I know that’s like saying “teach me nuclear physics” but in June I am going to be a part of a golf tournament (don’t worry, it’s VERY informal) and it has been a good 15 years since I have played. I am not completely ignorant to the game, I know the rules and have watched enough golf to be able to mimic someone to get a good stance/follow through I will have access to clubs and will head to the driving range sometime in the near future, but there are just some things I don’t know.
What is the difference between an iron and a wood? when do I use them? what happens to the ball when I do?
What’s the difference in numbers between each club?
IIRC the way to get a ball left or right is to angle my wrists when I am hitting the ball no?
If anyone else has any tips or tricks for me to use please tell me!
Oh boy! Not sure if I should tackle this, but here goes a crash course, according to me.
“Woods” are generally no longer made of wood although you might find some “wood” Woods in garage sales. These a typically designed to make the ball go further, (and as a consequence, harder to hit). Woods have a bigger head than irons and they have a longer shaft.
Smaller numbers means the club face closer to perpendicular to the ground, and it will be harder to get the ball airborne. A properly struck shot with a 5 iron will go further than a properly struck 9-iron which will go higher.
Goto a driving range, and try to find someone that give you the fundamentals. Maybe you find a beginners class from a local Pro. or you have a golfing friend that can spare a hour or two for a few nights. I think it is important not to try it alone and get somebody who knows what they are doing.
Simplest advice I can give you is golf is a game of opposite. You hit the ball with a descending blow to make it go high. You hit the ball right to go left, and hit the ball left to go right.
Start out will only a few clubs. Recommendation a 3-wood, 5 iron, 7 iron, 9 iron, putter is all a beginner really needs.
You should a 3-wood to tee off, the irons from the fairway and a putter on the green. I also recommend that a beginner use a tee on all fairway shots (not legal in competition) until they get to the green.
golf is a difficult game, and is not a natural instinctive movement.
Have fun, and most importantly, get someone who know what they are doing and don’t listen to anyone on an internet message board. Including me.
You’re not going to be able to figure it out on your own, no matter how much advice and written instruction you get. As notfrommensa said, the swing is counter-intuitive. The money you would spend hitting 20 buckets of balls on the driving range would be much better spent on a couple of lessons from a PGA pro (which means a pro from your local course, not a PGA tour player.)
There’s a reason why the PGA Tour pros have swing coaches, short game coaches, and putting coaches - these guys can work miracles. One half hour lesson from a driving range pro is worth more than ten hours on the range by yourself.
Ahem. clears throat I suck at golf, but the tip that went the longest for me was to keep my head down. You might think you’re done, but just keep it down there. It’s really hard, actually.
Disregard any further advice. This is the answer. A group lesson at a local golf course will teach you many, many important things at a reasonable cost. There is no other way to learn golf than to have someone show you what to do, as descriptions do not allow you to judge what you are doing wrong.
Three top tips from a wannabe golfer who can list the number of actual rounds of golf he’s played on 1.5 hands
Keep your head down (i.e. keep looking at the spot where the ball was for a moment after you hit it, let your partners watch where it goes)
Follow through (i.e. keep swinging after you’ve hit the ball)
Let the club do the work (i.e. don’t try and hit it hard, it is better to be short and straight than hit the ball far into the trees)
I second the advice to obtain instruction from a competent person.
You’ll do well to resolve to use the orthodox hand position when gripping a club. It’s an unnatural grip that not one person in 10,000 will get right on his own.
“Keep your head down” is the short version of “Keep your head as near as possible to motionless during the entire swing”.
First, I’d like to counsel you against taking up the game. The sensation from hitting a ball perfectly is wonderful: pure, delightful, and seemingly effortless. You will, however, play many a shot without getting that sensation. I remember going through an entire bucket of balls and only getting that feeling once, if at all. Oh, but when I did… If you play slot machines, the dynamic is similar, and about as addictive. Easier, and less frustrating, to just not take up golf in the first place.
If you still insist on learning the game, then, like the other posts, I recommend finding a reputable pro. Stick with them. Don’t shop around, once you’ve settled on a pro. Once you have settled on a pro, for Og’s sake, trust them. The golf swing is not a natural motion. It will feel extremely weird to you for a long time until you get used to it. Trust your pro and not your body, at least at first. Do ask questions though; a good pro should be able to anticipate most of them and guide you through your puzzlement. (Or he could just be a complete, close-minded dick, like the community college instructor I first learned the game from. Which is a reason due diligence in finding a pro is so important.) \
I am a mediocre golfer, but even I recognize that there isn’t “one true golf swing”, and different pros have different ways of getting their pupil to achieve the desired result. Ledbetter’s The Golf Swing, Nicklaus’s Golf My Way, and McCord’s Golf For Dummies: all are great books, with different (much different in many cases) swing keys, ideas, concepts of the golf swing. And all are valid. So, you’ll find it much less confusing to learn one way from one coach. Just make sure that it’s a good coach, who’ll teach you a right way.
I have never had the funds to pursue individually fitted clubs. (I’ve had to learn from assorted hand me downs and gleanings; it doesn’t help your game.) And I don’t know how you fit an absolute beginner, as I’m sure that one’s address position changes as you learn the game (for one thing, learning how to address the ball to begin with.) But, I think that getting your pro to fit your clubs could only be beneficial. I don’t have a pro—the whole funds thing again—and I think that my play would be much better and I would have spent less practice time and money, if I had only started out with some good consistent lessons.
Re-reading the OP, I seemed to have answered a different question than the one being asked.
I’ll try again. If you’re just trying to get through a charity golf tournament, then the first thing I’ll say is to relax. It’s not that serious—though you do want to be in tune with etiquette—you’re there to have fun. Do buy Golf For Dummies, as the book goes through golf etiquette and basic strategy very very well, IMHO. Do what notfrommensa says, and:
From personal experience, it is no fun at all if you can’t get the ball in the air and downrange in the rough direction of the hole. Higher lofted clubs help with both of those things. (During one round, where my swing totally abandoned me, I ended up playing the last 10 holes tee to green with an 8 iron, because that was the only club I didn’t top the ball with or slice out of bounds…I love this game!) OTOH, they don’t strike the ball as far. You will have more fun hitting the ball 180 yds, but in the fairway, much more than hitting it 250 yds rarely, but always in the rough. Or out of bounds, or in the water, etc… As far as intentionally hitting the ball with a left or right curve, my advice is don’t. You will have a hard enough time getting the ball consistently in the air, in the direction you want it to go, and having it carry a given distance; trying to draw it or fade it will just be confusing and give you too much to worry about.
And play a few practice rounds before the tournament. Actually playing golf, even with a tee from the fairway or rough, has a much different feel than hitting the same shot over and over from a range. Each time, the ball’s higher or lower, your body is facing sidehill, uphill or downhill, etc… Get used to that sensation before your tournament and you’ll have a much better time. Also, actually playing will help you with your etiquette and rhythm—who grabs the flagstick, where to walk on the green, when to walk, etc…
So lump together some things that people have said without actually quoting:
Aside from the fact that it’s a game, and it’s something I can actively compete in I am not really looking to “take up the game”. Every year there is a charity golf outing set up in my deceased uncles name…it’s mostly a family and Marquette (where he taught) thing and I basically just want to play. I am getting my own clubs for them (I am a left and have no lefty friends to borrow from) so I will probably go off and play on my own from time to time.
I will have to look around a bit but I am having a hard time thinknig that the courses up here actually have pros/classes. Muncie Indiana isn’t the biggest of areas, but I am sure I can find something.
If this thread is still alive I will bump it to let everyone know what my clubs actually are (I should be getting them soon if not this weekend) and that might help some. Otherwise I’m gonna look for that golf pro, hit some balls, play a round and tell you all how horribly I did!
As Gray Ghost says - tune into the etiquette. And yeah, Golf for Dummies isn’t bad for that.
Know when to not talk. Know when to hit. Know when to not hit. Know where to walk and not walk. Know when to pick up your ball and just let everyone move on.
That’s really the biggest thing. Golfers will generally be patient with someone who doesn’t golf, but is well mannered about it. Someone who talks through your backswing, walks across your line, and takes twenty swings to reach the green…
I’d rather play with someone who shoots 100 and knows the etiquette than play with someone who’s a scratch golfer and can’t keep their mouths shut when I’m addressing the ball.
I am a lefty too, but play right handed. Due to the quirks of the golf swing, the club sits in both hands, but your left hand “does most of the work.” You can think of your right hand as being along for the ride, to some extent. (Not surprising to learn I play more of a fade than a draw) Consequently, I found it much easier as a lefty to play golf right handed, than I did to say, write with a pencil right handed. There’s certainly much more right-handed golf equipment available. I don’t know whether a lefty should learn to play left-handed, but it’s not the end of the world if you have to learn how to hit right handed.
Most golf courses and driving ranges have pros. They may be busy selling shirts/tees/balls, but they’re usually there. Alternately, every range I’ve been to has a bulletin board with the usual array of ads touting instruction or selling equipment.
I never play in tournaments, or for money, so I just cheat a lot. Life is too short for me to spend 10 minutes and 3 shots trying to find my ball and hit it out of the bushes. I’m also not dropping it in a puddle or mud, if I’m taking a stroke and dropping the ball, it’s going in a place where I can get a decent swing.
One important thing to get a handle on when you get your lessons is how far you hit each club. The course will have markers on the ground telling you how far you are from the center of the green, use those to judge what club you want to use. I tend to pick short, since it’s a royal pain to try and find a ball that went over the green.
Oh, all the courses will have a teaching pro. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered one that didn’t. Often times they don’t even get paid by the course - they make their money selling merchandise, renting carts, and teaching lessons. If the course has a pro shop, there’s a PGA pro running it. Anyone can be a PGA pro if you take the required coursework. There is a playability test, but you don’t have to break par to pass it. The PGA teaches the pros how to run a golf shop and teaches them to be teachers. The municipal course I play at has three of them.
I don’t agree with the “tee it up in the fairway” advice. It is against golf etiquette, and it doesn’t help you learn how to play. In addition, if your team happens to play well and actually finish in the money, they’d be bound by the rules of golf to disqualiry themselves. So it isn’t fair for your teammates.
It is not like a baseball swing. Visualize it like coiling and uncoiling. Focus on returning to your starting point. Accelerate through the bottom. THe wind up is window dressing for the important part of the swing, the last foot of downswing. Keep the backswing slow and under control. Moving rapidly will take you out of line.
