Start Playing Golf: Your First Practice Routines

People often ask me what are the first things they should do to start to learn to play golf and my response is always the same.

Beg, borrow or buy a cheap putter and a pitching wedge for around $12-$15 each. Get 20-25 golf balls from your friends, a local golf club or a cheap sports goods outlet. That's all you need - one putter, one club and a bag of balls.

Go to your local or municipal golf course where there should be a practice putting green. This will usually be free or very low cost. To begin with just learn to putt from all parts of the green - uphill shots and downhill ones; short ones and longer ones, straight ones and 'curved' ones. Spend several hours learning to putt.

When you feel you have the hang of putting, learn to chip shots from between 5-12 feet from the green towards the flag. This is much more difficult than it seems, and it is where many shots are dropped in a round of golf.

The main problem inexperienced golfers have with the chip shot is how far back to take the club and accelerating through the ball. This requires practice and many, many chip shots.

The common mistakes that golfers make playing this shot are 'grounding' (hitting the ground first) the club before striking the ball or 'topping' the ball - striking it too high.

Chipping requires you to adopt a much more upright stance - that is with your feet almost together and no more than 2-3 inches apart. Your hands should be 'ahead' of the ball, meaning that they are at a slight angle in front of the ball as you strike it.

You only need to take the club back a short distance to strike the ball - probably no more than 12-24 inches depending on how far you want the ball to travel. Make sure that you make good, clean contact and ensure that you strike the ball in the centre of the club. This is crucial.

All you want to do is lift the ball a little up in the air to clear the fringe around the putting green and land the ball on the green to run towards the hole.

To help you develop your chipping technique, watch how the professionals do it and note their stance, how they address the ball, the extent of the backlift and accelerating through the ball as they strike it. Memorise these techniques and practice, practice and practice doing this yourself around the green.

Chipping is a much neglected part of the game for amateurs, and I can assure you, as a new golfer you will have to play a lot of chip shots. Even good golfers do, but they practice them often.

You have to keep your eye on the ball and make sure you strike it in the right place at the right speed to avoid these mistakes.

These two simple practice techniques will get you prepared for learning other parts of the game. You probably need to put in about 50-60 hours just learning to putt and a similar amount of time on chipping and, of course, the practice needs to be continued if you want to become a good golfer.

Remember - Tiger Woods, Anikka Sorenstam, David Beckham and Roger Federer did not become the great sportsmen/women they are without first learning some basic techniques and you won't enjoy your game so much without learning how to do it properly.