Golf Tips: Beginner's Guide To Golf

When you watch a Tiger Woods or Michelle Wie teeing off on the greens, on television, golf seems such a simple game. There is that club, with which you hit a small white ball as far as you can, to put it in a hole. And, you also get four or five tries at it. So what's the big deal? Why do Tiger Woods and his ilk earn in millions just doing that? Aah, but golf, like any other fine art, is far more complicated than it looks, and it usually takes years of dedicated practice in order to break par (the standard number of strokes that is set for each hole, or for the whole course), and we are not even talking about those birdies (a score of one stroke under par on a hole)! Hence, if you are a beginner here are few golf tips for you:

Begin With the Gear
One of the most perplexing things for beginners is deciding on which club to use for which shot. The best thing to do when you are starting out is to stick to just a few clubs, using only those. After you practice a little, you will get the feel of what is required, understanding the differences between each club. Also, don't be in a hurry to buy any of the gear. Try borrowing clubs from your friends, or you could rent them from golf pro shops. It's best not to get too caught up with the gear at first. For a beginner, basic stuff is quite enough. Once you are sure that golf is something you would really like to be into, then you can go ahead and get golfing gear of your own. By this time, you will also know what you will need.

Tips On Grips
How to grip the club is another bewildering thing for most beginners. Is there a perfect way to grip the club? Well, try this one. Both your hands should work like a single unit, each palm facing the other, as if joining your hands to pray. In order to check this out, get into the starting position, standing with your feet apart with your knees slightly bent, and then just bend your wrists and lift the club-head up. If you find that you can swing the shaft up straight, to the middle of your head, without the angle of the face changing, that means you have a good grip. And while performing this action see that the face of the club-head is still pointed straight. If that is so, it means that you are applying equal pressure from each hand.

Get Your Alignment Right
One method you can try for checking if your alignment is right, or to correct it, is using two old shafts and placing one on the ground, a few inches on the other side of the ball, aimed at your line of target. Now take your starting position, checking with another shaft to see whether your feet and hips are parallel to the line of target. Then, stick the second shaft into the ground, about 3-4 feet behind your back foot at the same angle as your club at address (the address is the position you take at the beginning, with the golf club grounded, and you have not begun the golf swing yet). Try out the exact position, until it is placed in such a way that you miss it by a few inches on your way back and through. You can get a good idea of the plane of your swing by taking it back slowly and looking at the gap between the two wherein you can get it at exactly the right angle. Then, you can stand behind the ball and pick a tee about 2-3 feet in front of the ball and in your line of target. That and the ball ought to form a line that is parallel to the shaft on the ground. Now, all you need to do is swing according to that line to hit the ball.

Get Your Balance Right
The best way to get the right balance while swinging is to keep practicing the swing. Each time you swing, feel how how your weight moves during the swing. You should feel the force of the push while coming down and through the region of impact, and then feel the weight shifting into the foot in front.

Practice Makes Perfect
One of the best ways of improving your skill at striking the ball is to use a torn up portion of the teeing ground at your range to hit the balls from. By training yourself to do this, when playing at the fairway you will find that the ball will seem as though it is teed up. Plus, you will get the added advantage of being immune to bad lies in courses where the ground is not at its best.

Use Visualization
The best way to use visualization to perfect accuracy in landing the ball is to use trees, or flags, or anything else on the range to create the boundaries of an imaginary fairway, although narrower than the actual one. Now, practice hitting shots staying within those boundaries. When you get to the point wherein you are able to hit your shots within the boundaries, in combination with a routine that you can repeat, you are well on your way to play even under pressure.

Correcting That Slice
A good method of combating slicing the ball is by putting a small mark behind the ball, in the opposite direction of the target. When you take your swing, see that all your attention is focused on that spot until after you hit the ball. You will find that it will be hard to hit over the top when you do this.

Correcting Your Hook
One of the chief reasons that most people hook is because the weight of their body remains on the rear foot or even shifts back during the downward movement of the swing. One way to combat this is to consciously stamp down on the foot in front when you hit the ball. Basically, you need to concentrate on shifting your weight forward at the moment of impact.

Tips For Putting
Putting is probably one of the most important skills you will need to develop. You need to master the pace, first of all. You can do this by practicing acquiring a smooth rhythm of putting. There are no particular rules about addressing the ball, just keep practicing until you get a reliable and smooth stroke. However, while putting, never use your wrists. By using just the your arms and shoulders you will be able to control the distance you hit the ball far more easily. Also, avoid looking up until the ball has rolled to a distance of at least six feet.

Of course there is much more to golf than these tips. For those who want to seriously get involved in the sport, getting coached by a professional coach is the best way to go about it – unless, of course, you have grown up on the greens like Tiger Woods!