Working With Beginners
Do you have a beginning golfer in your life? If so, how do you plan on helping them learn how to play this great game? Most people just hand a club over, show the newbie how to hold on (usually incorrectly), and then let them violently swing away. Making several slashes at the ground before finally making some contact with the ball and watching it just roll a few feet in front of them. If you want to keep this individual, whether they be young or old, interested in the game they need to stay encouraged. Here is my approach to working with new golfers, maybe you will find it helps someone out in your life.
The key to this program is to work from the green, moving backwards up the hole. The process works in these steps.
1. Start with putting! This is a simple stroke that people can pick up quite quickly. For crying out loud, my two year old is able to hold a putter and have a great time on the putting green. To get the beginning golfer in your life encouraged to keep pursuing the game, they need to know that they are able to make contact with the ball. By starting them out with putting, they will invariably be able to make contact and hit the ball. Sure they will struggle with speed and direction, but you will be surprised just how quickly they will start to figure this out. And nothing is better for them than to watch the ball occasionally find the bottom of the cup.
2. Move just off the edge of the green and chip! Now that your beginner has been able to build a little confidence with putting lets start building a golf swing. Just like an infant doesn’t get up and run, they first start with crawling, then walking, then running. This is our crawling stage. The player will start learning the basics of a grip, stance, and making a small yet controlled swinging motion at the golf ball. Because of the shorter motion that they are making with the club, again it is very likely that making contact with the ball will not be an issue. Not only will the ball be moving toward the target, but they will also begin to see the ball leave the earth for a bit and fly through the air. We are now well on our way.
3. Now that our player is making contact with the ball with a short swing, let’s start lengthening things out and learn the full swing. The key to this step is to keep the ball lifted well into the air by teeing up each and every shot. This is simple to do on the range, but even when you take your new golfer out on the course, don’t hesitate to have them hit every shot from a tee. The one thing that most golfers who are learning the game, and even some of those that have played for years, struggle with is to have the club get under the ball and send it skyward. As your player keeps improving, you slowly tee the ball lower and lower until the ball is finally resting on the ground.
4. Now that we have been working with our new golfer by hitting all shots from a tee, it is now time to get out there and play golf as the rules tell us, as the ball lies. By now our beginning golfer has developed a large enough skill set that will enable them to play a round of golf with the knowledge that they are able to get through the day with little frustration. Well, at least as little frustration as possible. Remember this is one tough game.
The key to keeping new golfers continuing with their journey to improvement is to keep them excited about their progress. If they started on day 1, hitting a bucket of balls on the range, only to see maybe one or two of those shots go forward is not how that is accomplished. By following this simple guide to working with new golfers, you will help build a golfer for life.