Your first lesson
Why play golf?
You may have thought the reason for playing golf is that you get to be outside for a long time and hit the balls. But the real reason is that your family and friends will know what to give you for birthday or Christmas.
As a newcomer you have probably entered into a golf shop, stood in front of all the shelves full of golf equipment and simply not known what you
You must have...
There are only a few things a golfer must have:
- An up to date book of golf rules, which you have to carry with you on tournaments.
- A pitchfork, to repair the mark that your wonderful pitch left on the untouched green. The pitchfork is always in your pocket and not in your bag, because the bag is not allowed onto the green.
- A golf ball marker, usually a round object to mark the location of your ball when you are allowed to pick it up, such as on the green. Most golf gloves have a small button for this purpose, but not all. You can also use a coin or a plastic marker that you can buy in all golf shops.
- A club and - if your shots are always straight - one ball.
You are however advised to bring a couple of both.
You should have
No, the towels on the golf bags are not used to wipe away your sweat. After all we are not playing tennis, but golf! The towels are used to clean the clubs! Let us say you hit the ball extremely well and by doing so cut a large divot out of the ground.
Since the ground is wet, a sticky mixture of mud and grass now clings to your club. This means the club face is no longer even and if you do not wipe it clean you will probably hit the next ball into the bushes.
You will need tees - since it is easier to hit the ball when it is placed on a tee, and it might fly a bit longer. But the tees cannot help you with more than that. They cannot prevent you from hitting the ball badly and they cannot turn a lousy golfer into a pro.
There are different kinds of tees: Some are made of wood, with or without colour, some made out of thin plastic with aerodynamic styling, some out of solid plastic with rubber or brushes (the tee with a grass-feeling) on the top. So which one to choose?
There are only two relevant criteria:
- Tees should not ruin you financially. You should be able to loose or break 18 on one round without having to think about the consequences. Otherwise you will focus too much on the tee and too little on your swing. So the best tees are coloured wooden tees preferably with a logo, because those are the ones you most likely got for free.
- You have to like it! If you believe that the shiny plastic tee helps you with your tee off, then use that one. Faith can move mountains - or a golf ball.
The time when you experience that your flight partner suddenly tells you that he did not play the Top-Flight-3 ball (which is now in the bunker), but instead the Top-Flight -3 (in the middle of the fairway), you will appreciate a ball-marker. If you had painted flowers or simply written your initials on your ball you would have avoided a lot of discussions. By the way - it is not forbidden to paint a nice straight line on the ball. What for? Before you putt the ball you pick it up, clean it and place it on the green so that the line is pointing straight to the hole. If this does not help you, you are an advanced putter already.
The wood-covers also belong in the ?should have? category, much to your surprise. You should dress up your woods, not to prevent them from freezing, but from getting scratches. Those animal wood-covers are a must, just like every other Mascot.
There are a few other things that you should have, for example an umbrella, even if you just play in nice weather there is no guarantee that the sun will continue to shine for the next five hours. Then you need one, if only to get you back to the clubhouse. And - even more important - the bag needs a rain-cover. After all unlike the golfer himself, the clubs rust. And standing in a puddle is not good for anyone.
Against the cold you can buy suitable clothes and a scarf can be useful. In addition to the left glove, which a right-handed player would use, you can also buy a glove for your right hand to keep warm or avoid blisters.
