Golf For Beginners - A Guide to Learning Golf

Every year more people decide to take up the game of golf. However, most golf instruction is written for people who already have a fundamental understanding of golf. Golf for beginners is seldom addressed. When golf for beginners instruction does appear it is typically based on the full swing and does not really address how to play golf and have fun playing golf.

Like many things golf is easier to learn if we can create small successes along the way. The best place to create these small successes for beginning golfers is to start them close to the hole. So our golf for beginners emphasis here will be on putting, specifically getting used to putting the ball into the hole!

To become good at golf you must be able to putt the ball well but most beginners don't start out with putting. When golf beginners do practice putting, they practice missing putts instead of making putts. You will have more confidence if you build your game up from small successes.

So let's emphasize making putts which is a lot of fun. The very first golf drill you should learn is to take three balls to the practice green. Find a good flat, straight putt. Place the first ball about 1 inch from the cup, the second ball should be a foot behind that and the third ball a foot behind the second ball.

Now that the balls are in place you should tap the first ball in, move back and stroke the 2nd ball in and finally the 3rd ball. Fill up the cup. Eventually, this should be easy and its fun. You will be building up a habit of success making these short putts.

Here's a little secret. While this is written here as a golf for beginners drill, you should know that many tour pros do this very same drill. The only difference is that they add another three balls to the drill each a foot behind the other. So in the end they are trying to fill up the cup with six balls, the last one will be about 5-6 feet from the cup.

So after you have mastered making all three balls over and over add three more balls as described above. Remember to keep it fun. If you are making four in a row but keep missing the fifth then practice up to four balls for a while. Once you have that mastered add the fifth ball and so on. This positive re-enforcement is a great way to learn anything and is particularly good at making golf fun for beginners.

Golf can be presented in a very complex manner. However, at its core golf is a simple game. Hit the ball, find it, hit it again until it's in the hole. This part of golf for beginners has started where we think you should which is putting. If you want to learn a simple concept like this for the full swing check out the resources at Golf for Beginners