Learning Golf

PacSER

PacSER

500+ Posts
What clubs are best for learners? Where is the best place to buy clubs? Any other help...Played at the Blackhawk on the 4th. Piss poor course condition that day. Shall I venture other places? It is closest to my house.

Also, common swing mistakes you have kicked to the curb? I draw to the left occasionally and I can not pitch for my life...I can put but would like tips on reading greens.

This should be fun thread for all us golf lovers..
 
Instant Replay on Burnet Road is a good place to piece together a set also.

If you live in Plugerville:
Star Ranch is right down the road
It's more expensive but you could practice there when you need to just hit balls.
 
I live off Gattis; so, Star Ranch is just as close as Blackhawk. Thanks. I have to give Blackhawk some credit it had rained a bit the week before; but, I have heard others say it is difficult course.
 
if you're just learning go take your wedges and putter to butler pitch and putt. don't even hit a driver for a few months, or anything over about an 8 iron. you SAY you can putt, but if you're just beginning i'd venture that you're not a great putter. so keep working on that. to read greens....think about which way water would drain, since most courses are not built with flat greens that would pool water.
 
when i first started about 5 years ago, i went to pitch and putt and the driving range a lot. I took a few of the classes at Golfsmith also.

Don't spend a lot of money on clubs until you are pretty good.

Play some inexpensive courses (Lions, Hancock, etc.) so you don't spend a lot of money.
 
You can get a new set, woods & irons, cheaper than those $350 Pings at the pawn shop. Stay away from pawn shops on this one. Check the resale shops--somebody brought up Instant Replay, good place--and large retailers. Oshman's has a fairly wide selection. For that matter, even Golfsmith has some affordable sets, new and used.

If you're just starting out, or don't know if you're really going to become a true addict like you should, don't spend a whole lot on equipment--especially name-brand. Trust me, your game won't know the difference, and your equipment should last you through at least the first 2-3 years of the evolution in your golf swing. Just make sure, if you buy used, that the grips are in good shape. Slippery grips will mar your swing in the learning process and detract from the overall performance of the irons themselves. If you don't believe me, just ask Judge Smails.

I'm probably in the minority here, but I don't think there's a whole lot to learn at Butler Park Pitch and Putt; if you're going to spend that much, might as well just play Hancock. But do spend time on practice and perhaps lessons or clinics (which are like lessons, only cheaper). Since you live down the road from Star Ranch, they have a $29 a month deal--unlimited range balls, deep discounts on green fees (you pay only for cart rental after 2:30 or so). Forest Creek has the same deal; it may be closer for you. PlayGolfAustin.com has multiple sites for practice and reduced fee golf, and it's only $20 a month.

Golfsmith and I believe Golf USA in Westlake offer swing analysis; use them, if for nothing more than getting in a little more practice. Don't let them bog you down too much in the minutiae of the swing.

If and when you feel like an upgrade in your equipment--or if you want to skip right through the club and swing learning process (hey, it's a free country)--check around for demo days at area clubs, driving ranges, and various manufacterers' websites. Golfsmith had a great one back in May.

Most of all, have fun!
 
Run away while you still can. This game will cause you nothing but misery. I got started half-assed about 4 years ago, stopped for a couple of years, then foolishly decided to take it up for real last year. One of the biggest mistakes of my life. I suck, I get frustrated and angry, but I've got too much time and $$ invested to quit.

You think I'm kidding. I'm not. One day you will say "you know, that El Guapo guy was right. This sucks". Mark it down.

Having said that, I've had good luck with stuff on e-bay, but kind of a mixed bag at Instant Replay. You have to be careful with their used stuff, especially the woods, because I found out after the fact that a couple of clubs I bought were weird length and lies. I didn't know enough at the time to ask them to check first. I do kinda like rummaging around their mixed iron bins - I'm working on a putting together a "mixed set" with a little something from all the major manufacturers. Don't ask me why.

Somewhat agree that the pitch & putt is overrated as a learning tool. The greens there suck donkey, so imho it hurts your putting more than it helps. I'm not all that sold on the "practice short game first" mantra anyway. Admit it - you want to hit the ball far or else you wouldn't be considering this, and that doesn't happen with a chip stroke.

Those "ping black dots" for $350 may be a pretty good deal depending on the particular model. Are they Ping Zing 2 BeCu's? If so, tell me which pawn shop and I'll be there tomorrow. Some pros still play Ping Eye 2's, and they came out what, 10 or 15 years ago? Pings tend to hold their value better than some.

I don't know that I'd go out and get a crappy set of clubs to start with. You can get some pretty decent stuff for not all that much $$ and if you wise up and decide not to pursue this foolishness, you'll be able to pawn them off on the next idiot without as big of a hit. I'm not saying you need Ping G2's, but some good qualtiy used cavity backs from, say, Cleveland or Tommy Armour, maybe Adams, shouldn't set you back more than $200 or $300. I've never hit them but I've heard many, many people swear by Tommy Armour 845's. I personally play with a set of Cleveland TA-5 gunmetals (which were discontinued last year) and they're pretty sweet clubs even though I suck *** hitting them.

I'm personally not a big fan of Taylor Made but they have a habit of coming out with new models every 6 months or so, which renders their current stuff obsolete, which means that their year-old stuff tends to get discounted pretty steep. You might could catch some deals on that. I see a lot of people playing TM Firesoles and the 300 series, which you can get used for a song these days.

You can also get a damn nice set custom built at Golfsmith for around $300. The beauty of that is that you can go in, get measured (although a fitting at your stage won't really do you a lot of good), and buy a few clubs at a time as you can afford them. Maybe start with PW, 9, 7, and 5, then add 8 & 6, and last the 4 and 3, which you are useles cuz won't be able to hit them anyway. Their "premiere" brand is Snake Eyes but the "Golfsmith" line is more affordable and it's good quality stuff. They also bought out Spalding and Zevo recently, but I don't really know much about them.

Oh yeah - you probably want to go with a regular flex shaft no matter what you get.
 
One more thing - Instant Replay has a brand new driving range just down the road from Dell in Round Rock. I think it's called Hard Drive or something like that. They'll let you take demo clubs out to the range (as will Golfsmith although it's kind of a big production there). And, they're having a demo day this Saturday (7/17).
 
I got some of those plastic balls and I hit them over the house starting with pitching wedge and moving up. Just to get a feel for the club and swing and see what makes the ball go straight. I love chipping and putting, that is definitely where you score.
God grant me the strength to swing easy!
 
I only mention Butler P&P because you can't hit anything but wedges. I think too many beginners want to hit woods and long irons, and their scores will drop dramatically when they spend 90% of their time on 100 yards and in.

But I do agree that you should spend your time and money at muni courses.
 
Plum Creek hes the best Pitch and Putt. Its 7 dollars to play all day. Its nine holes and the lengths vary from 70 yards to 125 yards. The greens are kept well and they roll well. Its a nice place.
 
Is there still a Pitch and Putt near the Congress St. bridge?

Had lots of fun back there in the 70's ... my dog loved the water hazard on #7 (? if my memory serves me right).
 
The Gunner had some good advice. One thing I'd like to add is make sure you learn the proper golf grip up front. It will not feel natural at first. I repeat, IT WILL NOT FEEL NATURAL. Holding the club correctly is essential to making sure the club face is square at impact. But, it takes practice.

That said, Ben Hogan's "Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf" has some fantastic drawings and visual images of how you should hold the club. It was written back in the 1957 but there is still much truth in that book. Hogan is still regarded as one of, if not the best, ball strikers of all time. You can probably find a used copy at Half Price Books, eBay or Amazon.

Ben Hogan - Five Lessons
 
The last thing you want is me giving you swing advice. Blind leading the blind doesn't even begin to describe it.

I can offer a few generalities that I've either picked up or struggled with.

I kinda went down that "technical" road for a while where I wanted to know all the mechanics of the swing. Forget it. I didn't (and still don't) understand half the terminology (like "casting", "over the top", "cupping the wrist", and on and on) but trying to learn what all that crap meant and how it translated into a golf swing did absolutely nothing but screw me up. There are a few things you need to know about grip and stance, but for the most part I've chucked the rest of it and I'm trying to ingrain a certain "feel" without worrying about stuff like whether the damn clubface is pointing parallel to the target line at the top. Who the f*** can tell anyway? Geez. No offense, but that's how I felt about Hogan's book. Who the hell can keep all those thoughts straight?

I've pretty much concluded that you're doing good if you can manage one successful swing thought - on your best day - and you're damn lucky if you somehow squeeze in two. In other words, if you're going to concentrate on, say, a full shoulder turn, you're going to forget to keep your right knee flexed. If you're going to focus on, say, keeping your lower body still (which is something I still don't quite get), your right elbow's gonna be flapping around like Joe Morgan during a windup (you may be too young to catch that reference). You sorta have to pick that one thing to work on, and just repeat that one thing over and over until you think it's ingrained. I say think, because you're going to revert back to your natural tendencies sooner or later, and probably sooner, and you'll have to start all over again.

The one thing that virtually all my really good shots have in common is that I'm relaxed. The single hardest thing for me to get is that I have to relax. It's one of those deals that sounds sooo easy but for whatever reason just does not want to happen. But usually when I think "relax", I end up doing something else stupid, and then when I focus on that, I tense up again and forget to relax. You do not have to swing hard to hit the ball far. In fact, if you swing hard you will NOT hit the ball far. One of the many "opposites" in golf.

I guess the only other advice I can give is that you can't believe everything you read from the so-called "experts". I haven't quite decided if some of them are full of crap, or if they're just explaining things in a different way that doesn't quite connect with me. It seems that the more I read up on swing theories, tips, etc. the more contradictions I come across. The one I'm struggling with right now is getting away from an "arms dominant" swing to a "body dominant". I was reading some stuff once about how you should let gravity bring the club down, and it worked spectacularly for me once at the range so I thought "eureka!". Of course, I lost it just as quickly, but in my quest to find it again I ingrained that "arms drop" feeling. About three or four months ago my swing finally deteriorated into total crap, to the point where I had to go back for more lessons just to get any kind of contact with the ball. The guy I'm going to now is adamant about letting the body swing the arms, and I fight myself every time I pick up the club because I still want to drop my arms like I did that one fleeting day I was Tiger at the range.

Harvey Penick's main deal is "clip the tee" - imagine there's a tee under the ball and hit the tee, not the ball. I guess it works for some but all it ever produced for me was worm burners.

Don't know what to tell you, dude. Quit while you're ahead.
 
Just to emphasize what Traffic mentioned, definitely go pick up Hogan's Five Lessons and implement them slowly over a month or so. Also, leave a golf club laying around your living room and every time you see it(within reason), pick it up and focus on using the correct grip. Once that becomes second-nature, you are well on your way...

One more thing, NEVER watch the Golf Channel or any of its infomercials or Academy Live. Those shows will put bad ideas in your heads and cause you great deals of grief...
 
I STRONGLY recommend that you take at least s couple of lessons. I have been playing for several years and I had no idea how to adjust my grip, swing, etc to account for different situations.

I bet that lessons took at least 15 strokes off my game and I was horrible to begin with. Now, I shoot in the high 80's to low 90's and I am sure I could get better if I had time to play more.

I took lessons from Wes Phillips out at Kizer/Clay. I still take lessons from him from time to time to fix bugs in my swing.
 
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