Golfing is by no means an easy sport. You have to hit the ball a long distance and it can so easily drift off the course and end up in a spot that is impossible to hit your ball out of. It is also super easy to miss your putts no matter the distance you are shooting. It doesn’t matter if you are a professional golfer, an amateur golfer or someone who just likes to golf for fun; you are going to have to practice in order to improve your golf game. There are so many things that you can work on in order to improve your golf game, here is a quick overview of some of the things that you may want to consider working on below:
Judging distance:
One of the hardest things to do, especially for a new golfer is to be able to properly judge the distance that you need to hit and determine how hard you have to swing each club in order to get to that distance. For example: a new golfer may have a hard time deciding what club to use if they are 30 feet from the pin because all of their clubs can hit the ball that far. With practice it can make it a lot easier to choose which clubs to use in each situation and it can come down to which clubs you are the most comfortable with using. You will find that there are several golfing tools available to help you judge your distances and improve your overall golf game. After a lot of practice you will begin to know how far you are capable of hitting each and every club in your bag and you will be able to choose which club to use with more precision and confidence.
Swinging technique:
One of the most important aspects of hitting the ball correctly is your swinging technique. Depending on how you swing, you may always slice the same way or run into the same kinds of issues. It can be rather difficult to change a golfer’s swing and requires a lot of practice and effort by the golfer so that they don’t fall back into their bad habits. Hitting the ball as much as possible and getting other golfers to watch you swing can help you in realizing your strengths and weaknesses and can really help to improve your golf game over time. If you don’t want to seek help from other people, there are tools available in the market place to help improve your swinging technique. The nice thing about a tool is that you don’t have to have someone constantly looking over your shoulder and telling you what you are doing wrong. A tool is likely going to cost you more money than your golfing friend, but it will be more accurate and will always be there for you to use as well.
Footing:
Another very important thing to practice is how you set up your feet for your swing. Improper footing can not only cause you to hit the ball in the wrong direction but it can cause you to hit the ball poorly as well. Depending on which club you are using you are going to want to stand in a different location so that the club hits the ball in the proper place. Generally speaking for iron’s it is recommended to have the ball somewhere in the middle of your feet. If you are using a wood it is generally recommended to keep the ball just inside your front foot for your swing. Remember that you want your feet and shoulders pointed towards where you want to hit the ball so that you hit it nice and straight. During your swing you will want to quickly transfer your weight to either side of your body so that you can get more momentum and power into your swing. During your backswing most golfers will lift their front foot a tad off of the ground and then when they swing and follow through, their back foot will often lift off of the ground a bit as well.
Swinging power:
It can be very hard to judge how hard to swing a club especially if you haven’t done a lot of golfing before. The more you practice with your clubs, the more you will begin to realize the average distance that you hit each of your clubs so that you have a better idea as to how much power you should put into your swing. There are tools available that tell you how fast you are swinging, if you don’t want to use tools it definitely is going to take a lot of practice anyways and even professional golfer’s aren’t perfect at judging how hard they need to swing their clubs.
Gripping your clubs:
Generally speaking someone who grips their club improperly is going to have a slice or a bad hit every once and a while and this is largely due to having too much turn in your hands or your wrists during your swing. In order to grip your club the proper way, start off with your hands holding the club in two fists like you would holding a baseball bat. Next take your bottom pinky finger and move it in-between the middle and index finger of the hand above it; you can also just set your pinky finger on top of the index finger if you find this way more comfortable. Gripping your club this way allows your hands to stay in coordination with each other so that you don’t have as much of a turn happening during a swing.
Lining yourself up:
It can be quite difficult to get used to lining yourself up. Not only does this take a lot of practice, but it is actually one of the most important parts of a golf swing and being properly lined up can help a lot in allowing you to hit the ball straight. Many golfer’s like to take a couple practice swings a couple steps away from their ball so that they can visualize the distance better and adjust their line as well as the power of their swing to somewhere where they feel will be a good hit for them. Once practiced up, someone who does this simply tries to copy their practice swing. Always remember that your shoulders and feet should be pointing in the direction that you want to hit the ball. If you are still unsure you can try a technique like holding your club sideways across your shoulder blades until it is pointing to where you want to shoot. With practice you will be lining yourself up without issues and your golf game will most definitely improve.
Choosing a club:
Choosing the right club especially for an inexperienced golfer can be quite difficult. Depending how tall you are and how strong you are, you are going to shoot a particular club a farther or shorter distance compared to someone else. If you have no idea as to which club hits the furthest, generally a wood is your farthest hitting club and the lower the number, the farther the ball will go. Next in line are hybrid clubs and these are used the same as iron’s meaning you will want to place the ball in the center of your stance. Again, the lower the number is, the farther you are going to hit the ball. Next in line is your iron’s, these are not going to shoot quite as far as a hybrid as long as your hybrid is a low number. You will find that iron’s normally come in sizes three to nine and a three iron will shoot the furthest distance while a nine iron will shoot the shortest. There are several other clubs available and these include things like a pitching wedge which gets used for short distance chips, a sand wedge which is used to help get you out of mucky areas and bunkers as well as a putter so that you can hit the ball in once you get your ball onto the green. Generally each club will be marked on the head of the club with a number so that you can see what club you are using when you go to pull it out of your bag. With practice you will likely find you favour certain clubs over other ones and get used to what kinds of distances you are capable of hitting with them.
Tee Height:
This is actually a very important part of golf and it can really ruin your shot if you put the ball at an improper tee height. It can take some practice to get to know how high you need to set your tee into the ground so that you don’t end up hitting your tee over and have the ball go nowhere. For iron’s you are going to want to have the tee quite low to the ground and likely just barely sticking out of the grass. If you are using a wood it is important to put the tee much higher up or you won’t be able to get the height that you need. Generally speaking the larger the head is on a wood, the higher you are going to want a tee to sit so that you don’t hit the ball straight into the ground. If you have your tee too high up you will notice that the ball either gets a lot of loft when you hit it or it doesn’t go very far and the tee just goes flying or breaks.
Choosing the right ball:
Something you may not know if you are an inexperienced golfer is that different balls are used for different situations. You will find balls that are meant for all sorts of different holes and they will be labeled directly on the ball in order to tell you what they are meant to be used for. On a very long hole for instance you may want to use a ball that says “long” or something like “distance” or “roll” on it. Balls will have all kinds of different words to describe their purpose and if you are on a short hole you may want to use a ball that says something like “soft” or something like “backspin.” Ladies balls are most often market because they are generally a lower compression ball than Men’s golf balls.
Reading the Green:
This is a very difficult thing to do especially for a new golfer. It is important to have a careful eye and realize what direction the green is sloping. Depending on where you land your ball; misreading the green can have a huge impact on your score and may even place you in areas that you can’t hit out of, causing you to lose even more strokes. In order to better read the green, especially when you are putting; you can kneel down closer to ground level. Kneeling helps to make it easier to see what direction the ground actually slopes towards and can also give you a better idea as to how long the grass is so that you can determine how hard you are going to have to hit the ball.
Golf etiquette:
Although this may not technically improve your golf game all that much, it is most definitely important to follow the rules so that you keep other golfer’s happy while you are out on the course. It can be difficult to learn golf etiquette especially if you don’t know all of your golfing terminology yet. It is a good idea to watch some videos and do a bit of research if you are going to be going out and playing with people that you don’t know; some people are very serious about the rules and could take offense if you cut in front of them or do something like talk while they are taking a shot. Following proper golf etiquette does give you the chance to scout out your opponents and look at their golfing techniques; it definitely offers a learning opportunity and you should take full advantage of watching other golfers whenever possible so that you can help yourself out and help others accordingly.
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