes come and go but the fundamentals of playing great golf never change.  A golf game that finds success in a matter of days will break just as quickly.

This is probably going to sound simplistic to you but the next statement is the most important thing you should consider as part of your golf journey. 

The key to great golf is learning "How To Play Great Golf".

Golf fundamentals, the swing plane, and the sequence of motion in the golf swing are only the tip of the iceberg.  You know from science lessons the tip of the iceberg represents between 15 and 20 percent of it’s total size.  So it is with golf.

Golf’s great champions all know that pursuing a perfect swing is a waste of time.  They invest most of their time, energy, and talent learning how to play the game which includes; golf strategy, course management, mental golf, short game mastery, and how to practice.  The next time you go to a PGA Tour event, watch what "most" of the players are working on…it’s the short game and strategy.

Tiger Woods without his strategic and mental skills would be a fairly successful low handicap golfer.  Tiger woods without a perfect golf swing is the worlds best player and wins many tournaments.  Tiger has rebuilt his golf swing three times since joining the Tour.  During those rebuilding efforts his swing was marginally effective, by his standards, but he continued to win because he has superior strategic and mental skills. 

The golf swing is challenging and good shots for a beginner are few and far between.  Do not discourage…it will get better with good beginner golf instruction and practice.  There are more and better young golfers today because they get the proper instruction to start their skills development early in the process.  It is important to build the right foundation before trying to master golf’s more advance techniques and skills.

The ego is one of biggest obstacles to deal with for all golfers.  Your ego will want you to stand on the range for hours trying to bust drivers as far into the distance as possible.  We all go thru this, so its important to understand it and develop a strategy for controlling it.

Prioritize your efforts so that you make the most of your practice time.  Dedicate at least 60 percent of your time to chipping and putting practice.  You should find a driving range that has an attached chipping and putting area.  Do not take short cuts.  Eighty percent of your golf shots will be played from within 100 yards of the green. 

Most golfers make the 80/20 mistake.  They spend 80% of their practice time working on shots they will only use 20% of the time. You will only use a driver a maximum of 14 times in a round of golf so why spend all of your time busting drivers on the range?  The ego holds the answer to that question.

On every range there are guys hanging out who would love to tell you everything they know about golf and what you are doing wrong.  It is important for you to understand what your skills development issues are. It is equally important to stick with your improvement plan.  Your improvement plan should be in writing so that you can stayed focused on the tasks at hand.  Avoid taking advice from well wishers on the range.  If they really knew what they were talking about, they would be doing it for a living.  Stick with the advice of your PGA pro.

Stay focused on the task at hand…"learning to play golf", not chasing the perfect swing.  Limit your initial learning experience to  golf tips for beginners focused on the total game. 

StrategicGolfer has the Ebooks, golf instructional videos, golf tips for beginners, and online golf articles to help you become the best player you can be.  We teach a balanced approach to learning golf including all of the fundamentals, strategy, the mental game, and how to practice.

Play Golf Basics is an E-book designed to help aspiring golfers with the fundamentals of  "How To Play Golf".  Play Golf Basics is 83 pages packed with 121 high resolution color photographs and 24 illustrations focused on "Playing The Game" and includes instruction on these topics:

• Golf Swing Fundamentals
• Golf Swing Sequence
• Golf Swing Positions (back swing and down swing)
• Golf Strategy Lessons
• Short Game Tips
• Mental Toughness
• How To Practice

Play Golf Basics is included as a free gift with all product purcahses