Beginners Guide to Golf
If you have never gone golfing before there are so many things to learn. It can be difficult to grasp things like golfing etiquette, what equipment you need to golf with as well as how to golf properly and effectively.
When you are first starting to golf, it can start to seem quite overwhelming due to there being so many different aspects to the game and so many small rules that you need to pay attention to.
The nice thing about golf is that you don’t necessarily have to play by professional rules each and every time you play. In fact, it is just as fun to go out and play games such as best ball and just have a good time.
Golfer’s Etiquette:
The first thing that you are going to want to learn; especially if you are going to be golfing with other people is proper golf etiquette. The first thing that you should know about golf is that you don’t hit out of order.
Normally the person who has the ball the farthest away from the pin shoots first and at the tee-off, it is initially your decision as to who gets to drive the ball first.
When someone else is hitting the ball it is important to make sure that you aren’t talking or making noise; be as silent as possible as it is deemed improper and inappropriate to make noise when someone else is shooting the ball.
When you are on the green it is important to have a marker so that you can mark where your ball landed so that you don’t interfere with someone else’s shot.
These are the most general common courtesy principles that all golfers abide by and they are definitely something that you should be aware of.
Equipment Overview:
The next thing that you are going to want to know about golf is the type of equipment that you need in order to play the game.
The most important pieces of equipment are a golfer’s clubs. Generally speaking, there are three different types of clubs in a golfer’s bag. These clubs include irons, drivers as well as a putter.
A driver is used at the tee-off in order to hit long-distance shots and requires the use of a tee so that you can set the ball up high enough in order to hit it properly in the sweet spot of the driver.
The next type of club that is generally used is an iron. An iron is used for mid-range shots also known as chip shots and is used occasionally from a tee off but mostly is used off of the grass on the fairway.
The last club is a putter which is a club that will have a flat face that you can use while on the green in order to attempt to hit the ball into the hole.
Equipment specifics:
Without going into extreme detail in order to confuse, a golf club regardless of size or origin will have a letter or a number on it in order to represent what type of club it is.
This is a great way to tell if you are using an appropriate club for the distance that you need to shoot the ball. Golf clubs will generally be numbered as one through to nine and you will occasionally see a number ten club as well.
The lower the number of the club, the farther the club will hit the ball regardless of whether the club is a driver or whether it is an iron. A one-wood is going to be your top driver and generally speaking, a three-iron is going to be your top and farthest hitting iron.
As you go down in clubs they will have more loft and they will have less distance. You will likely notice that a set of clubs comes with a couple irons that are labeled with a P or an S or an SW on the club.
The S and SW club is known as a sand wedge.
This club is great for hitting your club out of hazardous areas such as sand, water and mud and although it may not hit the ball a great distance, it is going to give you some loft and allow you to get out of bad areas on the course.
A pitching wedge allows for a high hit as well and is generally used when you are a little too close to be using a nine iron in order to make the chip to the green.
Scorekeeping:
Generally, each golf course that you go to will have their own scorecard that will tell you directly on the card how many pars each of the holes are as well as the number of yards they are.
These scorecards will come with pencils and have blanks inside them for you to write the names of each of the players that you are golfing with in order to keep track of your score.
A par on a scorecard is the number of hits that the hole is expected to take a golfer in order to put the ball into the hole. If you get under the number on the scorecard by one or more hits then this is considered to be a good thing.
Par is also a good thing to get unless you are considered to be a professional or a really good amateur golfer in which case it isn’t quite as special.
Once you complete a hole you simply have to write down the number of hits that it took you to finish it and do this throughout the duration of the first nine holes.
At this point, there should be a blank at the end of your names in order to add up your scores.
You should also find a score that is par for the total of the first nine holes added up that you can compare your totals to in order to find out if you are over or under par for the first nine holes.
The lower you are under par the better. You will find the same thing for the last 9 holes on a course or however many holes remain on the course. The person with the lowest score at the end of a game wins.
Penalties:
Unfortunately, you cannot just count the number of times that you hit a ball towards your overall score. If you hit a ball and it lands in a bush and you cannot hit the ball out of the bush this adds an additional stroke to your score when you are tallying up.
Another thing that adds to your score is if you land the ball in the water. This is also considered a plus one onto your tally as you will have to place a new ball.
It is important to be aware that there are no rules that prevent you from hitting your ball out of hazardous areas and you may actually be better off hitting out of the area rather than taking a stroke for your shot and placing a ball somewhere in a more appropriate area.
Golf Ball:
Different golf ball manufacturers display the specs of their golf balls by different means and often times it is fairly technical. Most manufacturers will put some kind of a label on the golf ball which you should always try and find before choosing a ball out of your bag.
Generally speaking, this label will be the best way to be able to tell what type of ball you are using as well as the type of shots that the ball is meant to be used for.
There are tons of different labels that you are going to run into. For example, you are going to see soft balls that aren’t meant for distance and you will even find balls that are meant to help get rid of a golfers slice.
One of the best things you can do to be prepared for golf is to make sure that you have an array of different balls that you can choose from so that you have an advantage for each and every hole on the course right from the start.
If you start to perform badly with one ball it is definitely nice to be able to switch it out and choose another one.
Hopefully, after reading this guide you have a better overall understanding of the game of golf and you will be able to follow some of the rules in order to golf properly with the majority of people.
Remember that if you plan on doing any kind of a competition it never hurts to ask if they have a rule book available.
Not everyone does play exactly by the rules and you will want to be aware of the things that you may encounter in your competition and you especially want to be aware of the things that are disallowed. Best of luck out on the golf course and good luck learning the game!
