Golf Tips for Beginners

How do we play golf as beginners? Are you a beginner looking for ways to get on the right path to enjoy the game and trying to get better at the game as soon as possible? Then you have come to the right place. This blog will go over everything from having the right equipment, learning the different golf clubs types, learning the different kinds of golf balls, having the proper attire for the golf course, creating a good stance, having good alignment, understanding the backswing, understanding the downswing through the ball, learning how to generate speed through the ball, and being able to adjust on the fly. Golf has many moving parts, so let me save you time and get you enjoying the game sooner.

Finding the Right Equipment

It is crucial to choose the right equipment. It helps us begin playing golf. If we are just starting, we would want to have more forgiving clubs, so it makes it easier to contact the ball. The differences between forgiving and unforgiving clubs like blades are so drastic; it is like having a Formula One car as your first car. The same goes for having the right shafts in your golf clubs and choosing suitable golf balls. Golf equipment is like tools in your toolbox at home. We would not take a hammer to a screw. That is why it is important to understand the right equipment to use.

How to Find the Right Golf Clubs

When first deciding on getting new clubs, I recommend getting fitted by a professional so they can help match you with the best clubs tailored to your swing. If you cannot get fitted, I recommend getting lighter shafts for irons to help generate more speed so you can hit the ball further. I recommend going with graphite shafts because they are much lighter than steel shafts. I’d also recommend having clubs with sets with more loft than traditional irons and woods. Even though you are swinging with graphite shafts when starting, generating enough spin to stop the ball on the greens is challenging. So to make the balls land and stay on the green, we need to increase the height that the ball comes down onto the green. I am not saying that you should solely focus on spinning the ball too much because then we lose out on too much distance. So you need to find a happy medium that suits your swing. We can call this happy medium the Goldilocks zone, where “it’s just right.”

Choosing Golf Balls

For golf balls, I recommend a softer ball and “spinnier” to help around the greens, and your approach shots with your items are wedges. This will allow you to help keep the ball on the green as well, and since we already can’t generate a lot of spin, we don’t have to worry about losing distance from having too much spin.

Wearing the Appropriate Attire

Attire typically consists of a collared shirt, cleats, golf pants, or shorts. You can have any style you would like, but I recommend having snug but flexible clothes, so they don’t interfere with our swing. The clothes you wear can be comfortable but just make sure everything is tucked in and not baggy. We shouldn’t dress like we’re in the early 2000s; those trends are over! I recommend purchasing comfortable cleats since we spend most of the day walking.

Watching your Stance

For beginners it is important to focus on your stance. Make sure you are in an athletic stance where your knees are slightly bent and your feet or at least shoulder width apart. When we are in our golf stance, you should be sturdy enough to where someone can’t push you over with a slight touch. For longer clubs like driver fairway woods, it is better to widen our stance past shoulder width so you can be more stable since you’re generating more speed and force with those clubs.

Finding The Right Grip

Having a good grip is important for our swing. This helps to minimize certain tendencies that our swings have. If we are slicing the ball, then our grip should be much stronger and by stronger I mean that our right hand (for righties) is moved towards the right side of the grip more, which will expose all our fingernails on our right hand. This will help to better score at the club face at impact. And then, if we want to weaken our grip, we would move it to the left side of the group to help open up the club face at impact. Once you find a group that you like and helps your swing, you should stick with it because it is challenging to work in a new grip.

How to Improve Your Alignment

Alignment is critical because it helps to get the ball starting on your intended line. To do so is to aim our feet, hips shoulders parallel to our target line. The ball will start right if we aim right at our intended target. If unaware of the poor aim, our bodies might subconsciously self-correct and create new bad habits. To help fix our alinement, place an alignment stick down the ground parallel to your target and make sure everything is lined up, square to that.

Controlling Your Backswing

 Since we have talked about our alignment and the proper grip in alignment, we are now ready to work on having a good backswing. The backswing is the wind-up of the shot. When trying to throw a ball, you have to wind everything back before you can throw it far. To have a good backswing, we must ensure that you turn your hips and shoulders back until they can’t go any further. The club should be an extension of our arms. To know how far your backswing is, stand up straight, put the club in front of you and turn as far as you can as if you’re taking the club back. Then we lean forward as if you’re standing over a golf ball, and as you look to where your club is, that’s how far you should take the club back.

Your Downswing Through The Ball

The downswing of the golf swing, is just letting your shoulders turn over to the other side and your hips, and you allow the club follows through into impact and onto the follow-through. I know that everyone, at times, is anxious and wants to hit the ball really far. We should not be trying to swing for the fences as if we are trying to impress the cart girl. To hit the ball really far, we must be relaxed and stable. This will ensure consistent strikes.

Learning To Accelerate Through The Ball

When people think of hitting the ball far, they think of hitting hard. Everyone wants a far distance like Bryson, but Bryson is built like an F250. So he has good technique and a lot of strength to put behind the ball. To hit the far, we must generate speed. For our bodies to generate the most speed, we must relax our muscles so they can be loose and quick. If we can relax our bodies to help create enough speed, we can impress the our playing partners.

Adjusting As You Go

There is no perfect golf swing, and we have a lot to improve on as a beginner. We may have tendencies that hurt our game, and the best thing to do is to adjust our swing and develop new techniques to help. Though we should not seek the perfect golf swing, we should seek the best swing that our body can produce.