Getting started in golf is easy, but it’s important to start with lessons so that you don’t develop any bad habits and bad muscle memory.
Call around to local driving ranges and clubs, you will normally find a local certified golf professional to teach you golf. Most one hour lessons will cost between $30-45 and they usually give discounts if you purchase 3 or more lessons up front.
Golf is a game that you can start playing as a child as young as 4-5 years old and enjoy into the seventh decade of life and beyond. It’s a mentally and physically challenging game that can really put your body and mind to the test and make you tougher.
It can also be very frustrating, so be patient and get out there and practice. It’s a very unnatural game, so it’s not easy to just stand there and hit balls. Even the most natural athletes will struggle with this, because it’s such an unnatural stance and motion. It’s not normal to stand with your knees bent, hands dangling down, and back bent over with your hips rotated forward.
When you first start hitting focus on making solid contact. Don’t worry about how far it goes. Just make sure you are hitting it on each swing. A slow, reproducible and consistent swing is much better than a fast one with incredible power that misses half the time. You want to develop a consistent swing. The clubs will determine how far the ball goes and how high it goes. Don’t worry about that for now.
The same goes for kids. If you are teaching your kids, just make sure they are making solid contact and don’t focus on how far it goes.
Once you, your spouse, or your children have a consistent and reproducible swing, then you can start using other clubs and learning how the loft (angle) of each club affects ball flight.
Once you understand the clubs, go play on a course with an experienced friend or teacher to understand course management. It’s one thing to know how to hit the ball, it’s a totally different animal to be able to manage the course.
Entire books have been written on course management. Unfortunately, the area where most golfers fail (and the area where they can make the biggest improvement) is in course management. You need to know when to pull out your driver, when to use your wedges, your putting strategy. All of that matters way more than how you actually hit your driver off the tee.
Practice to a target. When you are on the driving range, don’t just hit balls into the sky. Pick a target out in the distance and try to hit it. When you are actually hitting to a target, it is more focused and more beneficial than just aimless hitting. It also simulates game time scenarios.
Make golf fun for kids and yourselves. Play games, try to land the balls in a bucket, let them drive the cart, and take funny pictures and videos. There are all kinds of ways to have fun with it.
And keep practicing! It’ll be a lifelong battle! Try to practice every day.
