Guide for Beginning Golfers

The Masters is professional golf’s most prestigious major tournament and this year the attention will be on Tiger Woods. Since last November when the incident occurred involving the his alleged fight with Elin and the car crash outside his Orlando home, Tiger Woods has become the main focus of the media and justifiably so.

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The rainy weather is behind us, at least for now and the projected forecast for this coming holiday weekend couldn’t be better. I leave for Myrtle Beach this coming Wednesday and it is important to get some practice in over the next few days if I am to stand a chance with my buddies in our golf wagering competition. I will be heading to the golf course on Saturday and hit some golf balls off the practice mat in our rear yard on Sunday before cleaning my golf clubs prior to packing them for the trip. The golf course pictured is none other than Caledonia Golf and Fish Club located on the South Strand near Pawleys Island, about 20 miles south of RT. 501 and the heart of Myrtle Beach. It is one of the top rated golf courses in the Myrtle Beach area and my #1 pick for all around beauty and playability.

I am looking forward to getting away for a few days as this winter has been tough on the golfers this off season with all the torrential rain, heavy snow and consistently inclement weather in general for the past three or four months. If you have not yet visited Myrtle Beach it is a golfers paradise and I would highly recommend a vacation there. It is not known as “The Golf Capital of the World” for nothing. I have been visiting the Grand Strand for the pasty twenty years or so and I hope to retire in this area one day. There are so many excellent golf courses, all located  in a radius of about 30 miles and one better than the other. I will fill you in on the trip upon my return. Happy Golfing to All!

More than half the strokes of a persons golf score is made on the putting green. So for better scores it pays  to dedicate a fair amount of practice time working on your putting skills. In the past I have been a streaky putter. Some days I can’t drop one for nothing and others I sink every putt I hit into the cup. The latter is naturally the preference and since I made some adjustments in my set up and putting technique they have made me more consistent on the green.

Direction and speed are the two key components to the putt. It may take some time to be able to read the slope of the green to determine direction. This ability will come from practice and experience as you play. Some techniques I now utilize to aid with consistency in putting are the following:

1) Line up the writing on the golf balls and place your ball on using this line in conjunction with the read you determined after viewing the slope of the green.

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I’ve always been a practitioner of golf etiquette from my initial introduction  to the game and my first time playing golf. It seems at times that new golfers beginning to play and sometimes even experienced golfers are devoid of the etiquette associated with this challenging sport. One of the many courtesies I observe frequently being overlooked is allowing a single or solo player to play through or asking them to join you if there are only two or three players in your group.

This breach of golf etiquette became more blatantly apparent this past weekend when I was the single and two groups in front of me were ingnoring the common courtesies associated with the game. I played the first six holes alone and finally caught up to a twosome and played behind them for a number of holes. I approached the tee and even thought they were still on the teebox they never asked if I would like to join them or play through until about four holes later. I finally played through and was behind a foursome who was more discourteous than the twosome as they never even acknowledged that I was waiting indefinitely on each hole as they proceeded to hit golf balls, one shot worse than the other. I finally left the course around the 17th hole because I was waiting at least 20 minutes on each hole for them to clear the hitting area. This amount of time was well above the average total of  about 15 minutes normally allotted to play an entire golf hole. If it were a beautiful sunny day like the previous weekend I may have hung in there but the cold blustery conditions made it tough to wait so long for each shot.

Golf Tip for the day {Fore: Observe Golf Etiquette and allow a single to join you if you have three or less golfers in your group. Also let a single player or  twosome play through if you notice them behind your group and waiting on every shot.}

Less than two weeks ago it looked like Tiger Woods and Elin were trying to work out their problems and hopefully salvage their marriage. He had completed the first part of his sex addiction treatment and seemed to be making a concerted effort to get back together with Elin. It is now rumored that Elin will be returning home to her parents in Europe with their children and Tiger Woods will be competing in The Masters without his wife and family by his side cheering him on. This is a good indication that the reconcilliation is not going well and the relationship may be beyond repair.  

The big question on the minds of his peers, his golf fans and the media is will his personal problems and the lay off from golf competition affect his performance in The Masters? This is a very tough venue for Tiger to make a first appearance after such a layoff and it will be a true test of how his leave of absence from the PGA Tour and personal problems have affected his golf game. It should be quite apparent by how he is hitting golf balls in the first two rounds if he will be around on Sunday to make a run at a fifth Green Jacket. What are your thoughts? Fell free to send in your opinion and comments. Happy Golfing to All!