Golfing for Beginners: Part I
The sport of golf has really boomed in public awareness over the last 45 years. It has produced fantastic world-champions such as Arnold Palmer, Greg Norman and Tiger Woods and world-renowned courses like St. Andrews, Sunningdale, Pinehurst ans Augusta.
Why has golf become so popular these days? Its the opportunity to be outside, to get a good whole body workout, network with friends or business colleagues at a leisurely pace, and to play a game that you can never play perfectly.
Your scorecard shows your progress, or lack of it, and this can spur you on to want to play again.
This is the first lesson for the novice golfer who doesn’t know anything about golfing.
The typical round of golf is played on a course of eighteen holes, each or which has its own ‘par’. Par is the total number of shots it should take a player to complete that hole, ie all the tee shots (drives), fairway shots, chips (short shots onto the green) and puts into the hole.
This ‘par’ value is based on the length and difficulty of the hole in question. Pars range from three to six, so if you get the ball into the hole in four shots on a ‘par four’ hole, you made ‘par’. However, if you took three shots, it’s called a ‘birdie’ or five shots a ‘bogie’.
There are usually “hazards” of some sort or other on all the holes. Bodies of water, sand traps, and trees are strategically placed to make reaching the hole more challenging. Beginner golfers should seek to find courses to play that are easier to play with fewer hazards.
Players keep their own score of the total number of shots taken for each hole. After the eighteenth hole, they add up their scores and the one with the lowest is the winner.
It is vital that beginners to golfing should not take the game too seriously, because it takes a very long time to play golf proficiently, even if the professionals on TV make it look so easy.
Take a lesson or two at the start of your golfing ‘career’, because it will help you develop a proper swing and help you get off to a good start.
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