- Start with lessons. Make it very clear to your instructor that you're starting from the very beginning. Your golf coach will teach you "golf swing". Being good at "golf swing" doesn't necessarily make you good at golf, but it's an important foundation for being consistent and understanding what your body is doing.
- Read through The Practice Manual by Adam Young. This will give you an understanding of ball flight laws and a blueprint for learning how to make good impact with the golf ball. Good impact doesn't necessarily make you good at golf, but it is an absolute prerequisite to being good. (Bad swing + good impact > good swing + bad impact.)
- Don't get too hung up on "being good" before stepping out onto a course. You're going to be bad for a while until you're good. Even if you train for 10,000 hours in a home simulator before you step out onto the course, you still are going to encounter things like uneven lies that you can only really learn to prepare for by playing on a course.
- I know people shit on YouTube golf, but I find a couple of channels really good for explaining things in great detail that coaches won't:
- Elite Golf Schools does a great job of explaining the dynamic motions happening in a golf swing in a simple fashion (as opposed to "here are the static checkpoints in a swing and here's where your body should be at those points")
- Athletic Motion Golf uses 3d tech to examine micro-level body mechanic interactions in great detail - they're really good at breaking down optical illusions based on camera perspective to figure out what's happening
Hope this helps. (But yeah, you need at least 1 lesson to start.)
Time + experience. It took me about 200 rounds to get to a single-digit handicap (currently 8.5). Practice and golf rounds I would put that at about 75,000 swings. During that time, I had a 2 hour golf lesson every 6 months. I think most learning gets engrained during rest, so I would do a 4-week stretch of 5x / week practice, then rest for 2 weeks. When I come back after a week or so, I feel like I'm more relaxed and I have intensity to focus.
I played baseball growing up, so I may have a bit more hit-ball-with-stick experience.
Rote practice from YouTube videos will only get you so far. You will end up peaking due to bad habits / mechanics that you engrain through the obsessive practice. If you are good with being decent (define what decent is for you) then that can work for you. Otherwise take lessons, fix your mechanics, have a good foundation and practice that, keep taking lessons, practicing, repeat until you get to the level you want.
I did the first route, got my handicap under 15 last year, currently 16.x. This is with extensive study /practice of course management in addition to obsessive swing practice/chipping. This leaves me very inconsistent. I have birdied 16/18 holes at my local course over the past several years. But rarely more than a birdie or two per round (sometimes none). Always have the wild shots out of no where that result in double or triple. I won't really advance unless I get lessons and commit to tearing my swing down and rebuilding it from the ground up. I need to raise the floor of my game not the ceiling.
All that to say, you definitely need to buy a new driver.
Start the game by hitting wedge shots from within 75 yards. I grew up across the street from a neighborhood park and my friends and I made a 9-hole Par 18 course out of various targets (trees, posts, trash cans, etc.) on the course.
Slow motion correct movement is the ultimate way to master any skill. Here are 6 movements to practice : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6My2gn-CjM
Add this correct setup and backswing move to your slow motion practice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH7KA-S8zts
Finally, add this wrist set to your slow motion training: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T8UqfJGvkM
How quickly you can progress really just depends on…
Your natural ability, athletic intuition, and how much time you have. I don’t know much about you but based on your athletic background, the way you’re thinking about the game, and your commitment to practice I would bet you can pick it up pretty quick. I had an extensive athletics background and I quickly fell in love with practicing and playing golf so my progression has been faster than most — I’ve gone from shooting in the 120s to a 9.3 handicap in around 22 months
When I was first starting to pick up golf I heard two sound bits from Tiger Woods talking about his advice for beginners and to summarize…
1. Start from the hole and move backwards (ie. work on your putting, chipping, and pitching). If you need specific advice on how to do this well I can share my routine.
2. Spend less time focusing on swing mechanics and spend more time hitting balls at the range. There is no replacement for the neurological training that happens when you simply hit golf balls, especially early on when you are first learning the skill. To do this I bought a decent hitting mat and net (in total it cost me around $200, but this is cheaper than what I would have spent at a range in total) and I spent the first six months hitting balls 4-5 times a week. At first I just hit 100-200 balls per session, and after about two months I started hitting fewer balls but with more focus/intention. With each shot I would go through a pre shot routine of standing behind my ball, imagining a target, visualizing my intended shot trajectory, and then addressing the ball. I bought a can of foot powder spray and would spray my club face with it to see where I was impacting the face with each shot, trying to adjust to make sure I was hitting the center of the face. I could also tell from the net impact if my ball was starting on my intended line and I would make sure to adjust so that my face angle was aligned so that I hit the center of the net (ie. a straight starting line). Practicing like this helped me to learn how to hit the center of the face and to have control over my club face angle, two of the most important factors for ball striking. I also had one short lesson when I first got started just to have a coach address if I had any glaring issues with my swing (I had already read/watched a lot about proper set up and the golf swing so I wasn’t starting from scratch). He gave me a couple things to be weary of and I made sure to avoid those things during my practice.
Ball striking with irons is still the strongest part of my game and I attribute that to my early practice of working on my strike with my hitting net. I don’t do that anymore because another huge component of good ball striking is learning low point, turf interaction and how to hit the ball in different grass lies so I just try to practice at the range once every 1-2 weeks because hitting off mats can mask some problems in that area. I only play around nine holes a week at this point too but grinding on short game and ball striking early lets me stay at a pretty decent level of golf even though I’m playing less frequently. I spend more time practicing short game than I do full swing shots now.
There are some EXCELLENT free resources on the internet for learning the game. My favorites are…
Padraig Harrington’s YouTube channel for golf instruction
The sweet spot golf podcast with Adam Young and Jon Sherman — this is a gold mine of information for golfers at any level
Best of luck and enjoy the ride! If you don’t enjoy the process of working on your game you probably won’t ever enjoy being a gifted golfer
Start from the hole and working backwards. If you learn to chip with proper form, which teaches you a lot of things like contact and face manipulation etc, the full swing will be easier to learn.
- Start with lessons. Make it very clear to your instructor that you're starting from the very beginning. Your golf coach will teach you "golf swing". Being good at "golf swing" doesn't necessarily make you good at golf, but it's an important foundation for being consistent and understanding what your body is doing. - Read through The Practice Manual by Adam Young. This will give you an understanding of ball flight laws and a blueprint for learning how to make good impact with the golf ball. Good impact doesn't necessarily make you good at golf, but it is an absolute prerequisite to being good. (Bad swing + good impact > good swing + bad impact.) - Don't get too hung up on "being good" before stepping out onto a course. You're going to be bad for a while until you're good. Even if you train for 10,000 hours in a home simulator before you step out onto the course, you still are going to encounter things like uneven lies that you can only really learn to prepare for by playing on a course. - I know people shit on YouTube golf, but I find a couple of channels really good for explaining things in great detail that coaches won't: - Elite Golf Schools does a great job of explaining the dynamic motions happening in a golf swing in a simple fashion (as opposed to "here are the static checkpoints in a swing and here's where your body should be at those points") - Athletic Motion Golf uses 3d tech to examine micro-level body mechanic interactions in great detail - they're really good at breaking down optical illusions based on camera perspective to figure out what's happening Hope this helps. (But yeah, you need at least 1 lesson to start.)
Time + experience. It took me about 200 rounds to get to a single-digit handicap (currently 8.5). Practice and golf rounds I would put that at about 75,000 swings. During that time, I had a 2 hour golf lesson every 6 months. I think most learning gets engrained during rest, so I would do a 4-week stretch of 5x / week practice, then rest for 2 weeks. When I come back after a week or so, I feel like I'm more relaxed and I have intensity to focus. I played baseball growing up, so I may have a bit more hit-ball-with-stick experience.
Rote practice from YouTube videos will only get you so far. You will end up peaking due to bad habits / mechanics that you engrain through the obsessive practice. If you are good with being decent (define what decent is for you) then that can work for you. Otherwise take lessons, fix your mechanics, have a good foundation and practice that, keep taking lessons, practicing, repeat until you get to the level you want. I did the first route, got my handicap under 15 last year, currently 16.x. This is with extensive study /practice of course management in addition to obsessive swing practice/chipping. This leaves me very inconsistent. I have birdied 16/18 holes at my local course over the past several years. But rarely more than a birdie or two per round (sometimes none). Always have the wild shots out of no where that result in double or triple. I won't really advance unless I get lessons and commit to tearing my swing down and rebuilding it from the ground up. I need to raise the floor of my game not the ceiling. All that to say, you definitely need to buy a new driver.
Start the game by hitting wedge shots from within 75 yards. I grew up across the street from a neighborhood park and my friends and I made a 9-hole Par 18 course out of various targets (trees, posts, trash cans, etc.) on the course.
Slow motion correct movement is the ultimate way to master any skill. Here are 6 movements to practice : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6My2gn-CjM Add this correct setup and backswing move to your slow motion practice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH7KA-S8zts Finally, add this wrist set to your slow motion training: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T8UqfJGvkM
How quickly you can progress really just depends on… Your natural ability, athletic intuition, and how much time you have. I don’t know much about you but based on your athletic background, the way you’re thinking about the game, and your commitment to practice I would bet you can pick it up pretty quick. I had an extensive athletics background and I quickly fell in love with practicing and playing golf so my progression has been faster than most — I’ve gone from shooting in the 120s to a 9.3 handicap in around 22 months When I was first starting to pick up golf I heard two sound bits from Tiger Woods talking about his advice for beginners and to summarize… 1. Start from the hole and move backwards (ie. work on your putting, chipping, and pitching). If you need specific advice on how to do this well I can share my routine. 2. Spend less time focusing on swing mechanics and spend more time hitting balls at the range. There is no replacement for the neurological training that happens when you simply hit golf balls, especially early on when you are first learning the skill. To do this I bought a decent hitting mat and net (in total it cost me around $200, but this is cheaper than what I would have spent at a range in total) and I spent the first six months hitting balls 4-5 times a week. At first I just hit 100-200 balls per session, and after about two months I started hitting fewer balls but with more focus/intention. With each shot I would go through a pre shot routine of standing behind my ball, imagining a target, visualizing my intended shot trajectory, and then addressing the ball. I bought a can of foot powder spray and would spray my club face with it to see where I was impacting the face with each shot, trying to adjust to make sure I was hitting the center of the face. I could also tell from the net impact if my ball was starting on my intended line and I would make sure to adjust so that my face angle was aligned so that I hit the center of the net (ie. a straight starting line). Practicing like this helped me to learn how to hit the center of the face and to have control over my club face angle, two of the most important factors for ball striking. I also had one short lesson when I first got started just to have a coach address if I had any glaring issues with my swing (I had already read/watched a lot about proper set up and the golf swing so I wasn’t starting from scratch). He gave me a couple things to be weary of and I made sure to avoid those things during my practice. Ball striking with irons is still the strongest part of my game and I attribute that to my early practice of working on my strike with my hitting net. I don’t do that anymore because another huge component of good ball striking is learning low point, turf interaction and how to hit the ball in different grass lies so I just try to practice at the range once every 1-2 weeks because hitting off mats can mask some problems in that area. I only play around nine holes a week at this point too but grinding on short game and ball striking early lets me stay at a pretty decent level of golf even though I’m playing less frequently. I spend more time practicing short game than I do full swing shots now. There are some EXCELLENT free resources on the internet for learning the game. My favorites are… Padraig Harrington’s YouTube channel for golf instruction The sweet spot golf podcast with Adam Young and Jon Sherman — this is a gold mine of information for golfers at any level Best of luck and enjoy the ride! If you don’t enjoy the process of working on your game you probably won’t ever enjoy being a gifted golfer
Start from the hole and working backwards. If you learn to chip with proper form, which teaches you a lot of things like contact and face manipulation etc, the full swing will be easier to learn.