By Butch Harmon
Photos by Dom Furore
November 2009

One complaint I hear a lot from golfers is that they have no power with their irons. Their approach shots balloon weakly to the right and fall short.

That high-right miss comes from trying to help the ball in the air — exactly what many people think they have to do. Their instincts are to hang back on the right foot and scoop the ball. The left wrist bends backward or cups, which adds loft, turning an 8-iron, for example, into a 9-iron or wedge. And there’s that weak shot they hate.

To be a good iron player, you must hit down and through the ball without trying to help it up. Here are two good swing thoughts: (1) Keep everything moving forward through impact — your weight, your hands and arms, the grip end of the club; (2) hit with the back of your left hand facing the target. Feel as if you’re backhanding the ball at impact. You’ll deliver the club with the correct loft, so an 8-iron behaves like an 8-iron, and you’ll hit more greens.

If you’re just beginning to play golf, keep in mind that you may discover that this
game is not for you. So you should start out with rental clubs at a driving range.
Most driving ranges have rental clubs. Go out and hit balls with these clubs. If
you still want to play golf after hitting a few balls, then buy your own clubs.

Try this on for size
Today, club fitting is big business. Tour pros and average amateur golfers
have access to the same club fitting technology and information. It’s impor-
tant for all golfers — male and female — to use the right equipment for their
body types and physical conditions. For instance, many manufacturers of golf
clubs specialize in creating clubs for women that have softer shafts, which
are lighter and more flexible.
Here are some factors every golfer should consider:
The grip: Determine how thick the grip on your clubs should be. Grips
that are too thin encourage too much hand action in your swing; grips
that are too thick restrict your hands too much. Generally, the proper-
sized grip should allow the middle and ring fingers on your left hand to
barely touch the pad of your thumb when you hold the club. If your fin-
gers don’t touch your thumb, the grip is too big; if your fingers dig into
the pad, the grip is too thin.

The shaft: Consider your height, build, and strength when you choose a
club. If you’re really tall, you need longer (and probably stiffer) shafts.
What does your swing sound like? If your swing makes a loud swish
noise and the shaft is bending like a long cast from a fly-fishing rod at
the top of your swing, you need a very strong shaft. If your swing makes
no noise and you could hang laundry on your shaft at the top of your
swing, you need a regular shaft. Anybody in between needs a medium-
stiff to stiff shaft.

Loft: Then there’s your typical ball flight. If you slice, for example, you can
get clubs with less loft — or perhaps offset heads — to help alleviate that
common problem. For more information about slicing, see Chapter 11.
The clubhead: Consider the size of the clubhead. Today, you can get
standard, midsize, and oversize heads on your clubs. I recommend you
use bigger clubheads for your early days of playing golf. Bigger club-
heads are more forgiving and can help psychologically, too. With some
of today’s jumbo clubheads, your swing thought may well be, “With this
thing, how could I miss?”

The irons: Advanced players choose irons that are perfectly suited to
their swings. Forged, muscle-backed irons are for good players who hit
the ball on the clubface precisely. Cavity-backed irons are for players
who hit the ball all over the clubface.
The bigger the clubface, the more room for error — hence the bigger-
headed metal woods that are popular today for all you wild swingers out
there.

All the beginners at first feel frustrated playing this game. Really, looking at golf professionals we think, why, it’s so simple. I will learn to do it without big efforts’. But when you start, you understand that the game is rather complicated. This article is mainly devoted to the beginners, who need some good golf tips.

The First Experience

It may make you really upset. You are disappointed in your score, your putts are done badly, to put it mildly. You start to think you will never learn bunker play. Little by little, your mood is worsening, you lose sense of humor and, finally, you become so irritated that you want to swear out loud. Some mates who play with you may try to explain to you what is better to do. But such golf tips are not professional, and sometimes they are mutually contradictory. So, rely on yourself and start with following…

Some Golf Tips for the Beginners..

So, what to start with? No doubt, you need some good quality instruction at first. You should look for several instructors and talk to them. That is necessary, for you shouldn’t choose the first instructor you find, because his teaching style may not match your style of learning. That is why you need an opportunity to decide between two or more variants.

The next thing is attending series of lessons. One or two studies will not help. You need to practice under the direction of the instructor as long as possible. If you can’t afford it for this or that reason you may resort to self-education with the use of DVD’s and books, which also offer some useful golf tips. Nowadays there is also plenty information on how to learn to play golf on the Internet.

Appropriate equipment is also sufficient. First of all, it applies to the set of golf clubs you hit the ball with. You need different types of clubs for definite purposes during the game. The clubs should be qualitative and solid. It must be said, that a set of brand new clubs costs a lot, so you may buy some used clubs for the first time.

You should pay more attention to your pitching, putting and chipping than to the driver. And finally, you should have a mental game plan. It is important to realize that golf is a game where you should limit the amount of bad shots and enjoy the good ones.

In conclusion it should be said that following golf tips you are given will help you to determine your own counsel on how to play better. You will learn what you manage to do sumptuously and what your weak points are. You will be no more frustrated for you will know what exactly you should work on.