Basic Golfing Tips For Beginners: 1
Golfing has become phenomenally popular over the last 45 years, producing such world-class champions as Greg Norman, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods. Some first-class courses too have become household names; think of Wentworth, St. Andrews, Augusta and Pinewood.
Why has golf become so popular these days? Its the opportunity to be outside, to get a good whole body workout, network with friends or business colleagues at a leisurely pace, and to play a game that you can never play perfectly.
Your scorecard shows your progress, or lack of it, and this can spur you on to want to play again.
Here is a very basic lesson in golf for the person who hasn’t a clue about the game.
A round of golf is usually played on an eighteen hole course. Each hole has its ‘par’, which is the total number of tee shots (drives), fairway shots, chips (short shots near the ‘green’) and putts on the green, it should take to sink the golfball in the hole.
The par number is based on the length and difficulty of the hole. Pars range from 3 to 6. If you get the ball in the hole in five shots on a par five hole, you “made par.” If it took you six shots, its called a bogie, if you made it in four, its a birdie.
All the holes on a golf course will have at least one ‘hazard’ to make the game more challenging and therefore more interesting. These hazards are usually: sand traps, trees and bodies of water, which are set up in such a way as to be obstructive. A beginner at golf should seek out a course which has fewer and less obstructive hazards so it is easier to play.
Players keep their own score of the total number of shots taken for each hole. After the eighteenth hole, they add up their scores and the one with the lowest is the winner.
It is vital that beginners to golfing should not take the game too seriously, because it takes a very long time to play golf proficiently, even if the professionals on TV make it look so easy.
It makes very good sense to take a few lessons from the course pro, when you are just beginning to learn to play golf, because then you will learn how to stand and swing the golf club correctly.
