If you could send a note [through time] to yourself as a beginner, what would it say?

Dear Frustrated hacker,

You'll discover the following along the way, but if you want to save years of frustration.

Equipment related:

- Get some proper wedges. As good as you think you are with that pitching wedge, wait until you put a Sand Wedge and Lob Wedge in the bag.

- Pull the the 3 and 4 irons out until you can stripe your 5-iron.

- Stick with the 3-wood and 5-wood

- Get an "Anser" or a T-line. Just do it.

- Hold onto those persimmons as long as you can. You'll never regret it and besides there won't be a better metal driver until the Callaway Big Bertha Warbird comes along. Yeah that's its actual name.

- Don't give up on blades, since that's how you started, but if they feel wrong, they probably are. Just make sure to get the lofts and lies checked on those MTs before giving them away for nothing.

Playing:

Pick up a copy of Practical Golf by John Jacobs or The Full Swing with Jack Nicklaus (S&T; wasn't "invented" yet ) and copy those moves in a full length mirror until they're second nature.

Putting: forget about the "pro" side of the hole. When in doubt, assume the putt goes straight.

Off the tee: Keep swinging hard - you'll figure it out.

Around the greens: Find everything you can about the short game from Curtis Strange, Seve Ballesteros, Raymond Floyd, and Tom Watson

Where to play:

Don't worry about where you play, just enjoy every round and play in moderation when playing poorly or injured. There's so much more to life than golf.

Unhook the boat, put the fishing rods down & try golf - contrary to what every tournament fisherman will tell you, it is possible to do both.      Thou shalt compromise, there are only so many saturdays ...

I'd send the note to myself before I really took the game serious.  I'd send it to me when I was younger (35) living in a warmer climate (Virginia) in a house on a great golf course where I could play and practice on the range and chipping greens as much as I wanted for $1200 a year.  The note would say;

Learn how to play now, when you're younger and have access to a golf course right outside your back yard.  Golf might seem like a sport for old stogies, but you're going to want to be able to play it when you're older and might not have the time or access that you do now.  Throw out the Knight clubs you paid $100 for and get fitted for a decent set of clubs that you won't be embarrassed playing instead of buying another racquetball racquet you don't really need.  Buy the set of clubs you want and don't try to compromise or get sold on clubs that you know don't appeal to what you like.  The salesman might be telling you what's best for your ability or swing, but you know that if you're not convinced and confident with them they won't last in your bag long.

Don't be so quick to judge the sport as non-athletic and boring, put more effort into it and you might actually find it's not as easy as it look and will enjoy the challenge.  In terms of learning, get lessons from someone that can teach you the proper way to play.  One last thing, join The Sand Trap to meet a great bunch of people who will teach you a lot about the game through mistakes they have already made and learned from.

Start out learning a swing you can love. Take lessons before you learn any bad habits. Stick with one instructor, coach, swing concept. Try like hell to make the golf team. Sure chicks like a football player, but a good golfer in high school is a good golfer for life.

Drop the paintball hobby and focus more on golf. Take more lessons instead of trying to figure things out on your own. Dedicate more time around the greens than just the full swing.

I would go back further and tell myself to get into golf well before college...

As a few people have mentioned already, I would tell myself to stop playing so much, stop trying to figure it out myself and get lessons (at least during the first couple of years). Oh, and not give up after two attempts at 10 years of age and wasting four good years before getting into it seriously.

Man I was such a lost cause back on day one of golf. The note I would send myself would be a list of Erik's phone number, my current teacher's number, and maybe David Wedzik's number too. It would also say to run like hell away from my first teacher (who I hired on Day two of golf). Everything wrong he taught.

Note to Self:

1) Get some lessons early on.  You really don't know what your swing looks like.

2) Also, get a putting lesson.  You'll be amazed how much better your score is when you sink some putts.

3) Practice your short game. You'll be glad you did.

4) Try to play with serious golfers who are better than you, even if you are intimidated at first.

5) Understand that, no matter how good you get, there is still more to learn.

6) Introduce the game of golf to your children. You have no idea how great it is to play a round with them when they grow up.

7)  Lighten up.  It's only a game.

I'd tell myself to play golf instead of football as a young kid.

I kick myself for it. I had to stop playing football, where my ceiling was VERY limited, after my sophomore year of HS because of ongoing neck issues. Meanwhile, playing golf casually (probably about 15-20 times a year) I was decent but never went out for golf because of the obvious conflict with football. When I finally did go out as a senior, on the adamant urging of many buddies, I just missed the quite stacked varsity team despite being less experienced than anybody else on the varsity or JV squads in competitive golf.

When I picked the game back up, the rapid progress I made after learning the game properly made me kick myself that I hadn't done it sooner.

Every time I play with strangers and get asked something like, "Where'd you play in high school/college", or get told how nice my swing is, or something, I kick myself because I was probably good enough to have played in college and done something more with the game. But the two sports I focused on, baseball (where I was GOOD enough to play in college but didn't pursue it due to arm injuries) and football (where I was nowhere close to being a college prospect on any level) didn't amount to much for me - they just beat the hell out of my body.

These are for conditions back in 1964:

Dear beginner,

• Swing the club smoothly - don't try to kill the ball. Hit the ball with tempo...
• Take a lesson or two, even if they do cost $5 - which is a dollar more than you earn for caddying 18 holes single.
• Get some women's clubs - you only weigh 95 lbs. (No kids clubs back then - mostly cutdown adult clubs)
• Remember... swing the club smoothly...

Quote:

I'd say the same about the proper wedges.  I agree in spirit with pulling the 3i and 4i, but actually I'd just pull the 3i.  I definitely agree with the off the tee comment.  It's been a struggle for me to tone it down and swing smooth and hit more fairways, but now I can have days where I hit lots of fairways and roll it out close to 300 yards most of the time.  If I'd started trying to hit it straight and easy from the beginning, I'd still be driving it 230-240 total.

I'd tell myself to get some lessons.  I've spent a lot of time VERY slowly learning things I would have benefitted tremendously from ingraining from the start.

"Take lessons".

"Actually be committed to improve"

I have great potential for this game, but i never had a very committed personality. I am always to laid back, so i wasn't passionate enough when i was first starting off.

"Dear Me (circa 1975),

You're starting to play a bit of golf, and without any lessons you don't suck too bad.   But this is about as good as it gets.   Over the next several decades you're going to have fleeting affairs with the game, and later in your life you're going to become obsessed with it.    Believe it or not, something called the "internet" will even make it possible for you to obsess over the game at all hours of the day and night.    Stop it all right now.

Frankly, you'll never be that good.   Oh, I know you occasionally hit some shots that would make event Jack Nicklaus say "nice shot".   But that's the best you'll ever do.   You're going to spend thousands of dollars (in 1975 dollars) chasing a Quixote-like quest to be good, and it just isn't going to happen.   When you're in your 50's, you'll probably play about like you do now, and believe it or not you'll do so with clubs so damn big they make what you're playing now look miniscule.

There are so many finer things in life, most of them a far better use of your time than golf.  Step away from the game now, while you still have some self respect.   Cocaine is just now starting to become popular, so if you feel you must get addicted to something please choose that instead of golf.   At least with coke you'll feel good while you're using it, as compared to golf which pretty much makes you hate yourself.    Since both will cost as much and have about an equal chance of ruining your marriage and career, you might as well choose the one that makes you happier.

Stop golfing immediately. You'll thank me later.

Best regards,

Me"

Don't listen to anyone who says you can't make a living out of playing this game. Stay motivated. Tom Kite was 5-8, 140 & he did it. You can too.

it is all in the hands they are wide open . learn to feel your hands rolling over and that banana slice will be gone for good . OMG I wish I had a penny for every banana slice I hit trying to figure out what my problem was

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