Golf For Beginners

In golf, a player can have a maximum of 14 clubs in his or her bag. This is usually a mixture of woods, irons and a putter. As a beginner you could take a driver, 7 iron, wedge and a putter to start off with and build up to getting a full set once you become more confident.

Woods, which are not really woods anymore (they are made out of various metals) consist of a driver, a 3 wood and a 5 wood. A set of irons normally runs from a 5 iron all the way through to a sand wedge or even a lob wedge and also includes hybrids which are irons replacement clubs and are much easier to use than long irons.

Finally, and an absolute essential in any golf bag, the putter! The shortest and smallest club in the golf bag, putters now come in various styles, but all of them are used on the green to putt the ball into the hole, hopefully in only one or two shots! For more on selecting the right golf club check out our blog.

Every golfer can wear his or her own style to look good on the golf course. However, there are clothes you can’t wear on the golf course. Check out our golf dress code blog to know what you should wear for a round of golf. For footwear, you probably have trainers or outdoor shoes at home, but they won’t help you at golf. For golf, you need a pair of golf shoes.

Traditionally golfers would wear a pair of shoes with special metal spikes or ‘cleats’ in them. These are known as spikes or spiked shoes, although nowadays they have moved from metal to non-metal spikes. These golf shoes allow a player to be anchored in the ground as they are taking a shot without danger of falling over as they rotate their body in swinging the club.

However, in recent years, there has been the rise of spikeless shoes. The big advantage for these is that they are designed for you to play golf in them, but you can also do other things in them. There is no worry about leaving your golf shoes behind if you can drive the car with them on! Check out our full list of what to wear on the golf course.

For a round of golf you will need:

• A Golf Bag
• Golf Balls
• Tees
• Ball Marker

There is also equipment out there that isn’t essential for a round of golf but will help including:

• A Golf Trolley
• A Golf GPS Watch
• Golf Umbrella
• Pitchmark Repairer

What is a handicap? The handicap system is one of the greatest things about golf. It allows players of completely different standards to have a fair and competitive game with each other.

A handicap is the number of extra shots a player needs to match the par score on a golf course. For example, if a golfer has a handicap of 18, they have 18 extra shots during a round.

They add up their score and then subtract 18 off the total. For example, if the total score is 90, they take away 18 to record a handicap score of 72.

How long is a piece of string? A burning question even amongst experienced players! For a group of four players, nine holes should take no more than two hours and 18 holes should be around four hours.

12 golf balls is a good number to bring, on average golfers lose 2 balls per round. However, it’s easy to put a couple in the water on one hole so having a dozen golf balls in the bags is best.

Putting is always good to practice if you can’t get to the course, any floor space of at least six to eight feet on a carpet (but not shagpile) will do. The benefit of putting on a carpet is that it will be slower than a well-maintained green, so encourages a more positive stroke.

If you don’t have a practice aid that returns the ball to you, use a glass or cup laying on its side. Do not become fixated on holing every putt; what you’re initially trying to do is groove a smooth, repeating stroke. Set yourself small challenges. Hit 10 putts, for example, with no ambition except to get all 10 past your target. As you improve, tell yourself to hole three consecutive putts before you can finish. Check out our blog if you want to know more about how to practice putting at home.