Newb golfer

[Thefonz]

Does BG have any golfers? my boss and co-worker have been pressuring me to join them in weekly golf shit.

what i pose to BG is simple.

What would BG suggest for a newbie golfer? Obviously im not interested in spending a grand on a set of clubs just yet since i've never even played the game, but i really do not wanna go fucking walmart on it either.

any tips? thoughts? anything at all? help me out.

[BerenTebogo]

If your boss wants you to go golfing with him and you've never played / rarely ever played keep finding ways out of it. It's one of those things that can be equated to having a limp handshake in the business world. You're better off avoiding the outing than going out there and embarrassing your boss and co-worker on their usual course.

[chazzyphizzle]

Buy shitty clubs, go to the driving range and only the driving range, get one or two lessons. The quickest way to improve after you can advance the ball forward more than 50 yards at a time is to work on your chipping/putting/anything100yardsandin. You can shank it around every hole and get on the green in 4 (on a par ), and as long as you can 2 putt from there you will shoot 108 on a par 72 course, which is terrible, but the majority of golfers can't break 100 consistentl.

tldr; if you actually want to play, hit balls at the range and chip/putt lots, you will improve really really fast.

[Bikpik]

I just picked up golf this year too, I've played about 7 times this summer so far, the best thing you can go is work on your short game. Go to the driving range and practice with your irons and chipping, that's by far the make or break part of the game. And don't try to kill the ball every time you swing, 150-200 yard down the fairway is better than 200+ yards in the woods.

[Norellicus]

If your boss wants you to go golfing with him and you've never played / rarely ever played keep finding ways out of it. It's one of those things that can be equated to having a limp handshake in the business world. You're better off avoiding the outing than going out there and embarrassing your boss and co-worker on their usual course.

You can't be serious. It's a game, not a boardroom; if they want the pleasure of his company who cares if he's never played?

Edit: OP, most courses will rent you a set of clubs for a reasonable price, that will suffice if this is just a one-off or if you don't want to buy into a full set just yet. Definitely do not walmart it, you won't get your money's worth. Do check craigslist and other such aftermarket sources for clubs/sets, golf clubs can last pretty well and are moderately easily restored if necessary, may save you some money (but do so with someone who knows what they're doing to double check for fatal flaws in the seller's product).

As for how to play, best thing you can do is practice at a range. Lots of municipal courses will also give you 30min to an hour with a spotter for a mild fee as well to help form up your technique...you don't necessarily need a full time instructor, but having someone to tell you what to look for and feel for as you execute your game is useful so you can fine tune your own play (which is ultimately the only way you'll get better at all).

[blkswrdsmn]

Tossing in my thoughts as another newb golfer:

Try to find second-hand clubs or a cheap set; you suck anyway, so it won't make a hueg difference.

Do buy a driver. Screw around with some and find one you can swing.

Go to the driving range a bunch. Don't just drive it here. This part isn't about working on that 300 yard drive. Break out the other clubs and work on your swing with them. You will see the improvement on the course.

A decent tip: the clubs are numbered based on the angle. To hit a 5 iron, have the ball at medium range from you and about centered in relation to your body. The lower the number the further away the ball should be and more towards the front side of your swing, the higher the club the closer to you and towards the back of your swing.

[jinkazama]

If your boss wants you to go golfing with him and you've never played / rarely ever played keep finding ways out of it. It's one of those things that can be equated to having a limp handshake in the business world. You're better off avoiding the outing than going out there and embarrassing your boss and co-worker on their usual course.

Fuck that, go and suck and then ask your boss for tips and pointers. Make him feel even more superior to you than he already his.


As far as clubs go, go to like sams or costco or something like that, you can get a cheap pair of clubs for like 99-150. Just go to a driving range and practice, but yea mid-short game is where you want to practice the most at.

personally as a new golfer i wouldnt touch a driver, maybe its just me, but they can be picky, i'd just stick with a 3-5 wood honestly.

[BerenTebogo]

Fuck that, go and suck and then ask your boss for tips and pointers. Make him feel even more superior to you than he already his.


As far as clubs go, go to like sams or costco or something like that, you can get a cheap pair of clubs for like 99-150. Just go to a driving range and practice, but yea mid-short game is where you want to practice the most at.

personally as a new golfer i wouldnt touch a driver, maybe its just me, but they can be picky, i'd just stick with a 3-5 wood honestly.

This works if you're shooting like +10 or 20 strokes over your boss. It doesn't work if you're shanking every shot 20 yards into the woods and holding everyone up.

I know of situations where this has happened (by virtue of my parents' friends telling awful stories) and in some of the more extreme situations (the person was up for a promotion in the securities dept. of Merrill Lynch and got passed right up after a round of golf that was so bad I had to listen to the CEO of ML drone on for ~20 minutes about it).

Norellicus has a point somewhere in that scree that it does depend what level of employment / job field he's in.

Small business / retail / low-end corporate? Fuck it. Doesn't matter.

Anything above that? You bet your ass it does, and if you think it doesn't, well, you're "that guy" plain and simple.

[Boyiee]

Get a 100-200$ set of clubs from any sporting goods store, should come with bag all the major irons and drivers and putter. Go to a range and learn how to make contact and keep the ball straight. Once you try to swing the club and try to get some range, you are going to hit it FAR left or right. Do everything you can, slow down your swing, take your time, and get that ball straight with every single one of your clubs. If you can drive straight, it will make everything else easier. If they are good golfers, you are going to slow them down, and noone likes going too slow or too fast on a course, so don't play with them if they are decent at all. But your main focus on a range should be hitting every club 10-50 times, getting the ball to go straight. Then try to get it to go where you want it too. It doesn't take much effort to make the ball go a decent distance, the key is how you strike the ball.

[Akiyama]

I hear that guy Tiger Woods is pretty good at golf. His secret seemed to be to bang everyone that moves. I mean look at him now? I assume he hasn't had the chance to bang everything that moves, and now he can't win.

As far as real advice, pretty much everything said here really works. I'd definitely at least get a driver and work on your swing out at the range. If you've got some cash, or maybe a friend who's good at golf, get him out there with you to help you figure out a good swing for you, and like mentioned..don't swing so hard that you try and cream it, causing the ball to cut/slice the wrong way. Just find something comfortable.

[Lucavi]

Eyes down, shoulders relaxed, feet comfortable and spread wide, and make sure you don't make adjustments once you step up with your feet to line up the shot. If you have to adjust your upper body from that point on, stand back and do the whole thing over.

RESIST THE URGE TO LOOK AT YOUR SHOT WHEN YOU SWING. There will be plenty of time to admire your soaring 225 drive once the ball is blissfully sailing through the air. Keep your eyes down at the tee/ground for the entire duration of the swing, including the follow through. You'll start developing a "feel" for when it is the right time to raise your eyes. Golf is one of those sports where you can really develop a rythym quickly once you nail out the basics and get comfortable.

Also make sure you have good grips on your clubs. The more you can decrease the "knock" in your wrists when pulling back, the better. Just hit the driving range, get in good with the guys that work there, and make a habit out of it. Golf is one of those "breakthrough" sports/activities where once you "get it", it really becomes a hell of a lot of fun. I liken it to finally learning how to strike the middle of a tennis racket and keep the balls on the court - once you grasp that, the game just takes off.

[Franzer]

If your boss wants you to go golfing with him and you've never played / rarely ever played keep finding ways out of it. It's one of those things that can be equated to having a limp handshake in the business world. You're better off avoiding the outing than going out there and embarrassing your boss and co-worker on their usual course.

I'll actually second this statement too. For lots of companies, lots of business deals are closed on the golf course. If you're a decent player, you'll be fine as long as you aren't holding everyone up, because then you can talk about how you don't get on the course enough. Definitely though, show up with your own clubs, because if you don't and say you have to rent, they will assume the worst. For some executives its golf, for others its tennis.

[Lucavi]

Personally I'd learn to play both reasonably well if I was working in corporate America. Performance on the links or court can be just as promotable as performance in the office.

[Mjd]

You need to go play by yourself a few times before you go with them. I golf at charity events and with my bosses. It's all practice.


>Driving range
>9 Hole golf courses (cheap ones, great to practice)
>Cheap balls
>Watch golf on TV and copy there swings
>Don't swing like it's a baseball bat
>Patience
>Don't get angry


Oh and don't ever talk shit.

[BerenTebogo]

Also, remember that golf =/= baseball or hockey. Your arms should have literally nothing to do with any shot you take. The moment you start moving, pushing, or pulling with your arms, you've failed and your shot will suck.

Shoulders and hips. Repeat that to yourself a few million times.

[Lucavi]

^ This. Use your shoulders, hips, and keep your legs firmly grounded. You can raise your heel slightly on your follow through, but the drive should come from your hips and shoulders, combined with simple pendulum motion and physics. When you start using your arms, your shot will go all over the place, if you even hit it - most people will simply top the ball and watch it dribble 2 feet into the grass.

Avoid the urge to Happy Gilmore it up there. Avoid the urge to cave-man the ball when you see other guys driving 250+, or when you finally get in a groove. If you're hitting well, write down what you're doing in that instant, because its very easy to "lose" whatever you were doing right, then struggle for awhile trying to get it back.

[Dolmen]

First, this was missed:
http://mkeamy.typepad.com/photos/unc...ball_small.jpg


The primary question here is do you even want to play?

I started playing at 15, and purchased a $179 MacGregor irons+woods+putter deal that turned out to be great clubs for the two summers until I switched to a set of Mizunos. For buying entry clubs, a lot of stores will sell the prior year's stuff as well so you can get some really nice deals. Personally, if I was sure that I wouldn't tire of golf, and was going to play more than just with the boss & co-worker, I'd get a $250 set of irons, a 3 wood, and a putter, maybe a 5 wood as well. You could get all of these and a bag for ~$500. If you're not sure if you're really going to stick with it, go drop the $200-$300 on the intro sets (just make sure they don't feel like they're going to break).

My biggest tip is to play twilight at a par-3 course. I have one across the street from my home that is basically empty for twilight. Each shot I take I drop another 1-2 balls for practice shots. Doing this will really help your game, and the people at the course generally don't care as long as you're not tearing up the course/slowing others down.

[aru]

Also, remember that golf =/= baseball or hockey. Your arms should have literally nothing to do with any shot you take. The moment you start moving, pushing, or pulling with your arms, you've failed and your shot will suck.

Shoulders and hips. Repeat that to yourself a few million times.

Lol... seriously. First time I went golfing was at our company outing, never before. I used to play street hockey a lot in high school and didn't think that I needed to practice at all since it seemed so similar. Thank god it was a small company and we all got drunk beforehand because I really looked like an asshole. Holding the club wrong, stepping into the swing, missing the ball completely, trying to kill it, not hitting the face of the club and having the ball shoot out to the side unpredictably, taking huge chunks of sod into the air while missing, kept forgetting to pick up the tee, nearly fell out of the cart on several occasions, lost so many balls that I had to borrow some... what a nightmare for the people playing behind us (we eventually started letting people pass us up). It was a joke the first couple holes and soon just became embarrassment from then on. Luckily, we were playing 'best ball' otherwise I would have just went home in total shame after getting kicked off the course. Next day my boss told me that people were complaining about our group. He made a joke of it, but your boss should never have to hear complaints about anything under any circumstances. Needless to say I straightened right the fuck up for the next time we went out.

So, that said, keep dodging them or get some lessons. These really are your only two options. You don't have to be great, you don't have to be good, you just have to be at least less than mediocre. If/when you do go with them, go second to last and watch everyone else's form to see if you can pick something up. Don't go first and don't go last until you start getting better.

[Thefonz]

Fuck that, go and suck and then ask your boss for tips and pointers. Make him feel even more superior to you than he already his.


As far as clubs go, go to like sams or costco or something like that, you can get a cheap pair of clubs for like 99-150. Just go to a driving range and practice, but yea mid-short game is where you want to practice the most at.

personally as a new golfer i wouldnt touch a driver, maybe its just me, but they can be picky, i'd just stick with a 3-5 wood honestly.

my boss is in no way superior to me. skill wise we both do the same thing he has just been with the company longer.

[Thefonz]

but i do appreciate all the useful tips/info/etc. I honestly do not believe they are very good at the whole golf thing at all tbh. i listen to the stories they tell and it sounds to me like they are both terrible. maybe the higher ups in my company are much better, but my direct manager and coworker i think i can safely go in without alot of practice and not slow anyone down.