Golf Tips for Beginners--Feel Like a Newbie on the Course?

If you're new to the game of golf and and tired of borrowing or renting clubs it might be time to buy your own set.

Golf clubs can be expensive, so there are few things that you will want want to consider before making the investment.

If your not looking to play more than a few times a year don't bother trying to find a some expensive set of clubs that will never get used.

You might want to think about buying a used set of clubs. Buying used is a great way to go if your not really that serious about the game.

If your really enthusiastic and are planning on playing often, you might want to think about investing in a nicer set of clubs.

Figure out how much your willing to spend. If you're going to be taking lessons, or practicing at the driving range a few times a week, a new set of clubs might be right for you.

Plus, a new set of clubs may give you a little more incentive to get out and play more often.

If you're planning on spending some money on a set of clubs, make sure to get your self fitted for clubs.

Everyone is a different shape and size, so your clubs will be longer or shorter depending. Most teachers will know how to fit you for clubs and will have a few suggestions as to the brand or type of clubs you should purchase.

If you're more on the frugal side, but are still planning on playing often, there are still many good alternatives out there without breaking the bank. You can find quality used sets everywhere. Look at garage sales, ebay, even some sporting goods stores may have refurbished sets for sale. You might find a set that has hardly been used for half the price of a new set.

Do you have friends or family that play golf? Be sure to ask around and find out what the experts think. They might know where to go to find bargain clubs, and can probably steer you in the right direction as to what kind of clubs you will need.

It's a good idea for absolute beginners to start with a set called game improvement clubs. Game improvement clubs sets have hybrid woods and parameter weighted irons that are much easier to use when starting out. Try these for a while and graduate up to a full set when your ready. You can always sell the your game improvement set when your ready to move on.

The game of golf is challenging, and if your just starting out, chances are you're going to go through a lot of balls. Developing a good swing should be your first priority before heading to the course.

More expensive balls do have their advantages, but when your just starting stick with something a that's not going to break the bank.

Here are a few tips to get cheap golf balls when you're first starting out:

The first step is to get started on the driving range where you can perfect your swing, and use the range balls provided at the driving range.

You can buy these by the bucket from any golf range and are generally pretty inexpensive. These are probably the lowest quality of ball you can find, but that doesn't matter when all you trying to do is hit the ball in a straight line in the first place.

Practice using all the different types of clubs, until you get the feel for each, especially the driver. The driver can be the most difficult club to master, and you may go through a lot of balls while learning how to use it.

At most sporting goods stores you can find balls called X-outs. These balls had some sort of flaw along the manufacturing line, and are marked with an X over the brand to show they are flawed in some way. The majority of the flaw on these balls are cosmetic, so they will hit just as well as if you paid full price.

Go online and look for the major golf stores. Most of these companies rotate out new and old brands often and sell them in their closeout bin. The discontinued brand is usually sold for really inexpensive prices.

Most online golf shops, and pro shops at golf courses sell used balls. When you're just starting out there is no shame in using old balls. Even middle line golf balls can be expensive, so when you're starting out this may be the cheapest route to take.

Refurbished golf balls are balls that have been cleaned up and repackaged by the seller. They are a little pricier than the straight used ball you will find at the pro shop, but much cheaper than buying new balls from virtually any company. This could be a good option once you're at the point where your not losing half you balls on each hole.

Many brands offer lower priced new ball packs for under $20 dollars per dozen. If you don't want to buy used balls, this could be a good option. These balls are still of decent quality and have many of the benefits of more expensive balls.

There is no action in golf less understood than the use of the wrists, for curiously enough we do not have to work them, but we have to let them work themselves like the hinges on a door.

This is important because the wrists will only be used correctly when we have the right idea of their correct mechanical action. If we get the wrong idea, the opening of the wrists in the region of the ball is bound to be mistimed. You will never get perfect timing if you try to flick the club head through the ball by wrist and hand action -- perfect timing will come only when the opening of the wrists is brought about automatically by the momentum of the whole swing.

To put it in another way, the movements of the feet, legs and hips belong to the active, intentioned part of the down swing; the opening of the wrists belongs to the passive, purely reactive part of it. So keep at the forefront of your mind that the hands and wrists do not and must not "nip the club head through the ball."

The trouble in learning to let your wrists open themselves (which is what they must do) is, that at the top of the swing, the club head seems so far from the ball that you feel that, if you do not help it down with wrist and hand action, it will never get there -- or will get there so late as to make a horrible slice. The result is that you do work your wrists, you come down too soon, and pull instead of slicing! Low ground shots to the left are most frequently due to this premature and faulty wrist action.

Now this feel of the club head being a long way from the ball and a long way from your left side is actually a most desirable one. Register it in your "feel" cabinet, and if you can widen the gap between the club head and your left side, do so. You can never get it too wide. The gap means that you are "coming down one after another."

Personally I detest the word "flick". Apart from being an anaemic conception anyway, it suggests a local effort where there should be none. That is why teachers now prefer the word "flail" to describe the function of the wrists. You know the flail with which the peasant threshes his corn -- two sticks connected by a free link -- and you know he could not apply the same power anything like so effectively with a single solid stick. Well, your wrists are the link of the flail, the club the threshing stick.

Another image that has helped some of my pupils to visualize the development of a correct swing is that (in this section of the swing) our arms and the club form a fan -- the line of the left arm being one edge of the fan, the club being the other. The two are pivoted together by the wrists and (like the two edges of an

Centered on Wrist Action

The arc, or pivot of the club (actual fan) may be shut close together or opened out at quite a wide angle. We open the fan partially on the up swing, complete the opening at the beginning of the down swing -- and snap together again some two feet or more past the ball.

The hands and wrists are passive agents, they are not free agents -- they do not decide in which direction they shall go. They go in the arc set out for them by the turning of the pivot. This is true of the up swing as well as the down. The pivot not only provides the power, it also controls direction -- guiding the club head in its correct plane through the ball. That is why a good pivot is so important.

But we must not forget that we are going to learn golf by feel. So here is a little exercise that will teach you to detect and ever afterwards to recognize the difference between feet activity and hand activity at the beginning of the back swing.

Take up your normal stance before the ball. Then without movement of feet, pivot, shoulders, or arms, take the club head back a full three feet entirely by wrist and hand movement. Note the feel. Then re-address the ball (being careful this time to keep your left arm and the club shaft in a straight line from shoulder to club head). Now turn your body around from the knees only until your club head is a yard back again -- making no use of any movement above the hips. Note the entirely different feel.

Please do not think that I am making an undue fuss about a trifle in going to such lengths to introduce you to the right feel at the beginning of the swing. I will go so far as to say that your progress will be very largely decided by whether or not you get this back swing right -- once you get the correct feel of the carry back, you will find the rest of the swing flowing from it naturally. So, do study this feel quite profoundly. Properly considered it is the whole golf feel, because this initial carry back is the whole swing in embryo.

Finding A Golf Instructor Versed In Left-Handed Golfers

The world is geared toward right-handed people, since the majority of people tend to be right handed. This means that under most circumstances special provisions must be made for left-handed people. That is true for most sports (think about baseball) and especially for golf. In fact, it can be very difficult to find someone for left handed golf instruction.

How can you benefit from instruction when you can't even work with someone who has the same dexterity as you? You can't possibly follow a coach who is showing you how to do everything right-handed, can you? As a beginner golfer, what can you do to work out this situation? Is there left handed golf instruction available?

One thing to do is to inquire at your local golf course. Ask them if there are any instructors who are left handed and can gear their lessons toward left handed golf instruction. Often, golf clubs will have information on those instructors who specialize in left-handed students. Aside from everything being in reverse, it is quite common for left-handed golfers to experience several other handicaps that don't affect right-handers.

For example, the angle of a course is generally laid out from the point of view of someone right-handed. Therefore, the typical slice or angle that you put on the ball as a left-handed golfer could easily knock you out of bounds or into the rough without the proper correction. Left-handed golf instruction can help to correct these issues, teaching you how to maintain a stance and a swing that will allow you to follow the course with your ball as easily as a right-handed swinger.

If you can't find a local source for left handed golf instruction, you may want to do a search on the Internet. You might find a name of an instructor nearby who can help you. If not, you can certainly find instructional videos online that will help you improve your golfing ability so that you don't have so many of the inherent disadvantages caused simply because you are left-handed.

Make your life easier. While it's unfair that the world gears everything toward right-handed individuals, it is still a fact of life that you must deal with. Instead of living with the handicap that this presents, especially in a sports activity like golf, where you are paying a lot of money for your entertainment, do something about it.

Find an instructor with experience in left handed golf instruction. He or she will help alleviate the disadvantages presented to you on the golf course, and you can become even a better golfer than all of your right-handed friends.

It's Harder to Break Bad Habits - So Learn/Do it Right, from the Start

When we grip the golf club we do not want to lose traction. We want a firm grip.

We do not want to be so tight that the muscles of the arms and shoulders are intimately linked.. Not at all. But we want both hands tight on the club.

What, you ask, about the wrists? If they are tight, won't the golf swing be too be stiff and wooden?

And how will I get my wrist break?

The body should be slightly bent from the waist but the shoulders shall be rounded or hunched. The head should be down and not to an excessive degree. The right shoulder, of course, will be lower than the left because the right hand is lower on the tree to the left hand.

We have rarely seen someone too rigid or too tight, swinging a golf club (except perhaps to frighten beginners), but we saw thousands too loose.

The trend of all students is generally too weak to take a grip. The loose grip fault leads to opening their hands on high, the collapse of the left wrist, over swing, and so forth.

The tight grip, even though it may feel uncomfortable for a while, acts as a brace against these mistakes and makes the whole action of swinging easier to perform correctly.

Controlled evolution we also mean with almost all the fingers that are in the club. These would be the last three, primarily, in the left hand and the first three from the right. Many players tend to put the forefinger of the right hand, the one that hooks around the tree just below the right thumb, very slightly on the club. Don't do it.

Hook this finger firmly around the tree, so that the edge of this is a precise contact with the tip of the thumb. If you hold, the club will be liable to fall, from the top of his swing, in the big V between the thumb and index. That means a loss of control at the top.

So much for the tight grip elbow two overlap, to reduce it to the shape of capsules.

Now, how can we defend the ball? No great mystery is not involved in either, although some points must be respected.

First, we must take a position that allows us to swing the club back freely, and to bring to the ball on an arc inside-out easily. To this end, the weight should be about equally divided between the feet. The knees should be just slightly bent.