Beginner Golfschool - introduction to the game

What a great morning. The weather was spot on for the third day in a row and my Golfschool group are progressing really well. I have just finished day two of a 3 1/2 day beginner school with a really nice couple, Rob and Karen, who are completely new to the game.
It is really refreshing teaching players who are new to the sport. Their golfing background was a little knock around a local pitch and putt in London, so to get them onto the 'proper' golf course on day 2 was a great experience for them.

Having covered the set - up, half swing and putting yesterday afternoon, today we worked on extending the follow through and introduced chipping around the green.We also played with a wider variety of clubs, having learnt the basics with a 7 iron. This allowed Rob and Karen to learn how ball flight and distance changes as you work through the set.
Seeing as we had covered quite a lot of ground through the afternoon session yesterday and this morning we made the decision to head out onto the golf course. We opted for the 9 hole par 3 course. It is a great test of golf out there. There is a variety of yardages on this short course, hitting to undulating greens with thick rough lining either side of the holes. My main tips to Rob and Karen were to keep the ball in play. Explaining that three 50 yard shots could set you up nicely for a score of 5 on most par 3's, which is a very good starting point.

We managed to play 3 holes in the time we were out there and i think they both found it fun and also enlightening. It is always good to see how the lesson time and practice they have carried out with me would be converted into a 'playing golf'. It was also a great opportunity to explain some of the basic rules and ettiquette that is expected of a golfer. Simple things that would speed up their rounds of golf, and also allow them to know they are doing everything correctly around the more seasoned club golfer.

We finished the session at 1 o clock. Looking forward to their 2.32 tee time this afternoon, Rob and Karen headed off to lunch. I will be looking forward to hearing how they got on with their first 9 hole round when i return to the Golfschool to teach them in the morning when we will also move onto using some nice big Callaway drivers once we have finished working on the swing and some more short game.

Novices on Monday, golfers by Wednesday.

Daniel Gale
PGA Professional

Dan teaches at The James Andrews School of Golf in East Sussex

Check out his website at www.dangalegolf.com