Newbie to Golf, got a couple questions.

[spikerS]

Hey guys, i am a totally new golfer looking for some basic tips to help with golf.

1. how do you figgure out what your golf handicap is?

2. I am crushing the ball off the tee box, sending it 200+ yards easy, but when i get near the green, and pull out the PW, I am still crushing it. how do you properly use the PW to keep the distance down, besides swinging softly? i swear i am hitting it wayyyy too soft and yet that ball still goes nutz.

3. looking for some general swing tips. things like I got the other day like when going off the tee box, line the ball up with your leading foot to stop the ball from hooking right. that kind of thing.

any ideas or tips and good courses for the beginner player would be greatly appreciated!

[Crymson]

I don't know if you're left or right handed, but i found that if i moved my back hand, or lower hand, however you want to think of it, about a 1/8the of a turn towards the ball, on my grip, my slice diminished noticably. Just slightly twist your back hand counterclockwize and it really controlled my club face from opening up.

[1-Bar]

1. play a lot of rounds and see what your score is and how many over/under par you are. That is a rough estimation on your handicap

2. practice a lot on your wedges and short irons at the range. Too much focus on driver/woods, those only account for a small percentages of the shots you use on the course. You'll need a lot of confidence in your wedges if you want a 60 degree open-face full swing flop shot to go down. 90% of your golf shots are inside 100 yards.

What works for me: a very soft grip on my wedges around the green and a very slow up swing. On the way down, I let gravity and the club do the work while keeping focus on square contact right behind the golf ball.

In and around the fringe using your irons/wedges I use them like a putter, shoulders only, no hips.

3. best swing tip I can think of is slow up swing and on the down all the power is generated from 7 o'clock to 6 o'clock impact. I can crush the ball at the range 300 yards+, but the farthest one are the ones that I don't think I swing my hardest. Finesse game :dunno: :thumbsup:

[Euro_Trash]

Originally posted by 1-Bar

2. practice a lot on your wedges and short irons at the range. Too much focus on driver/woods

Try to find a range that uses real grass, not mats. Mats are garbage, and make it easier to hit more straight and further

[1-Bar]

^great point, RCGA off of Glenmore/Deerfoot is good, go in the morning, afternoon/evening you're hitting out of dirt

[bigboom]

how far do you hit your PW? You are most likely catching the ball thin and sending a line drive. you want to hit down on the ball and the loft carry it up. A good estimation for distance on PW is approx 130ish plus carry.

handicap is based on the rating of the course and your score, you will notice that on the scorecards there will be handicap ratings and slope ratings so essentially the general rule is your score inus the course rating then multiply by 113 and divide by the slope rating.

[chris]

don't worry about your handiccap, you're probably a 36 if you just started. So many new golfers are way too worried about their score.

It's pretty much impossible to give you swing tips without actually seeing your swing. I suggest a lesson, learn how to do things right first. It's way easier to teach a new golfer than a bad golfer. I would suggest the RCGA golf learning center

[urbannomad]

just make sure you don't swing like this:

lYnlo-dwPXs


:nut: :rofl:

[GQBalla]

LOL ^^^

[big_k]

Do not worry about your handicap, and do not keep score, it will only make the game more frusterating when you are first starting.

And as for your PW, shots around the green and inside 100 yards are feel shots. All you can do is practice hitting it 80 yards, or 60 yards or 40 yards etc until you gain a feel for the distance.

And the only swing tip i will say right now, is make sure you accelerate the club head through impact, the worst thing you can do in a golf swing is decelerate, whether it be your driver and iron or your putter, make sure you accelerate, and swing the club through impact.