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Give me just one tip for my first year of golf

Avoid trying the hero shots. That is from personal experience. Every time I hit a bad drive and I attempt a hero shot from the trees, it always turns out worse than if I took my medicine and chipped back out to the fairway. I'm not good enough for the hero shots. Remember, its not how you drive but how you arrive.
 
Be patient with yourself and practice way more than you play if getting better is your goal
 
As someone relatively new (a few years for me) I would say don’t focus on score as a metric of getting better early on. It can be really frustrating to not improve scores when you feel like you’re improving. It’s hard to put everything together in a round so just focus on what you did well for a round and what needs work for practice that week. Just focus having fun and enjoy the good shots.
 
Just about to hit the six-month mark since I first picked up a club. Have learned many, many things.

If I had to just pick one to tell a brand-new player, it would be don't be afraid to start on the forward tees. I've been playing them with my 9-year-old nephew who started at the same time. I'm just now getting to the point where I feel comfortable playing the whites when he's not with me, and that's only because it's a fairly short, easy course.

I can't count how many times I've been grouped with someone who couldn't hit the ball more than 40 yards in the air and hope for another 40 in roll, but it literally never occurs to them to move up a tee box, even if several holes had forced carries that they had on prayer of hitting over and the forward tees started already on the other side of them.
 
Hit the ball. Find the ball. Hit it again.
 



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KyleJRM said:
Just about to hit the six-month mark since I first picked up a club. Have learned many, many things.

If I had to just pick one to tell a brand-new player, it would be don't be afraid to start on the forward tees. I've been playing them with my 9-year-old nephew who started at the same time. I'm just now getting to the point where I feel comfortable playing the whites when he's not with me, and that's only because it's a fairly short, easy course.

I can't count how many times I've been grouped with someone who couldn't hit the ball more than 40 yards in the air and hope for another 40 in roll, but it literally never occurs to them to move up a tee box, even if several holes had forced carries that they had on prayer of hitting over and the forward tees started already on the other side of them.
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This is another good idea. Play the easier courses! Don't frustrate yourself playing courses that you are not yet equipped to handle!
 
Golf is your time for yourself, where you can pretend all your worries don’t exist anymore, outside of finding that sliced tee shot :). Once you realize there are worse things to worry about other than a snowman on a par 4, the game becomes much more fun! Enjoy the process!!!
 
Off the course...

1) Start with lessons

2) If you don’t understand what the instructor is saying, stop them and ask for clarification. Don’t just nod and say OK.

3) If they give you drills or assignments... do them. A lot. There’s no shortcut.

On the course...

1) Don’t bother with the score and the rules. We’ll get to all that later. Just hit shots. Have fun.

2) Play with people who are better than you.

3) Keep up with them - if you top one 10 yards and they rip one 300 yards, pick your ball up and go hit from where they ended up. You’ll have more fun and so will they and they’ll invite you back.
 
charley48 said:
Avoid trying the hero shots. That is from personal experience. Every time I hit a bad drive and I attempt a hero shot from the trees, it always turns out worse than if I took my medicine and chipped back out to the fairway. I'm not good enough for the hero shots. Remember, its not how you drive but how you arrive.
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Conversely, the thought from my next door neighbor who got me into this: Don't be afraid to take the hero shots. You're in this for fun and there's nothing more fun than makin' 'em :) My addendum: Besides, you'll never know unless you try.

Now, my one spot of advice: Don't blame the club. It's almost never the club. (Spoken by a man who has done far too many club upgrades in his first six months of golf
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)
 
Duffer Seamus said:
Conversely, the thought from my next door neighbor who got me into this: Don't be afraid to take the hero shots. You're in this for fun and there's nothing more fun than makin' 'em :) My addendum: Besides, you'll never know unless you try.

Now, my one spot of advice: Don't blame the club. It's almost never the club. (Spoken by a man who has done far too many club upgrades in his first six months of golf
lol.gif
)
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I just go by how the round is going. I start out playing conservative and trying to keep my score intact for something I would be excited to shoot. Then if that's off the table, time to go for some fun.
 
Take lessons. Buy a 3 pack or a 6 pack. Space them out a week kr two each and go to the range every day in between that you can.
I am completely convinced this is the path towards a decent swing you can build on.
 
Mine is the antithesis of Boone's. Learn to swing the club, instead of trying to hit the ball.
 
I believe that when you quit trying to hit the ball hard you play better golf. Fairways and greens!!! Bonus tip, three putts and penalties are killers.
 
Canadan said:
I want to cycle this back to the OP..

@camden_kid ... what about golf do YOU hope for in your first year?
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That's a very good question.

I want to enjoy it primarily, otherwise there's no point. Then, in no particular order: avoid bad habits, learn the little things that aren't obvious, focus on hitting the ball (as someone mentioned above), practise the mechanics of different types of swing, understand the rules and etiquette.

At the end of the year play I'd aim to play 18 holes. I'd like to get a feel for what it's like to play a full round but I am not in a rush to do so.

Thank you everyone for the excellent advice. I will come back to this post regularly during the first year.
 
I've got a couple versions of the Rules of Golf on hand, including the big one with interpretations that I have read through a handful of times. It's interesting to get beyond the players edition a bit because you understand why a rule is applied with the examples they give.

...and I love that you're considering the rules of the game as a priority, as well as the etiquette. I'll play with a beginner golf swing over bad etiquette ANY day of the week.
 
Don't try to hit the ball; just swing the club and let the ball get in the way
 
Take a lesson....and don't listen to internet advise.
 
Lots of good stuff here. The only ting I can add, and it probably has already been said knowing this bunch, have fun. It's easy for that to sometimes get lost in the grind but it is why we play the game.

Enjoy the journey and smile.
 
Welcome to the best game ever!

All bad swings happen because people focus on hitting the golf ball. You are swinging to a target that is past the ball and that's where you focus - here's a great vid:
 
pattyboy21 said:
Welcome to the best game ever!

All bad swings happen because people focus on hitting the golf ball. You are swinging to a target that is past the ball and that's where you focus - here's a great vid:
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I guess one needs to focus on both equally? Ball and target?
 
JimBetts said:
Don't try to hit the ball; just swing the club and let the ball get in the way
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Camden_Kid said one of the things he hoped to get from this thread is avoiding bad habits. Well Jim and others gave this tip that definitely speaks to avoiding one of the most pervasive bad habits in golf. One of the biggest things separating good players from the rest is the good players learned to focus on swinging the club and not hitting the ball. A corollary to this is that good players are target focused, while the rest are mostly ball focused.
 
Take lessons and practice what you were taught.
 
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