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I wish I had learned golf correctly

darthweasel

darthweasel

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I learned golf in a very ad hoc way. Borrow one of Dad or mom’s clubs, usually a 5i, go to the corner ball park, hit back and forth from baseball field at one end to other. Borrow their by now ancient set of clubs (persimmon woods…yeah.) and go to the local 9 hole course, hack my way around having great time, determining if I had a good round or a bad round by did I come back with more golf balls than I left with (hint: almost always yes. My favorite club was probably a ball retriever). Always walk the course because the money for a cart was more than the cost of the round I was playing.
Play 2-5 times a year maybe with people about the same. Go to golf show, buy "frequency matched shafts", working a job where I actually played like 10 or 15 times one year. I slice, so of course I stand wide open, creating a bigger slice but since I play for it, I usually get away with it…unless of course there is a house there and I hit it straight that one time…
Get a better job, work with people more serious about golf. Get fitted for clubs, take lessons, keep unofficial handicap. Read up on golf, research the short game, course management, learn how to play out of sand, how to chip, how to hit a flop shot, hot to get the ball to check up. Become respectable, I assume I was an average-ish golfer (16.8 handicap at that time.)
　
If I had it to do over again, and had all the patience in the world, knowing what I know now, I would learn the game completely different.
　
Start out putting from 1’ until it was automatic. Back up to 2’. 3’. Etc until I was putting at scratch golfer level from 10’ and lagging close outside there.
Move to putting from the fringe, then chip shot. Play the "2 shot" drill until I was good from 10 yards off the green. Learn how to use a wedge to get over that greenside bunker and stay on the green.
Back up, learn a quarter swing wedge. Half swing wedge. ¾ swing wedge. Full swing wedge. Bump and run.
By now I am money from 150 in. I am putting the little white pellet in its home in 3 attempts or less from 150. Now the trick is to get to or inside 150. And I have no fear of needing to hit to a number, I have the skill to get close from anywhere. Course management will indicate where I want to hit the ball to in order to avoid trouble.
Learn short irons, mid irons, long irons, hybrids, woods, driver in turn. Now I am a complete golfer, tee to green. The scoring stroke is always the one that drops it in the cup. My job is to figure out how to get into that range as efficiently as possible and I have all the tools to do so.
　
I wish I could go back and learn that way. Instead, I have to remember to do this to keep from re-swinging with that bad habit. I have had to unlearn and relearn everything from grip to address to ball position and old bad habits creep in at the worst time. I wish I was young enough to unlearn and relearn, but the old saw, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, while false, has elements of truth…under pressure I might revert to that outside in swing or that over the top cast or that hesitation on the delicate chip.
I would love to see the player who learned from the scoring stroke out to hole start instead of the way I did.


How should people learn? I keep trying to convince my wife to. I send her beauty shots from the course, pics of wildlife. She indicates interest...I think starting with putting, seeing the ball drop in the cup and experiencing success might help more than the other way. I don't know. thoughts?
 
I wish I had learned golf correctly

Great post.
I started at 40 and tried to learn off the internet. Bad idea. Should’ve started with lessons. That’s when I started to improve.
It’s nice your wife is showing interest. I golf with my wife. It’s nice to have that in common. As for advice, I’d take her out to an easy course, let her have fun and if she still shows interest I’d invest in some lessons to get her at least working on the fundamentals while she plays. How much she wants to progress will be up to her. My wife struggles with irons and hybrids. She doesn’t want to practice to improve but just wants to play. I’d just get your wife out there playing.
 
No wrong answer. Starting from the hole backwards seems like the most efficient way to learn, however, you have to put some thought into how to keep it interesting.
Nothing wrong with a bucket of balls.

Took a high schooler out the last two weekends. Last Saturday, I had him tee off from the 150 and later the 100 markers.
I just keep throwing out a goal of 6 shots to hole out. Getting closer.

I might be wrong, I don't think lessons would be that beneficial until he gets more comfortable hitting the ball. I've only said a little about grip, and brought a weighted club with a training grip on it.
Contests around the green is where it will go, but right now I just wanted to tour the course and let him drive the cart. Get that itch scratched before taking more of the real game on.

I also try my best just to play my game when we went out, and that is harder than I thought it would be. Played from the whites and moved up to the forward tees on the par 3's so we played from the same spot on a few. Just to give an example of how I usually play.

What I don't want to do is get a rental set and just throw him to the jungle. Not until, expectations align. Especially, when the weekend is the time we get.
 
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I started with lessons and clinics and range time, but I made a real commitment to myself to learn to play the game. To get someone interested in the game, after 1/2 hour on the range concentrating on grip and just hitting the ball I would propose a scramble. It gives her the excitement of playing a round (start with 9 holes only), keeps the up pace of the game for those behind you, she gets to enjoy the course. Take her to dinner afterwards. Good luck. I hope she enjoys it out there.
A word of caution, don't overwhelm her with golf terms. My first instructor kept talking about swing plane, forward ball position and hitting down on the ball, I had to go to the internet to understand what he meant. Golf, like most hobbies, has its own language and sometimes the jargon can be confusing. Demonstrate in slow motion, compliment small improvements.
 
I had a lot of lessons as a junior golfer. I did not know what a draw or fade was until I came back to golf as an adult. I had no idea what a green in regulation or the fact that par was based off of two putts. Despite all of that I was a single figure golfer.

For juniors, I think being less technical and more about making golf fun is the key. I was the junior champion at my club, I had a partial hodgepodge set. But golf was fun.

The main thing my instructors did was teach me some fundamentals of swinging through the ball, how to play a bunker shot, and the idea of alignment. Putting was probably the most technical besides bunker shots. Outside of that, everything was a competition. Who could hit it closer, who could drive it farther. Who could get the ball in the hole in the fewest strokes and so on.

If I were to do it again, I wouldn't change anything. If I were to start from scratch as an adult I would probably work from green to tee if it was something that I wanted to do seriously. If it was something just for fun or work requirements, it would be lessons to remove a slice and some basics. Not everyone needs to be scratch or a single digit golfer.
 
I played on and off while I was in my 20's in the Marine Corps, and gave it up for almost 20 years and got back into 8 years ago. I was lucky enough to play with a couple older guys who had patience enough to teach me and help me out. I would of loved to learn the game correctly the first time I picked up a club at 9 years old.
 
My parents didn't have the money for golf lessons or many range balls when I started playing. My dad set up bike flags in our large yard, and around age 11 or 12 I practiced for hours hitting those short shots to the three bike flags that were no more than 30 yards apart. My dad would come home from work, grab a Scotch and we'd have a skins game hitting to the different flags. I got my first real start at age 13 when I signed up for a junior golf program at the local public course(paid for by mowing lawns) that gave me a group lesson with twenty-five or so other kids once a week in June and July and allowed us to play nine holes each week.

The next summer I bought a junior membership and played about 65 rounds and the following year it was about 100 rounds. Other than the very basic group sessions those first couple years of junior golf, I never had any other lessons until my 30's and my lifetime total might be a dozen lessons. I read golf books, especially Hogan's Five Fundamentals, dug my game out of the ground, and broke par for the first time when I was 16. There is pride in having taught myself the game well enough to play through college, but I believe that the game would have come easier for me and maybe allowed me to get to a higher level than the road I took. It has now come full circle with my youngest daughter now the same age as when I started. She is in 8th grade and is progressing quickly with the advantage of a great PGA pro that she sees for an hour lesson every other Friday. She has had her first varsity high school match and shot 44 Monday on a practice round that means she will be playing either a couple of JV or Varsity matches each week for the remainder of the season. It's fun as a parent to give her some professional help, but the most satisfying part is to see her hooked on the game. I'm pretty sure she will enjoy it for life! In the end, it's not how good your game is but how much fun you have doing it.
 
My interest was spiked by playing mini-golf on summer vacation when I was a little guy, probably 5 or 6. Dad was a solid player and would do the local, small town tournaments and by about 7 or 8, he'd bring me along to putt on the practice green and ride in the cart with him. I figure I was around 10 or so when he got me a junior set but he'd only let me hit the 5 iron. I remember spending A LOT of time in the living room on weekends watching golf on TV and emulating their swings. Jack was, of course, my number one. I'd stand there and watch and TRY to do what it looked like he was doing. Around age 12 is when I got on my first lessons and I guess is when my actual swing started to develop.

7th grade, my (very) small school had a "golf team" that was mostly just a coach taking us to a nearby muni; giving us some direction on the range for a bit and then we'd play a round. I remember picking things up pretty quickly and being one of the better players pretty early on. By this point, my summer vacations consisted of mom dropping me and a buddy off at the local muni (the same one I'd hit the putting green while dad played a tournament years earlier) where we could walk and play as long as we wanted for like $10. We'd usually be out from 9AM till 5PM when either of our moms left work ... easily getting in 36+ holes a day. (I was bummed to hear from mom that course finally closed down a couple years ago)

Beat dad for the first time when I was 14 - I'll never forget it. Carolina Lakes Country Club kinda near Sanford, NC - my 81 to his 83. He never beat me again ... till the last round we ever played together.

Pretty sure this is from 1992; the summer before I turned 15 - at one of the Legends courses in Myrtle Beach, SC ... and that in my hand was my beloved King Cobra 3W.

7TVEhBX.jpg


I'm honestly kinda fuzzy in regards to when my game stepped up or how I fully learned. I was a huge book nerd and read every single golf book I could get my hands on; some I still have ... including my very first copy of "Jack Nicklaus' Lesson Tee." I figure the bulk of it was playing practically every weekend with dad and practicing in our pretty huge yard (one of the advantages of growing up on what was effectively a farm in the south). By the time I was old enough to drive; every day after school was either the range or a round with my buddies - which we had free access to from being on the golf team.

I suppose if I were to teach someone to play that's never swung a club; it'd be the typical "from the green back" approach though I'd probably skip from putting to pitching and address chipping a little later; since there's just so much to chipping and I feel like one needs a solid swing foundation to be successful with feel shots 10-20 yards and in. Personally, I feel like a 3/4 swing-pitch does a great job building a foundation. Grip, takeaway, tempo, balance, swinging through - but with less room to make mistakes or learn bad habits. Hitting 3/4 pitches is STILL how I warm up.
 
aenemated said:
7th grade, my (very) small school had a "golf team" that was mostly just a coach taking us to a nearby muni; giving us some direction on the range for a bit and then we'd play a round. .
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the course I play most often, Monday and Wednesday the local High School team practices. Let me re-phrase that: "practices". The coach has never shown up that I have seen. It is whatever players feel like showing up show up and play 9 holes. They don't work on different shots, different swings...they play a straight up 9 hole round. Not on their "home course" their matches are on. Don't quote me on this...but I suspect they are not a district powerhouse...
 
darthweasel said:
the course I play most often, Monday and Wednesday the local High School team practices. Let me re-phrase that: "practices". The coach has never shown up that I have seen. It is whatever players feel like showing up show up and play 9 holes. They don't work on different shots, different swings...they play a straight up 9 hole round. Not on their "home course" their matches are on. Don't quote me on this...but I suspect they are not a district powerhouse...
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Haha yeah, that was pretty much what we did. The "coach" - who was a famously good player around town - was a friend of my family so I probably got more attention in terms of swing mechanics and such than the other guys. I know we played some matches against other schools but damned if I can remember anything about them!

My high school team, though - we were pretty damn good. Won our conference 3 of my 4 years against some really talented competition.
 
darthweasel said:
I learned golf in a very ad hoc way. Borrow one of Dad or mom’s clubs, usually a 5i, go to the corner ball park, hit back and forth from baseball field at one end to other. Borrow their by now ancient set of clubs (persimmon woods…yeah.) and go to the local 9 hole course, hack my way around having great time, determining if I had a good round or a bad round by did I come back with more golf balls than I left with (hint: almost always yes. My favorite club was probably a ball retriever). Always walk the course because the money for a cart was more than the cost of the round I was playing.
Play 2-5 times a year maybe with people about the same. Go to golf show, buy "frequency matched shafts", working a job where I actually played like 10 or 15 times one year. I slice, so of course I stand wide open, creating a bigger slice but since I play for it, I usually get away with it…unless of course there is a house there and I hit it straight that one time…
Get a better job, work with people more serious about golf. Get fitted for clubs, take lessons, keep unofficial handicap. Read up on golf, research the short game, course management, learn how to play out of sand, how to chip, how to hit a flop shot, hot to get the ball to check up. Become respectable, I assume I was an average-ish golfer (16.8 handicap at that time.)
　
If I had it to do over again, and had all the patience in the world, knowing what I know now, I would learn the game completely different.
　
Start out putting from 1’ until it was automatic. Back up to 2’. 3’. Etc until I was putting at scratch golfer level from 10’ and lagging close outside there.
Move to putting from the fringe, then chip shot. Play the "2 shot" drill until I was good from 10 yards off the green. Learn how to use a wedge to get over that greenside bunker and stay on the green.
Back up, learn a quarter swing wedge. Half swing wedge. ¾ swing wedge. Full swing wedge. Bump and run.
By now I am money from 150 in. I am putting the little white pellet in its home in 3 attempts or less from 150. Now the trick is to get to or inside 150. And I have no fear of needing to hit to a number, I have the skill to get close from anywhere. Course management will indicate where I want to hit the ball to in order to avoid trouble.
Learn short irons, mid irons, long irons, hybrids, woods, driver in turn. Now I am a complete golfer, tee to green. The scoring stroke is always the one that drops it in the cup. My job is to figure out how to get into that range as efficiently as possible and I have all the tools to do so.
　
I wish I could go back and learn that way. Instead, I have to remember to do this to keep from re-swinging with that bad habit. I have had to unlearn and relearn everything from grip to address to ball position and old bad habits creep in at the worst time. I wish I was young enough to unlearn and relearn, but the old saw, you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, while false, has elements of truth…under pressure I might revert to that outside in swing or that over the top cast or that hesitation on the delicate chip.
I would love to see the player who learned from the scoring stroke out to hole start instead of the way I did.


How should people learn? I keep trying to convince my wife to. I send her beauty shots from the course, pics of wildlife. She indicates interest...I think starting with putting, seeing the ball drop in the cup and experiencing success might help more than the other way. I don't know. thoughts?
Click to expand...
been thinking about this. Firstly nice read, and I respect your feelings about it. But honestly whos to say what any "correct" method is?

There has always been an ideology to learn the game from the hole and then on out. But imo all that is,...is an ideology. There is no technically correct way imo. Very many real good players out there who learned by striking balls first and they are just fine and darn talented at it all.

But whichever way one learns, I don't believe there is any incorrect or correct manor in which to do it. Either way everyone has to learn it all. The thing about first starting is that if one could only learn the game from the hole on out, there would be a lot less people playing golf imo. I mean tons of new people , probably most (many of which who do become hooked) usually begin by striking balls at the range and then try to learn how to do that with some sort of regularity or semi efficiency. You see....imo the problem is that
striking balls (to the beginner) is more fun. And its the more attractive part of beginning a step into golf. Things like putting and chipping (to most beginners ignorant to the entire game) are not quite as attractive nor as fun as striking balls. Its more tedious , less appealing , and more work-like oriented a thing to the honestly ignorant newbie vs striking balls.

Also,....if newbies can take some sort of semi regular swing that gets them towards the greens even if half hacking it up. They can have "some fun" doing that and a couple shots made here or there is all it takes to get them addicted (or hooked in). Many of them would rather struggle chipping/short pitching vs taking 10/12 strokes just to be near green territory. imo they would deal better with that vs learning the other way first where as they cant even get half way there before having to pick up. Theyd rather pick up near the green than half way down the holes layout. Its just more fun that way for them and they can at least go out there and participate.

Of course once they learn a bit more and improve a little , then they may begin to understand things a bit differenty but at least they are hooked. The other way with the less attractive first impressions and not being able to get off a tee or hit some sort of approaches even if not good , not nearly as many imo wouldn't even become hooked. The kind of process involved in working from the hole on out is far too long and tedious a road to hook the average newbie. They for the most part want to strike balls. Right, wrong, or indifferent..... is just the way it is.

But that said, as much as I hear your thoughts and logic , I still don't believe there is a "correct" way per say . Imo one should learn to do it all just barely ok enough in the beginning.
 
I started with goofing off at the range, just laughing as my giant slice went over the net and possibly into the parking lot next door, and yelling "steeeeeeevee PERRRYY" (this was about the time baseketball came out) and "iheard your mom slept with.... SQUEAK!" just so my friend would laugh and throw the club into the range .. then following college friends played so I figured I would try and I caught the bug.. definitely tried learning long game in and it hasnt worked out all that great, still a ~ 16hcp but I can only blame myself for not practicing that short game you mention in the op.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 
No offense, but that doesn't sound like learning the game correctly, what is? different for everybody, but spending a lot of time on putting certainly isn't correct IMO, putting is easy, I'd rather see a new player spending all their time with a 5i in their hand.
 
rollin said:
But that said, as much as I hear your thoughts and logic , I still don't believe there is a "correct" way per say ..
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I concur there is not a right way and that was probably poorly worded by me. Reminds me of a story Pelz tells in his short game bible about following two players around. Paraphrasing, one had a swing that looked like Jessica Alba in Into the Blue, the other had the wicked witch of the west for a swing, more warts than a frog kissing convention. And at the end of the day the ugly swing had outscored the beauty swing, had a long career with some wins and the beautiful swing never made it.

I have played with guys who...man, it hurts my eyes. They open their stance, come way over the top, their clubface is flailing every which direction...and the ball splits the fairway over and over and over. Not a swing you would teach but very effective.


So while I agree there is no right way...I do think each individual might have a way that works for them. Frank has told me of the different explanations different instructors he has had used and how one was super helpful and one had him ready to quit. He has a beautiful game and bad instruction had him frustrated.

For me, when I like something...history, basketball, baseball, golf, the history of turtles in the Sahara desert...whatever it is, I like to really get in and learn it and learn not just the subject but the hows, whys and alternatives. In a perfect world, that would have been how I learned because I would understand the mechanics of every swing, from the pendulum of the putter to the rotating hip sliding explosion of the driver. As is...I am undereducated on golf and it shows, like when I go to hit a draw...and start it right, send it further right. I don't always know why. Swing path? club face relative to swing path? alignment? did I do something else? I cannot self-check.

Had I learned different than I did I would be better but...too late for this old dog :)
 
if I was starting over or starting someone in the game I'd go with 3wood off the tee, wedge and putter. I wouldn't hesitate to start with or switch to the driver either.

Tee shots, wedge shots, putts, the 3 most important aspects of the game.

I'd introduce but not empasize iron play and bunker play last. I think they are the two harder things for beginners to grasp.
 
darthweasel said:
I concur there is not a right way and that was probably poorly worded by me. Reminds me of a story Pelz tells in his short game bible about following two players around. Paraphrasing, one had a swing that looked like Jessica Alba in Into the Blue, the other had the wicked witch of the west for a swing, more warts than a frog kissing convention. And at the end of the day the ugly swing had outscored the beauty swing, had a long career with some wins and the beautiful swing never made it.

I have played with guys who...man, it hurts my eyes. They open their stance, come way over the top, their clubface is flailing every which direction...and the ball splits the fairway over and over and over. Not a swing you would teach but very effective.


So while I agree there is no right way...I do think each individual might have a way that works for them. Frank has told me of the different explanations different instructors he has had used and how one was super helpful and one had him ready to quit. He has a beautiful game and bad instruction had him frustrated.

For me, when I like something...history, basketball, baseball, golf, the history of turtles in the Sahara desert...whatever it is, I like to really get in and learn it and learn not just the subject but the hows, whys and alternatives. In a perfect world, that would have been how I learned because I would understand the mechanics of every swing, from the pendulum of the putter to the rotating hip sliding explosion of the driver. As is...I am undereducated on golf and it shows, like when I go to hit a draw...and start it right, send it further right. I don't always know why. Swing path? club face relative to swing path? alignment? did I do something else? I cannot self-check.

Had I learned different than I did I would be better but...too late for this old dog :)
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I understand you. But It just seems your convinced you would have a better understanding of it all and also been better at it all by beginning the other way. And honestly i dont really think that would be the case. Firstly, you technically couldnt know that anyway.
The things you speak of pertaining to the swing, its path and face angle and all the other factors and variables are not at all something imo you couldnt learn regardless which way you began. I just dont see the connection. Im not saying there is right or wrong but just that your convinced (it seems anyway) that you went about it the wrong way (as for how you now se it) and I honestly just dont think it mattered. And imo it still doesnt because you can still learn however much you wan still want to or feel you need to. And you still may or may not be any better actually doing it anyway. I dont think there is a correct beginning to golf. In order to play imo anyone has to be able to do all of it to some sort of degree.
 
I don't take issue with the thought of starting closer to the hole, but I think it would be a much slower way to play well or enjoy the game. I think you work on learning everything on the range, identify your weaknesses, and work a little more on them. But play immediately and often. The bigger issue is having a mindset that you should be great/perfect from the start. It takes years/decades to get really great at golf and that should be valued. Most things in life that are worth your time and effort don't come easy.
 
rollin said:
I understand you. But It just seems your convinced you would have a better understanding of it all and also been better at it all by beginning the other way. And honestly i dont really think that would be the case. Firstly, you technically couldnt know that anyway.
The things you speak of pertaining to the swing, its path and face angle and all the other factors and variables are not at all something imo you couldnt learn regardless which way you began. I just dont see the connection. Im not saying there is right or wrong but just that your convinced (it seems anyway) that you went about it the wrong way (as for how you now se it) and I honestly just dont think it mattered. And imo it still doesnt because you can still learn however much you wan still want to or feel you need to. And you still may or may not be any better actually doing it anyway. I dont think there is a correct beginning to golf. In order to play imo anyone has to be able to do all of it to some sort of degree.
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when people first meet me they usually have certain expectations. I am not, was not, and never will be svelte. When I was 12 I was 5'10" and weighed 180. That was not 180 pounds of twisted steel and sex appeal, either...I often joke, "I better be careful or I will pull a flab. To pull a muscle you actually have to have one".

I topped out a 6'0" even and as of this morning have shrunk to 71-1/4" per my physical. But I have not shrunk belly-wise. So people see middle age, overweight dude. Athlete has never been the first thing that comes to mind. In fact, when I got fitted for clubs the first time, the guy on the monitor, bored, let me have my swings while he was talking to someone, it came time to analyze and he said, "your swing is..." stop, pause, then slightly shocked voice, "surprisingly athletic". That was years ago and I still laugh about it.

I was always gifted athletically. I was dunking by the time I was 15, was granted early advancement going straight from pitching machine to the majors in baseball, picked up tennis and was beating people who had been playing for years very quickly. The problem with being athletically gifted while resembling the Pillsbury Doughboy is I never had to work at stuff.

So for me, when I started golf, having already been involved in various ball sports, I just did what came naturally. This led to some really bad habits. And the nature of playing a few times a year on courses that promoted some of those habits really ingrained them. Thus when I was recently injured, the natural tendency was to revert. Before the accident I had so corrected my swing that I often played a baby draw. I have hit 3 draws since August, all in the last 2 weeks. But that slice I spent lessons and range hours getting rid of...they are back because I made them my natural swing. They are my comfort swing in a sense.

I trained myself to play incorrectly. I built flaws into my swing. Famously among my group, I once had a one-off lesson at a golf show. And it indisputably corrected a swing flaw. But that swing flaw adjusted multiple other swing flaws and fixing it made me worse...and because of how I learned I could not "unfix" it.

Now I understand enough of the fundamentals of the swing to assess the basics of what is going wrong, though not always how to fix it. And because I am not ever going to be the guy spending 5 days a week, 4 hours a day at the range or shipping area fixing these things, there are limits to how good I will ever get. However, in a perfect world, had I learned correctly...fixing would be touching up, not fundamentally re-building a swing :)
 
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