Six beginner mistakes that cost you golf balls, from the hero shot to the missing provisional
A beginner who loses six or eight balls a round is not unusual, and most of those balls disappear because of habits rather than…
Section
Getting started
Where to start when you have never held a club: green fees, first lessons, the equipment you actually need, and how a handicap works. No jargon, no assumptions about what you already know.
Family golf with mixed abilities: scramble, alternate shot and a capped score that keep everyone in
Stroke play, one ball each, every shot counted, is the wrong format for a group where the levels are far apart. Change the format…
First-tee nerves: a routine, not a swing thought
Adrenaline shortens the backswing, speeds the tempo and takes fine control from the hands. It is chemical rather than technical, which means the fix…
The twenty-two golf words a beginner needs
About twenty-five words cover playing, following a conversation and reading a scorecard. Vocabulary is one of the ways golf makes newcomers feel unwelcome, and…
Taking a beginner out without putting them off
Most golfers who quit do so after one bad first round, and the friend who took them is usually responsible. Par-3 course, scramble format,…
How to get real value from a golf lesson
The money is rarely the problem: an hour of instruction costs less than a green fee. What goes wrong is the goal, the practice…
Grip and setup: the free fixes most golfers skip
Two things decide most of what the ball does, and neither happens during the swing. Grip and setup are free to change, need no…
Club membership or pay and play: run the numbers
Count the rounds you actually played, not the ones you meant to. Then compare the full annual cost of a membership, including everything that…
Playing a course as a visitor: what to ask first
Visitors are judged on pace, on how they treat the course and on whether they knew what they were walking into. One phone call…