Golf is one of the most popular outdoor games to be played. This game can be very addictive and can be one of the most difficult things to play well despite it looking really simple at a first glance. Thus, people find golf to be really appealing and would like to master the art of playing the game as well.
Although having a great technique and skill certainly can lead to being good at the game but often the golfers scoring the lowest tend to be good at their game, make low-scoring rounds seem very ordinary. Rather, low scores often come from the ones who play the smartest and know how to get the best result out of the skill they have, and that’s something which be can be improved a lot.
What is golf really about?
With golf being a club-and-ball sport, various clubs are used to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in few strokes. It does not use a standardized playing area and there are varied terrains on different courses.
The game is usually played on a course with a progression of 18 holes although recreational courses can get smaller often with 9 holes. Each hole needs a teeing ground and a putting green with the actual hole or cups 4.25 inches (11 cm) in diameter to start from.
Although the green grass is the most common terrain there are other forms of as well such as the fairway, rough (long grass), bunkers (or "sand traps"), and various hazards such as water, rocks, etc. but each hole on a course has a specific layout and arrangement.
Golf is played in two ways i.e., a stroke-play where it is done for the lowest number of strokes by an individual or a match play with the lowest score on most individual holes in one complete round by either an individual or team. Stroke play is a commonly seen format at all levels, especially at the elite one.
Some of the renowned golf players making a mark in this field are Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Anirban Lahiri, Lydia Ho and Kim Sei-young respectively. People like them haven’t become golf stars overnight. Rather, they dedicate a great amount of time to sharpen their skills and from this, they have reached where they are now today.
Thus, even an amateur player can get a professional golfer and play for both national and international matches someday.
5 Tips to Sharpen Golf Skills
As mentioned before, golf skills can be improved upon. Whether is through golf coaches or through self-learning, it is possible to do so. Here are some things one must do to sharpen their golf skills which are as follows:
1. Posture Before Striking The Ball
Before hitting the ball from the tee, there are things to get the right posture of getting the ball where you want it. Width of stance, the distance between club and body, the bend in the knees and overall body posture play a great role in this. Too much or too little of any of them will lead to spending more time in the rough stuff than wanted.
2. Head Down
One might want to follow the ball down the fairway almost before someone hits it is strong enough but keeping eyes down on the ball until the follow-through is complete is vital. When the head is moved too early, all the hard work on the posture and swing up to that point will most likely be wasted.
3. The Art of Pitching
Getting to striking distance is ball shots of either crisscrossing the green with too much power or flopping short with too little. The art of chipping is different from driving from the tee. Two big differences in this are that one, the club should never go above parallel with the ground on the backswing, and the hands should always stay ahead of the ball and club.
4. Putting and Routine
The nerves and other factors can play havoc even with the greatest players getting close to the hole. One way to minimize this is to create a putting routine that would work. Be it a breathing pattern, practice swing or visualizing the shot, one needs to find a routine that works and use it every time henceforth. After all, there’s no substitute for practice especially for this.
5. Tracking Weaknesses
No matter how much you play, if someone wants t to see an improvement over time, they would need to keep a track of their round-by-round performance to work out what needs the most work. All-important statistics of the performances made so far needs to be written to check the progress made and improve on it.
