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5 Essential Golf Tips Most Golfers Still Don’t Know (but would love to find out)

Posted on 30. May, 2012 by Allan in Practice

Have you come across Quora? It’s an interesting site where you can ask an answer all types of questions. I was browsing through their golf section when I found this question

“What are the 10 best golf tips for the novice?”

This got me thinking.

It took me quite a while to get the understanding of golf I now have; had I known then what I know now, I would’ve saved myself a lot of time and effort.

Here are 5 things I wish I’d realised sooner; 5 golf tips for beginners which many recreational golfers still don’t know.

Intrigued?

Then read on…

1. It’s all about the club face.

Learn to pay attention to the club face, and know where it is at impact. How the club face is presented to the ball at impact is the crucial factor in golf, and yet so few people teach it, focusing instead on things like backswing which are surrogates at best. Traditional golf instruction treaties effects as if they’re causes, which leads to frustration.

2. Learning through play is what sticks.

Learn the basics of how the club face interacts with the ball, and the (lesser) effect of the path of the swing through impact, marry that to your awareness of the club face throughout the swing and then play about at the range to find your optimal swing.

3. Your swing isn’t broken, so stop trying to fix it.

Spend far less time trying to change things when swinging a club. Learn to listen to your body instead. Our proprioceptive system is like an incredibly complex and detailed GPS for our bodies, and yet most golfers ignore this high-quality feedback.

4. Most recreational golfers don’t know how to practice.

Learn to practice effectively. Most golfers have no clue how to do this. Think about how you practice at the range. Do you always pick a target? Most golfers don’t, or pick one way too wide (e.g.,“the centre of the range”).

Think about what you do on the course – we hit one ball to a different target each time using a different club (nearly) every time. On the range, most golfers hit many balls to one target (if they use a target, see above) with the same club. And then say, “I can’t take my range game to the course”. This is because most golfers’ “range” game bears no resemblance to golf.

5. It’s not all about the drives.

Be realistic about your club selection when practicing. You’ll use your putter upwards of 30 times a round, so make sure your practice reflects that. If you’re starting out, you’ll have a “short game” shot (chip/bitch/bunker) on most holes.

You’ll use your driver on a maximum of 14 holes. And yet it’s rare to see golfers practice in that ratio. Heck, it’s rare to see golfers hit a shot to a target less than 100 yards away at the range…at least on purpose.

They may not seem like much, but these tips are what put me on the path I’m on today.

These realisations marked the turning point in my golf game, the point where I suddenly understood what it was to be a golfer. And, while a little part of me wonders what might’ve happened had I discovered them sooner, I know many golfers play for years and never have this level of understanding…how can I be upset?

And now it’s over to you.

Is there anything you now know about golf you wish you’d discovered sooner? Do you disagree with my any of the points I’ve made?

Let me know in the comments section below!

[image credit: "No Golf Practice" by  Jonass Bengtsson used under Creative Commons License]

Tags: 10 golf tips for beginners, 10 golf tips for novice golfers, 5 golf tips for beginners, 5 golf tips I wish I'd known sooner, golf psychology tips, golf tips for beginners, golf tips for novice golfers, improve at golf