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