go and get some lessons and practice at the driving range for a little while. Then start playing on courses during non-peak times while continuing with lessons/driving range. A lot of golf is practicing, you can't just do it once a month and expect to get good. Lessons early will help and keep you away from bad habits.
Invest in a couple private lessons from a pro that is known for being a good beginner teacher (some pros don't teach beginners very well, and some ONLY teach beginners). Many pros cut a pretty good deal if you pre-pay for 4 -6 lessons. Having the basics down is key. A golf swing is NOT natural to learn and many people take baseball swings into a golf swing. You have to unlearn your old swings first, then learn the right golf swing. Join a player development plan. Many public and semi public courses have these plans for as low as $25-$40 a month. It usually includes unlimited range balls, weekly group lessons/drills, and greatly reduced green fees, particularly at non peak times. The group lessons will let a pro keep an eye on your swing and prevent bad habits from sneaking in. Play, play, play, then play some more. You get your repetition down on the range, short & putting greens, but to truly improve your score you have to play. In your first trip or two you'll be terrible, then on your second or third trip to the range/lesson you'll accidently rip a perfect shot and you'll be hooked for life. Its like heroin.
This is so true, and something I think most golfers just don't understand. Even the worst golfers will hit a perfect shot from time to time and even if it takes you 80-100 swings to get one, it doesn't matter. Once you hit that shot, that feeling you get will keep you playing, striving for the next one. Kind of like gambling right?
1. Buy Ben Hogan's book 'The five Fundamentals of Golf' 2. Get a used 7 iron and have your golf store put a training grip on it. 3. Spend one or two evenings a week this summer at a driving range seeing if you can grasp and the reproduce the concepts in the book until you can fairly consistantly make solid contact with your 7 iron. Make a lot of slow, half swings just trying to hit the 100 yard marker so you can feel what your swing is doing. 4. Enroll in a group lesson with a PGA professional. It's cheaper and all you really want to do is have a trained eye look at your swing. Many times what you think you are doing and what you are really doing aren't the same. Have the pro give you the PGA's pamphlet on golf etiquette. It may be written for kids but there are proprieties when you play with other people. 5. Read the 78 page Rules Of Golf. You may not understand all of it but not to even read it is unforgivable. 6. Start playing recreational golf with your friends. Don't fret too much, you won't be good and neither will they. It's OK to play bad, but it's not OK to play slow and hold up everyone behind you. Enjoy the great outdoors. 7. Practice as much as you can, you need to spend as much time practicing as playing. Find a course that has a short game practice area and spend as much time learning to chip, pitch, and putt as you spend banging drivers. You will start beating your friends. I got a job at a golf course at age 33 (there was no Land Planning going on at the time). For about 3 years I averaged practicing and playing about 15 hours a week. I went from an 18 handicap down to an 8. I was older and I am not particularly athletic. I've seen athletic, young people go from complete beginners to average players (18 handicap) in 6 months. A lot of it has to with eye-hand coordination, flexibility in your back and learning correctly instead of having to break bad habits. Hence, my suggestion of starting with a training grip. Bad grip technique is one of the most common things I see in players that really want to play but play poorly. The other is an over the top, outside-to-in swing plane.
i started playing golf about 6 months ago. i went to a golf shop and got a boxset of clubs. it came with 3-PW irons, 3 wood & 1 wood, and a putter. theyre absolutely a POS, but theyre good enough for any beginner. since then ive added some new wedges, and im considering getting some new irons soon. people suggest golf lessons, but i never got them mainly cuz i wouldnt have been able to afford them. the main thing as everyone has already said - practice practice practice until your hands bleed =p. spend time chipping/putting just as much on the driving range. you may first want to play on a par-3 course before a full size one.
