Beginner wondering what best clubs to practice with are?

[Joeyvee]

Learn how to choke down on your 8 iron and use a putting stroke to send the ball 30 yards in the air nice and low and have it run up the green and when to use it. No kidding. its pretty easy and will save you a ton of shots when you do start playing courses.

[mdl]

Depends on how the driver's been for you. Of course you're not going to be ripping it 250 exactly where you want it right now (of course, the pro's don't either, but you know what I mean), but if it's no worse than your 3W, then I'd say Driver, 6i/7i, wedge. Putter of course too, but I'd say those three on the range. If the driver's impossible for you right now, go 3W, 6i, PW.

And it can't be stressed enough, as a beginner especially you're going to have a LOT of short shots into the green. I don't know what wedges you have, but if you've got a beginner's set you have at least a PW and SW. I'd say spend at least 1/3 of your time on the range, maybe more, hitting not just full wedges but, say for now, a half swing with each of those two wedges as well. You say your 6i goes 155 or so, so your PW probably goes ~110, SW ~90+? A "half" swing with those (try hands going back in the back swing to just below the shoulders) might go 75 and 60 yards. If you get just those two shots down with the two wedges, then you've got a shot that will at least go on the green, even if it's not pin high, from 60-110 yards, where you'll spend a lot of time as a beginner.

You'll want to spend time around the chipping green too eventually to get the <30 yard shots down, and will need to learn those 30-60 yard shots at the range eventually, but I really believe that dialing in just a couple wedge shots is key. There will be days when you start playing courses where NOTHING works, but the wedge is usually the last club to go, so it's good on a day like that to know if you have 200 yards left to the hole that you can just hit PW, SW and go for a bogey instead of slicing your 3h into the trees or chunking it 10 yards or whatever and carding too many doubles and triples.

[darkhunter139]

I hit my driver better then the 3 wood at the moment. I do not have a fairway wood for my set yet, I was planning on just using my hybrids until I decide what kind of fairway wood I would want. My Dad has two really old fairway woods and I cant hit the 3 wood good at all, the 5 wood is a different story I am actually decent with that some of the time. I am thinking maybe a more up to date 3 wood would be a little more forgiving though this one is really small. I want to try out a 4 wood and see how that works out.

[alo1984]

If you subscribe to the teaching of Ben Hogan then you should be practicing mostly with your 5 iron. Ben was a huge advocate of learning to swing the 5 iron and then that would translate into every other club in your bag. The 5 iron is really the perfect club to practice with in my opinion.

[bwdial]

Don't do what I did when I started playing. I had heard that the hardest club to hit was the one iron, so I went to the range and tried to hit one until I had blisters.
I agree with alo1984 and Ben Hogan, but I'd still probably go with a seven or eight.

[alo1984]

I feel like practicing with short irons before you've learned good fundamentals can produce some bad habits. Reason: Every beginner is concerned with getting the ball in the air (rightfully so) and obviously short irons are the easiest to get in the air. Problem is, they're relatively easy to get in the air with a bad swing, ie. flipping the wrists, scooping the ball, coming over the top, etc. So when you use a less lofted club like a 5 iron, you'll get some forgiveness but it will really encourage you to make a good swing down the line. At this point in your game you should be almost entirely concerned with making good solid impact using proper technique like a flat left wrist and a good inside out or down the line swing plane. Really work on compressing the ball by hitting down it and taking your divot in front of the ball with a 5 iron and everything else will come with time. Just my 2 cents.

[darkhunter139]

Hmmm some good points there.

What do you guys think about hitting off the mat at the driving range? The one I go to has a grass section but its really bad (basically like hitting from the rough). Working on finding a better range around here but until then will a mat be okay to practice from?

[alo1984]

Hitting off the mat is better than nothing, but again it can cause some bad habits due to unrealistic playing conditions. Mats are impossible to chunk it on unless you know what that feels like already. Practicing off the grass area is best, even if it is more like rough. If you can learn to hit down on the ball in grass like that, then hitting off the fairway on the course will be cake. But like I said, mats are better than nothing.

[Keep It Simple]

Get lessons. I have a wide range of playing partners and there is a big difference in quality of ball striking between the guys who have had lessons and those who haven't. Granted the REALLY good guys have had many lessons from top level instructors. I was lucky to hook up with an excellent instructor and if I couldn't afford both lessons and playing the course in the same year I would take the lessons.

As far as practicing goes I like to start with a wedge and work my way up through the clubs in order of length. My main focus is to use the same rhythmn and tempo for each club.

[WUTiger]

How often do you go to an instructor? I was thinking about getting a few lessons but I cant really afford more then a few.

Conventional wisdom says a player's basic swing is set by the time they play six rounds, so teaching yourself is a good way to pick up hard-to-correct bad habits.

If you can buy a package of three lessons, it will make all the difference in the world. A good instructor can take you farther in 15 minutes than most can take themselves in six months. A good instructor can see your natural strengths and help you build a swing around them. Also, many modern instructors give you a video summary of each lesson: How you started, what your swing looked like with corrections. You can load these summaries to your Ipod, and play them back before practice sessions.

[ks8829]

I like to begin with my wedges and work my way up as the club become longer the harder they are generally for beginners. My focus is making solid contact, distance control and direction.

You can also try hitting balls at an open field this allows you hit balls off grass instead of mats that sometimes hid your fat shots. remember to practice what you learned from lessons and most important enjoy the game and have fun.

when I need to tune up my swing, I practice partial wedge shots from grass and hit shots taking the club back no higher than hip high, 3/4 and then finally full shots, then I work up the clubs hitting a bag full of balls.

[darkhunter139]

Thinking about going to a 9 hole course sometime this week. I hope I do okay, starting to do better at the driving range and I feel like I should be able to make some decent shots. If I am doing so bad that I am holding people up I figure I can just pick my ball up and go on to the next hole or drop it where my Dads at.

[PuttPutt]

again ... Driver. 7iron. Putter.

[tracker]

Really?! Driver first? I was told to start with a 7.

[darkhunter139]

Really?! Driver first? I was told to start with a 7.

Right now my routine is 7 for about half a small bucket then I will switch to my 4 hybrid which is probably my favorite long club right now then I will hit a few with the driver.

Going to start hitting with some of the others more now though.