The Golf Instruction Guide: What Every New Golfer Should Know When Picking Up the Game

There has never been a better time to learn golf, and if you've come this far, it's probably because you've figured that out on your own. By its nature, golf is uniquely suited for a social-distancing world-it's a game played over a vast outdoor space, a worthwhile source of exercise, a diversion for the mind. To truly appreciate golf, however, you need to get past all the intimidating elements that might have kept you away until now. It's a hard game, for starters, and it brings with it an assortment of equipment and customs that might overwhelm anyone coming in cold.

Every golfer has been a bad golfer at some point-many of us still are!-and you'd be surprised how much of everything you can pick up as you go. Our purpose here is to give you the basics-not only how to hit a golf ball, but what you need to hit the ball with, and anything else necessary to start your golf journey on the right foot (speaking of which, you don't need golf shoes right away). The Hall of Fame golfer-turned-commentator Johnny Miller once described teaching his kids how to play golf as starting out by letting them whack balls into a pond because it was fun to see the splash.

Notably, there was no talk about how to hold a club, how to swing it, or anything else technical. Does that mean you don't ever need lessons to get better? No, a good coach will certainly help you improve. When you move from the phase where you're just trying to whack it to where you actually start thinking about mechanics, you stiffen up-and you probably have trouble even making contact. Instead, stay connected to the feeling of swinging the club with some speed, not hitting "at" a ball. You don't need a swing thought beyond: Get to a balanced finish and hold it for three seconds.

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