Tips for a Newbie?

Hi guys. Totally new player here. Only been to the driving range once and I think I'm already pretty hooked. Probably gonna be spending quite a bit of time there since I'm quite free this month. Gonna buy an old set of TM R7 irons from a friend of mine just to get my self started.

Would be great if I can find out what is the procedure to start playing on a course? I cannot afford a coach at the moment, just a fresh grad waiting for my job to begin at the end of the year. Is it possible to get a proficiency/handicap without taking lessons?

Also would be great if you guys could point me to some good tutorial videos or sites where I can learn/improve my swing!

Will probably be hanging out at the Home Team NS driving range. Anyone going there feel free to drop me a pm. Maybe can have a hit or 2 together. Looking to know more friends in this sport as I don't have many kakis playing this.

Cheers!

Just my two cents:
Get a good coach before u start learning by urself.
U might not know that u will pick up all the wrong swings and bad habits.
Once u r comfortable of ur bad habits, it's very difficult to change them.
In my own opinion, better to start with a coach.

hi leroy

Here's my take: if you can afford to play, you can afford to hire a coach. 

That said, if you're bent on not getting a pro right now, you can learn from a book. Hey KJ Choi and YE Yang only read books when they started. Just pick one: Hogan's Five Lessons or Nicklaus' Golf My Way, and then read Harvey Pennick's Little Red Book too. I hope the Nat'l library have them. 

If you wanna learn online, I strongly suggest you stick to just one pro's channel. Watching too many pros with different methods will only cause confusion.  There are so many of them now online. When I started, I watched shawn clement's youtube channel only because it was so complete, he covered a lot of ground. I'd also go for the basic instructional materials (grip, posture, setup, balance, impact, tempo etc) and avoid the "swing fix" type of videos for now. 

hope it helps.

For me a coach was super useful though, one look he can spot your errors. a lot of stuff you think u are doing right, but you need someone to actually watch you to point out the errors

Paul Wilson's video on youtube quite helpful.

Agree with bro Titleistfanvic, better to hv a gd coach and get e correct swing fm start. Else it will b difficult to correct later.

Thks bro hurray, I learnt the hard way, so just an advice for others not to follow what I've done in the beginning.

Hi guys many thanks for the replies. I can see where you guys are coming from but budget does not allow for a coach at the moment. Will definitely take lessons once I start having my own income.

@pushslice and @wbjia Thanks for the book and video suggestions. Will definitely take a look.

Nice forum with friendly people! If anyone has any advice or tips for me feel free to comment.

Cheers!

Btw just asking for next time.

Any good coaches to recommend? I'm staying around Commonwealth. I think convenient places for me will probably be Jurong, Bukit Batok, and Bukit Timah.

Thanks!

Hi Leroy,

No harm in getting your body used to the motion of swinging a club while waiting to start your job so that you can pay for lessons.

Some food for thought about how you may want to approach learning the game of golf

http://www.golfrepublic.org/t22694-should-golf-be-learnt-backwards?highlight=backwards

Try watching Shawn Clement on youtube, his teachings help me quite a fair bit beside learning from coach.

Thanks for the advice guys. O ya I have been watching Shawn Clement's videos on youtube. Easy to understand!

Btw any recommendations for beginner clubs? Shafts in particular? I am unsure of whether I should take steel or graphite. I am 25 yrs old and gym quite regularly. I think I can be considered to be pretty strong. The guy at the shop recommended me to take regular steel. But I do not like to jump into things without asking around more first. One good thing about steel to me is that it's a bit cheaper.

It's definitely wiser a hire a swing coach.  Viewing 2 dimensional on youtube isn't easy to relate for a beginner.  A coach will help you, guide your swing, develop proper feel and build the fundamentals correctly. Good to have one that can video you. 

Golf doesn't require too much strength but proper sequencing and techniques, fitness and flexibility are definitely a plus. 

As for shaft with your fitness, you should able to handle steel just fine.  

Good Luck! 

jason.koh.54966 wrote:

Try watching Shawn Clement on youtube, his teachings help me quite a fair bit beside learning from coach.

His swing is like the late Payne Stewart ... Too relax for my liking, however ...

Turbo wrote:

jason.koh.54966 wrote:

Try watching Shawn Clement on youtube, his teachings help me quite a fair bit beside learning from coach.

His swing is like the late Payne Stewart ... Too relax for my liking, however ...

Agreed, but liked the ways he put things into perspectives. Some of his teaching thoughts really work for me. He swing relaxed but according to those that saw him hitting balls, his relax swing bring the ball far far away.
The best school of thought that I took from his teaching was "Clear the way back, and clear the way down" My swing is so much better now.