Archive for the ‘Playing’ tag

Ladies – Start Playing Golf With Your Spouse

Ladies, you have been asked to start playing golf with your spouse. The good news is that this could be his quiet way to tell you that he wants to spend more time with you. In addition, with men being men, they would like to teach you themselves how to play the game so they feel like they are important to you. This is a slippery slope as your spouse is probably not qualified to give you proper golf instruction or information.

I have started many ladies clinics with the statement “forget everything your husbands have ever told you about the golf swing.” I then watch as many of the ladies. faces and shoulders relax and we all get a good chuckle out of it.

Before you make the decision to start golf, you may have some questions about the game. It is important that you arm yourself with good information. Below, we will give you the information to get you started.

If you are not sure if you want to start golf: Suggest to your spouse that you would like to go and ride (or walk for the exercise) nine-holes of golf with your spouse. This will give you a taste of what the game is about before you start golf. It is okay if your favorite part is not the golf itself. It might be the wildlife that you find or my spouse.s favorite to look at the big houses! It got her to start golf.

If you decide that you do want to play, GET LESSONS FROM A GOLF PROFESSIONAL: The Golf Professional will give you the fundamentals that will be the foundation of your golf swing. Make sure the lesson series includes time on the putting green and with the short game, chipping and pitching.

You do not need a full set of clubs to start: Golf manufactures are more and more are selling ladies golf clubs by themselves and not in traditional sets, a three iron through pitching wedge. I would suggest a 3-wood, 6, 8, pitching wedge, sand wedge and putter. You do not always need to buy the top of the line. There are many products that are quality that are less expensive with ladies golf equipment.

You do not have to play 18-holes: As you get started, do not feel like you need to play every hole or use the tee markers. What do I mean? If you get tired after a couple holes, do not play a hole or two. Remember this is to be fun. In the same token, as you first start to play use the 100 yard marker and play the hole form there. Again, this is to be fun not frustrating!

Training Aids and Golf Instruction Books Specific to Ladies Golf: Your local golf professional should be able to give you info on which training aids or golf instruction books would help you the most or many online golf shops carry quality products specific to ladies golf help you with your golf game.

Rules of Golf: There are many books that are not as dry as the Rules of Golf. This is also a great conversation piece during your round because a ruling will always come up. This will also get you familiar with the terminology used with the game.

Playing Golf With No Fear

Playing golf relaxed and confidently makes for a much better game than being frightened at the thought of the hazards. Fear is not something that you should take along with you to the driving range.

When a good player begins to have problems, they are usually mental in nature. Clear thinking should be your main goal in playing golf. When you start to feel fearful, clear thinking is not possible.

If you can change your thinking, you can help your game. There is no need to worry about why the ball went the way it did. Keep your mind on the next shot and focus.

A major problem for some golfers is that they are worried what others will think if they make a bad shot. If you are concentrating on what others think, then you are not concentrating on your shot, the ball, your swing, or the basics.

Is it necessary to have the approval of others? Is hitting a bad shot going to completely ruin your life?

It is the theory of some psychologists that we become a composite of the five people that we are with the most. You may need to find more relaxed golfers to play and practice with.

If you play golf with a perfectionist, this may not be very much fun. Why ruin the golf game for yourself? Find people to play with that enjoy the game. The way you play will improve because you are having more fun, are less keyed up, and are able to swing better.

If you concentrate completely on your game, this can help you to beat your fear. Ben Hogan’s key to concentrate was “to ignore the gallery and the other golfers, and to shut my mind against everything but my own game.”

Worrying about what others think may make your game inconsistent. You are careful one second and aggressive the next.

What is the key? You need to focus on your target and not who you are with or where you are at. Ignore everything around you. Concentrate fully on your game.

Perfectionism can ruin your game enjoyment and cause ulcers. Great players rework their skills each year. They are always refining their game in little ways, which add up. You are not always going to play a great game and you will never play a perfect game no matter how many skills you master. If you will work to improve the little problems, then your golf game will get better and better.

Keeping a wide smile helps to relax your face and will help to decrease anxiety also. Make smiling a habit before you hit the ball instead of tensing your face.

Mistakes should stay in the past. Tiger Woods even says, “I hit it and forget it.” Forget about the shot and move on, because you cannot go back and replay it.

Keep your mind off what others will think about your shots. If you can get over that fear, then your game will definitely improve! When you play your next golf game, keep a clear mind and think confidently.

You will soon overcome your fear and become a master of golf!

Three Misconceptions about Playing Golf Well

What could be simpler than golf? There lies a perfectly quiet, still ball, ready to be dispatched to the desired spot. The player can take as much time as he wants and he has a whole kit full of clubs specifically designed to produce whatever effect he desires. All the golfer has to do is to swing the club.

I must inject: tennis, compared to golf, is difficult. In tennis, the ball is moving, it never comes to the same spot, it’s in front of the player, it’s behind the player, it may be low, it may be high, and the poor tennis player has just one racquet to do the job. To play the ball in its various positions, the tennis player must learn and perfect several different strokes. Not so the golfer. All the golfer needs is the one perfect stroke – and let the club do the work.

But confusion and contradiction are rampant in golf. There are more theories and more ideas on golf than any single subject in the world. Here is how these numberless ideas have developed.

Originally, in trying to explain the various clubs and their uses in golf, an impression was created that each club in golf required a certain technique. In other words, there was a certain way to use the driver for the long shots, the use of wooden clubs for fairway shots was something different, long irons required another technique, short irons something different again, and so on through the pitch shots and the chip shots. When it came to putting, the experts had run out of ideas and techniques, until today the notion prevails that putting is something that cannot be taught.

What a silly situation! Putting can be taught and learned just as any other shot in golf. But more on putting later.

On top of this contradiction about using the different swings for each club in golf, there is another theory in golf, to wit: that no two people can or should swing a golf club in the same way. There is a belief that each player must develop a golf swing designed to suit his own specific needs. From this school of thought we are swamped with ideas of how the tall, the short, the thick and the thin should play the game.

However, a serious consideration will soon prove that there are certain basic physical mechanics that exist in the human body and all persons – thick, thin, tall or short – must conform to that basic setup.

As if the above idea, of a different swing for each player and a different swing for each club in golf, has not developed enough confusion and conflict, there is still another prominent school of thought that has inhibited and restricted the naturalness in golf and the enjoyment that flows from such naturalness.

I refer now to the school that insists there should never be any body action in a golf shot. This school does admit that on the longer shots with the driver and other woods there may be some body action; but when it comes to the iron shots there must be none. Of course, when putting, complete rigor mortis should set in.

If ever one wanted to develop unnaturalness in a physical endeavor, the way to do it is to eliminate or restrict all body action. Nothing could be more unnatural because the basis of all athletics is a full, free use of the body. For example, whether one is throwing, kicking or punching – whenever one is trying to get power into a hand or a foot – it is with a sense of body action. In fact, it is only with a full, free sense of body action that the desired effect of throwing, kicking or punching is accomplished.

It has been recognized that the greatest need of people learning the game – and the greatest need in producing a consistency of play – was the need of a pattern, a clear-cut program whereby a player not only knew what he should do, but by knowing exactly what he should do he automatically learned exactly what not to do.

Hello From Orlando: Golf In Orlando – Playing Links-style At The Royal St. Cloud – Unpretentious Golf At Its Best

For a real links-style golf experience we discovered the Royal St. Cloud Golf Links, located in St. Cloud, about 25 minutes southeast of the Orlando airport or the Disney area. The Royal St. Cloud Links greet you with a rolling layout of links-style fairways, punctuated by classic links bunkers that feature names such as Hell, Spectacles, Devil’s Pocket and Hoofprint. True to its link heritage, every club in the bag will be utilized as the terrain is naturally varied.

Unlike other Orlando golf courses, the Royal St. Cloud is free of any residential developments and offers a pure golf experience. The design features four sets of tees and from the blue tee offers a championship length of 7,111 yards and a 74.6 rating, all on flawless fairways and silky-smooth Tifeagle greens.

Its motto, as printed above the entrance to the club house is “Original Golf Played Here”, and indeed the Royal St. Cloud features original style golf at its unpretentious best. I had a chance to talk to Bill Filson, the Director of Golf and since 2002 co-owner of this facility.

Bill has an extensive teaching background. He has personally studied under some of the top-ranked teaching professionals and brings 12 years of teaching experience that featured beginners to PGA tour professionals. Bill has consistently been a top-ranked PGA Professional. The Royal St. Cloud’s teaching staff is complemented by Dave Rummels who brings 17 years of valuable PGA Tour experience with him and can share advice from the “Tour” with the students. Associate Professional, Doug Holloway, has 16 years coaching experience.

At the Royal St. Cloud Golf Links the commitment to teaching the game of golf commitment includes state-of-the art video equipment and even a teaching tent for inclement weather. Lessons, programs, and clinics are offered for every skill level and requirement. Bill explained that they run very reasonably priced children’s clinics at $7.00 per clinic and the club has 120 members in their junior program. Ladies can also learn the sport without embarrassment in a relaxed, comfortable environment. And with every family membership at the club kids play for free.

Bill prides himself on offering one of the greatest values in golf in the Orlando area. For the 2005-2006 season rates vary from $46 to $48 from November 1 to January 10, and $64 from January 11 to April 30, 2006. Discounted tee time rates
are available after 11 am or 12 pm respectively, 7 days/week. Bill went on to say that the fees at the Royal St. Cloud are always reasonable, and that he aims not to oversell his course, but to exceed the visitors’ expectations.

In addition, he offers a very unique proposition: a 100% money-back guarantee with no conditions if you didn’t enjoy your playing experience at the Royal St. Clouds. He said in the almost three years since he has run this course only 2 people ever asked for a refund; a phenomenal achievement, considering that several tens of thousands of rounds are played here every year.

One of the very unique features of this course is the handcrafted stonework which is evident in four bridges found throughout the course that have been hand-built by one individual brick by brick. Bill said that some of the bridges are even a little bit crooked, just to give them more character. The most famous stone bridge can be found on the 5th hole and many of the British visitors to this golf course come here specifically for this unique feature.

Bill explained that his golf course serves a value-based market that is composed of local residents, snowbirds escaping the cold northern winters, and British golfers, a very loyal crowd who refer this facility to many of their friends back home.

The Royal St. Cloud Golf Links have been rated as one of the Top 5 Most Underrated Golf Courses in the Orlando area and they have hosted the 2004 and 2005 British Junior Amateur. With its wide-open fairways the course looks deceptively simple, however, I experienced very quickly the unique challenges offered by the Royal St. Cloud. Traditional links golf is played on the ground, unfortunately I still managed to find water several times, despite the generously open fairways.

The other feature I really enjoyed were a number of the ponds on the back nine of the course that were playing host to a variety of local wildlife and water birds. I particularly enjoyed watching a very rare specimen of wood stork stalking the edges of a pond for food, and a crane standing upright with stretched out wings. The course had a very relaxed, casual and friendly feel to it and we enjoyed a tasty hot dog after our game on the beautiful patio outside the clubhouse as a way to cap off a very enjoyable golf experience on a gorgeous day.

Driving Directions from the Disney Area:
Royal St. Cloud Golf Links is an easy 25 miles from the Disney area.
(25-35 minute approximate drive time)

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