Green Posse

So you want to start playing golf? Where do you start? How do you start? What’s it cost? Where do I play? What about golf clubs? Balls? Shoes? Over the next few weeks I’ll be tackling some basic beginner questions for those wanting to try the wonderful game of golf! First of all, what’s your motivation for getting started? It’s important because golf probably discourages more first-time players than any other sport, simply because it’s much harder than it looks! Not to worry though because once you get on the golf course with a little bit of instruction, you’ll be hooked forever.

So How Do You Get Started?

If you’ve never picked up a club before, ask a friend/relative for some very basic tips on how to grip the club and make a simple swing. That’s all you need to know for know. Don’t worry about trying to emulate Tiger Woods or Annika Sorenstam, just learn how to grip the club and swing.The second thing is to play some golf! You actually have a couple of options, depending on where you live and the size of your city. The first option is to see if you can find a driving range in your city or town. If so, head over there and do two things: 1. Rent some clubs (usually about $5.00). 2. Buy a bucket of balls. Then head over to the range (your driving range may have mats and/or grass to hit off of). Armed with the knowledge of how to grip and swing the club, take about a dozen practice swings with your 9-iron or pitching wedge before you attempt to hit a golf ball.

The biggest tip I can give you is that you do not need to try and lift the ball in the air with the golf club. Note the head of the club and how the angle is pointed slightly upward. The clubface determines how high and what angle the ball will leave the clubface at. Believe it or not, you actually want to hit DOWN on the ball. This will force the ball to roll up the face of the club and leave at the proper trajectory. Don’t get discourage if you miss the ball completely, or don’t make clean contact. It will take some practice to get a feel for the proper swing. Continue practicing with the pitching wedge and/or 9-iron. Once you’ve hit a few good shots with this club, move up to the 7 or 8-iron and hit more golf balls.

Next time I’ll expand a little more on the basic setup. For now, just enjoy hitting golf balls on the driving range and don’t set any expectations.

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