There really is no secret to becoming a good golfer. That statement may frustrate you, but it’s true. There is no magic spell that will make you a good golfer. It takes work to become a good golfer. It takes dedication and practice to develop your game.

Golf should be approached like anything else—with the understanding that the more time you allot to it, the better you will become.

While there is no secret to being a good golfer, there are some things that can help you become a good golfer.

Read all you can about golf.

Watch the professionals every chance you get.

Practice your long game at the driving range.

Practice your short game at home, or on a practice green.

Work on your mentality.

Practice your putting until you can average no more than two putts per putting green.

Develop your chipping so you get your ball onto the green and as close to the hole as possible.

Understand that once you develop a proper swing you will use it for every club; you will NOT use a different swing for different clubs.

Learn where to properly position the ball for each club in your bag.

Spend enough time actually playing the game to be able to recognize what your strengths and weaknesses are. This will enable you to pinpoint what areas you need to work on when you practice. In addition, knowing what your strengths and weaknesses are will help you make good decisions on the course.

Learn to always take a practice swing before you take your shot—even if you only take a half swing. After your practice swing, walk up to the ball, get in position, and take the shot. No fooling around or you’ll psych yourself out.

Relax. Relax. Relax.

Recognize when you are tired, frustrated, or downright angry. In those instances, take a break. If you continue, you’ll probably not do well, and you may develop bad habits.

Keep a balanced life and always keep the big picture in mind.

Remember that golf is just a game. It shouldn’t interfere with your family, friends, and work. If you find it is interfering with your personal and work life, you are probably taking the game way too serious and it’s probably not as fun as it once was for you. 

Avoid Golf Injuries

• To become a better golfer and enjoy the game, you’ll need to avoid golf injuries.
• The average golfer will play about 35 rounds of golf a year—in addition to practicing. While golf is generally a low risk sport compared to sports such as football or skiing, golf does have its fair share of common injuries, and statistics show that around 80 percent of these injuries are the result of overuse.
• It’s a given that the better shape you are in and the more flexible you are, the less likely your chances will be of developing a golf injury. However, injuries can happen to even the most physically fit golfers.
• Here is a rundown of the types of golf injuries that are most likely to occur and how you can avoid them:
• Injuries to a golf partner due to errant backswings. Follow golf etiquette and make sure that no one is within your swing range before you take a shot. Also, make sure you are not within another player’s swing range when they are taking a shot.
• Injuries due to golf clubs being thrown in anger or disgust. These types of injuries can be very dangerous. You can avoid having these outbursts by developing your mental game and being mindful of players who have angry outbursts. Not only can throwing clubs result in injuries, it’s very unattractive and makes a player look immature.
• Injuries that have bone jarring effects on the player’s body. These types of injuries are often caused when a player swings the club, but instead of it hitting the ball, it hits the ground. While this situation can happen anywhere at any time, the more skilled you become, the less likely it will occur.
• Injuries and pain in the lower back. These types of injuries can be avoided by having the proper golf swing, increasing the range of motion in the lumbar spine extension and the hip, as well as stretching prior to practice or a round of golf.  
• Injuries from carrying a golf bag. Carrying your golf bag every time you play can increase the chance that you’ll have back, shoulder, and ankle injuries. Golfers can avoid this by driving a golf cart instead of walking the entire course, or having a golf bag that can be pulled.
• Injuries and pain in the elbows. Elbow injuries are often the result of a poor swing, overuse, and inadvertently hitting the ground with the club instead of hitting the ball. Developing a proper golf swing, recognizing when you are golfing too much and taking a break, and stretching prior to practice or a round of golf can help reduce elbow injuries. 
• Injuries and pain in the wrists. Wrist injuries are often the result of overuse, or weak muscles. Wrist injuries can be extreme, resulting in players having to take steroids and wear splints. Strengthening the forearm and hand muscles can go far in lessening wrist injuries. 
• Injuries and pain in the shoulders. Shoulder injuries, including rotator cuff problems, as well as bursitis and tendonitis can develop in the golfer’s lead arm. Doing exercises and having warm up routines that target the shoulders can decrease the incidence of shoulder injuries.
• Lightning injuries. Golfers can avoid lightning injuries by seeking shelter in a clubhouse or a vehicle during a storm and being mindful of weather that is prone to produce lightning, such as those fast-developing storms that can occur on summer afternoons. Golfers should avoid standing in the middle of the fairway, near or under isolated trees, or near metal poles if lightning is in the area.  Golfers caught in a storm should lie down in a sand trap, or bunker, and wait for the storm to pass.  

Make it a Family Sport

You will become a better golfer and the game will be much more enjoyable for you if your family becomes involved in the game. In today’s busy world, people need to take advantage of all the ways they can to spend quality time together. Family golf is a wonderful way for busy families to spend time with each other because golf is a sport that men, women, youngsters, and seniors all can enjoy—regardless of their golfing abilities.

Did you know that about 40% of the total strokes you’ll make during a round of golf are putts? It’s true—and that’s why having an effective putt is so important.

There is a common phrase used in professional golf. It says: You drive for show, but you putt for dough.

Professional golfers know how important the putt is; they also understand that to the outsider looking in, putting may not be exciting and interesting to watch, but putting accurately makes for some exciting and interesting wins.  

Most golfers enjoy putting and they don’t look at working on their putting game as a chore. They know that putting makes up nearly half of the game and for most beginning golfers, they find that putting is a lot easier to master than swings.  In addition, most golfers find that after mastering the putt their long shots soon improve.

Putting Mechanics

The posture you should have during putting is generally the same as when you are executing a full golf swing. You want your back straight. The only major difference is that you will want more flex in your knees during a putt—and your stance can vary from being shoulder length wide, or you can have your feet almost together.

As for your arms and shoulders, you can have them bent or straight when you are putting.

In order to reach your goal of making a successful putt, make sure your arms maintain their position throughout the putt. So, if you putt with your arms bent, keep them bent and don’t change their angle during your putt. Likewise, if you putt with your arms straight, keep them straight throughout the putt.  

Place your ball opposite your left heel and keep your hands at least level with the ball. If your hands are a bit ahead of the ball, that is fine, but they should never be behind the ball. Try out different putting grips until you find one you are comfortable with.

When you are putting, think of your arms as a clock pendulum. Nothing moves on your body but your shoulders and arms. Your hands, wrists, hips, and legs don’t move.

There is no weight shifting during putting.

When you putt, never take your eyes off the ball and don’t track your putter with your eyes.

Beginning golfers can build up their putting confidence pretty fast with practice.

Reading a Putting Green

Reading a green is simply looking over the area and deciding how you need to putt the ball from its present position so it will roll and end up in the cup.

Many golfers liken reading a green to imagining water flowing on the green toward the cup. If you can imagine how water would flow over a putting green from where your ball is located, you can quickly learn how to read a green and see how your ball will travel. Just like water, your ball will go from the high side of the putting green to the low side of the putting green.

After you’ve determined the high and low side of the putting green and the way your ball will roll toward the cup, get behind the cup and squat down so you’re looking through your ball to the cup. This will enable you to see any slopes so you can choose a target line for your putt. For instance, if you feel the slope may make your ball go a little to the left of the cup, choose a target line that will take your ball a bit more to the right.

After you’ve determined the target path you want your ball to go on, you will have to figure out how hard to putt the ball. Because you can’t see the cup when you are putting—because your eyes are to stay on your ball—it’s a good idea to do a few practice putts while you are looking at the cup. This will give you good depth perception and enable you to estimate how hard your putting stroke should be.

Finally, most successful golfers will look at the cup and then take their putting shot within five seconds. It may seem a bit awkward to do this, but with practice it will get easier and become second nature to you. Have you noticed how the pros will look at the cup, then their ball, then back to the cup a few times? They do this to keep their depth perception accurate.

After you’ve putted around on the greens a while and seen how the ball reacts, you’ll be able to read greens successfully. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you make mistakes in reading the green. Everybody does it and like most everything in golf, it takes practice, practice, and more practice.

Putting Tips

While every golfer is different, here are some putting tips that can help any new golfer:

Many beginning golfers don’t understand why they don’t putt straight and it’s simply because they don’t make contact with the ball at the middle of the putter. Just like the long shot, you will have to practice your putting swing to make contact with the ball exactly in the middle of the putter. Until you are able to get your putter to make contact with the ball in the proper place, your putting will suffer because your ball will not roll straight.

After you’ve learned how to consistently hit the ball with the center of the putter, you need to work on properly targeting the hole so the ball rolls towards it. Aligning yourself properly and targeting can take a bit of practice, but once it’s learned it will stay with you. The great thing about learning this skill is that it can be practiced most anywhere—home, office, backyard, etc.

If your ball isn’t making it to its target you will need to work on properly accelerating the club head. Many new players will inadvertently slow the putter down right before it makes contact with the ball. This is wrong. You should be accelerating the club head when you come in contact and strike the ball. Simply being conscious of this can work wonders and help you stop from slowing down your putt.

A good exercise you can do virtually anywhere—at home or at the office—is to place a coin on the ground and work on putting to the coin three times from one foot out, two feet out, and so on. Anytime you miss the coin, you have to start over. This exercise builds your concentration, focus, and small distance putting skills.

A good exercise to train you to keep your eye on the ball is to place a coin on top of your ball when you are practicing. Your goal is to keep your eye on the coin until you see it land after the ball has been struck.

To practice your long putting game, go to a practice green and set a golf ball right next to the fringe, or the area where the putting green ends and the higher grass begins. Next, walk about twenty paces away, which will be about 50-60 feet, and put a golf tee in the ground. Your goal is to putt as many golf balls as you can to the target ball next to the fringe without going into the fringe.

As mentioned, most beginning golfers find they can master putting easier and faster than they can the golf swing. Don’t become so focused on practicing your swing that you neglect your putt. When putting practice gets tedious, just remember how important it is to your overall score. After all, your putting may be what wins the round.

Pivot 

Once you have mastered the correct grip and posture, you can move on to the pivot. Here are some exercises that will help you master your pivot:

Exercise One:  How to Address the Ball

Place the golf ball on the ground in front of you and rest a club behind your back as a guide to show you how straight you are standing. Spread your feet as you would if you were beginning to swing—shoulder width apart with feet slightly flared so the toes of your shoes are pointing out five to ten degrees. Equally distribute your weight on your feet. Appropriately flex your knees. Next, bend from your hip socket (with the club still behind your back as guide).  This exercise will show you how to bend from your hip socket while keeping your back straight.

Exercise Two: Mastering the Back Swing

Holding the club behind your neck, across your shoulders, shift your weight over your right foot and release the instep of your left foot. While you do this, tilt your shoulders so that your right shoulder is pointing up and your left shoulder is pointing down.  The left side of your club should be pointing at the ball, or right behind the ball.

During this exercise, your head does not move anywhere, but slightly to the right—and your eyes stay on the ball. The goal of this exercise is so you can see how to make your right foot, hip, and your head stay in a vertical line.

Exercise Three: Master Striking the Ball

From the final position of exercise two, shift your weight from your right foot to your left foot as you lead, or swing, with your hips and point the right end of the club to your right foot. As you do this, release the instep of your right foot so that most of your weight is now on your left foot.

After you complete this motion, your shoulders, belly button, and hips should be facing the target and your eyes are forward, not down.

Once you have mastered these three exercises with the club behind your back, you can try it with the club in your hands—using the proper posture and grip, of course.

Hand and Arm Relationship

If you have the correct grip, the correct posture, and the correct pivot, your hand and arm relationship is probably pretty good.

One way to think of your golf swing and the hand/arm relationship is to imagine that your golf swing operates like a tricycle tire. Your body is the center hub, your arms are the spokes of the wheel, your hands are what connect the spokes to the rim, and the head of your golf club is the rim. If any of these are out of line, the wheel will not turn properly. Thinking about your swing in this manner will help you to avoid snapping your wrists or allowing your hands and arms to move the club head away from the rim

One way to keep the wheel turning is to make sure you keep your right arm slightly bent and your left arm straight when you are addressing the ball—and make sure you have your elbows turned into your body.

Alignment

When talking about alignment, this refers to how you position yourself in relation to the target, or the area where you want your ball to go. If you have everything else correct, but you don’t align yourself properly to the target, you’ll be disappointed in your shot.

When it comes time to take your shot, think about nothing but the target and focus on it. If you are thinking about something else on the course, or glancing at something else, your body will gravitate toward that point, instead of your target.

Next, pick something that is in front of the ball and in line with your target. This could be something such as a particular blade of grass or a twig. Whatever it is, it should be within a foot of the ball and something that you can see when you look down at your ball. Make sure your club head is facing this target when you align your shot—and that your hips and shoulders are in an imaginary line that is parallel to the target.