Are you a beginner golfer struggling to improve quickly or someone keen to start playing the game wanting to get off to a fast start? Well this is the video for you as we've collated 11 of the best tips from Golf Monthly staff who've been there, done it, got the t-shirt and now play off a single figure handicap index. Hopefully the advice the team share will speed up your journey to better and it's worth saying that these tips don't just apply to beginner golfers - we're confident there will be some that apply to more experienced golfers too!
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00:00Now, are you a beginner golfer that's not improving
00:02as quickly as you'd like?
00:03Well, watch this video as we've got a collection
00:05of great tips and bits of advice from single-figure golfers
00:09that are really going to help speed up your improvement.
00:11My best tip for a beginner golfer would have to be
00:17just learn to smash it.
00:18Learn how to hit it hard, learn how to swing quick.
00:21It's far easier later on down the line
00:23to learn how to tighten up your technique
00:26and tidy up a few things than it is to learn
00:28how to find extra speed and extra power.
00:31And it helps you with so much other stuff,
00:32being able to shift it.
00:34That comes from the great man himself, Jack Nicklaus.
00:36He always said, especially for kids,
00:38learn how to hit it a long, long way,
00:39learn how to move the club fast,
00:41and you can refine it later.
00:43I think I would say don't get too one-dimensional
00:45around the green.
00:46Don't just get somewhere near the green
00:48and automatically reach for a wedge,
00:50which I think a lot of, certainly I, when I was a beginner,
00:52I thought, well, that's the club you're supposed to use
00:53around the green.
00:55But what you're doing there is bringing a lot of loft
00:56into the equation you don't necessarily need.
00:59You've got to hit it a little bit harder
01:00because it's going to go up in the air more,
01:02and you can actually simplify things
01:03with various other clubs, maybe 7-iron, chip and run,
01:06these days even a hybrid, and quite often a putter.
01:10So simplify things around the green
01:12and you'll take fewer shots.
01:14So yeah, my number one tip would just be
01:17learn how to strike the ball consistently
01:19and just learn your yardages.
01:21The amount of times that golfers will be stood over a shot
01:23from, say, 150 yards and they won't know
01:26what club goes 150 yards is a big problem.
01:29Obviously, if you can hit that club
01:30the same distance consistently,
01:32you're going to be pin high
01:33and you're going to be more likely
01:34to have a more chance of getting a good score going.
01:36So I think the main tip I'd give
01:38is just learn your yardages
01:39and make sure you're hitting it consistently.
01:41That would be the main tip.
01:42So my beginner's tip would be to practice with intent.
01:45So make sure when you're going out to the range
01:47or if you're going to put any practice in,
01:49whether it's putting, short game,
01:50make sure that you're practicing something specific
01:53rather than just going out, hitting balls,
01:55and not having anything to focus on.
01:57My top tip for a beginner golfer,
01:59well, that's a tough one
02:00because there's so many out there,
02:01but if I had to pick one,
02:03I would say playing your own swing.
02:05If you play with a fade or a draw,
02:07play with that, don't try anything new or fancy.
02:11Head out onto the driving range before a round of golf
02:13and before you head out onto 18 holes
02:15and just see how you're swinging it.
02:16If your ball flight's going left to right or right to left,
02:19play with that for that day.
02:20Don't try and resort to anything different
02:23that you're not used to or you're not hitting that day.
02:25You're going to end up with a far better score
02:27and you'll be better off if you play with what you've got
02:30than trying something new and something different.
02:32So my best bit of advice for beginner golfers
02:34would be to have the intention of hitting the ground
02:38on the target side of the golf ball.
02:40Most beginner golfers have a misconception
02:42that they need to hit up on the ball
02:44to get the ball in the air,
02:45when actually the opposite is true.
02:47And having the intention of hitting the ground
02:49at speed in front of the golf ball
02:51is going to deliver a better compression
02:53into the golf ball, a bit more spin,
02:55and it's going to give you more carry distance
02:56and also better control of your strike as well.
02:58So when I've been trying to help my wife
03:01get into playing golf, one of the drills
03:03or the swing thoughts I give to her
03:04is literally trying to hit the ball into the ground.
03:07That gets the club and body working in the right way
03:09to better compress the ball, hit down on it with speed.
03:13That should give you better strikes,
03:14better distance, and better consistency.
03:16That would be my one thing, if you're a beginner,
03:18to really focus on with every club in the bag
03:20apart from driver.
03:22So most people know that alignment is really important,
03:24but a really good way to think about it
03:26is to imagine that you're standing on a train track
03:28and your feet are on the nearer of the two tracks
03:31and your ball to target line, your club face,
03:33is on the other track.
03:35And it's that kind of parallel set up
03:37that you need to address
03:38that will give you really good alignment.
03:39Right, so my tip for beginners
03:41is get yourself off the driving range, if you can.
03:45Play with good golfers as well,
03:46because you'll learn a little bit from them.
03:48You'll see what they do around the greens
03:50with their shots, their game management.
03:52And the more you get on the golf course,
03:54the more you get away from the driving range,
03:56the more comfortable you'll get
03:57with this quite scary environment at times.
03:59I think the better you'll get, quicker.
04:01Right, so my number one tip for beginners
04:03would be to tee it forward.
04:05So I see a lot of beginners trying to tee off
04:08kind of yellow tees, white tees a little bit further back
04:10and kind of struggling a lot.
04:12Whereas teeing it forward allows people
04:14to take the pressure off quite quickly
04:16and you hit kind of shots closer to the hole quite quickly.
04:20And it also, I think, makes the game faster.
04:22I think it makes it more fun as well.
04:25And also from doing it in the past myself,
04:27I think you hit a lot of different clubs in the bag
04:30when you tee it forward as well.
04:31So I think to help players,
04:34teeing it forward is the best way to go, I think,
04:36especially for beginners.
04:37Well, when I was a junior,
04:38the thing that always really benefited me
04:40was to keep my stats on my scorecard.
04:43So what I used to do was,
04:44along with the score down the left-hand column,
04:47I actually marked G for greens here, F for fairways,
04:51and P for the number of putts.
04:5220 years have gone on,
04:54and there's now a number of different,
04:56more modern methods of doing this
04:58than just the pencil and paper scorecard form.
05:00So there's ARCOS shot tracking technology
05:03where you can actually have the stats recorded on your phone
05:07or through your Apple Watch.
05:08And I know that's a really, really easy way of doing it.
05:10And I just thoroughly recommend keeping your stats
05:13because you're just going to have so much more knowledge
05:15of the areas of your game
05:16that you're going to need to improve
05:17to reduce that handicap.
05:19So my best tip for beginner golfers
05:21would probably be just to practice your chipping and putting.
05:24So I think the wedge play in short game
05:26definitely covers more than half of your shots
05:28in a round of golf.
05:29And so practicing your chipping and putting,
05:30doing little drills that will take shots off your score
05:33will dramatically reduce your handicap
05:35and make your golf more enjoyable.
05:37So there you have it.
05:38Loads of really good advice.
05:39Hopefully you'll agree that it's going to help you,
05:41if you're a beginner golfer, improve a little bit faster.
05:44Go and take them away with you to the practice ground,
05:46to the golf course,
05:47and hopefully you'll see your scores tumble.
05:49But that's all for me from Effingham Golf Club.
05:51I'll see you next time.
05:52♪♪♪