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

[AmazingWhacker]

I would say 2 things to myself:

1.  You are not going to get much better at golf so just stop trying to and enjoy it.

2.  Invest in Apple.

[ghalfaire]

Dear young(er) Ghalfaire,

Start playing golf earlier.  Don't wait until your 40+ to pick up a club.  This might require different parents so you don't have to work on the family ranch and actually could know there is a game called golf.  It might also require you immigrate to Canada so you're not subject to the US Selective Service needs and that little, but nasty, problem we had in SE Asia where I now see fellow Americans going to play golf.  Lastly it might include a career change that didn't require a Bachelors degree (and beyond to really advance) so the years getting through school and resulting job/family wouldn't interfere with golf lessons and playing.

Now that I think about it I believe I don't have any significant advice for my younger self.  I love the game and would certainly like to be better than I am and if I had begun playing at a younger age maybe I would be better now.  But I like my life to date and am not disappointed in my choices and my reactions to those things that happened in my life that were not my choices. I made some mistakes but they were small ones.  So my advice to my younger self and others is try to make sure when you get old and look back you can say "I did the best I could with what I had and I accomplished a lot".   After all for most of us golf is a game that we play for the love of playing. But not nearly as important as some other things in life.

Sincerely,

Old(er) Ghalfaire

[mittens]

get some lessons

[lumpuckeroo]

1. Don't get fat and out of shape

2. Be patient, your best golf will be after you turn 50

[golftopia]

Do everything exactly the same, BUT!!!!!  Work on your short game and putting for at least 1 hour every day when you had a free extra hour every day :)

[johnclayton1982]

Read the pelz putting bible.

Learn how to hit wedges extremely consistent distances.

The only way to get yardage off the tee you don't have is to get stronger.  Stop buying drivers with ultralite shafts and aerodynamic heads and buy a medicine ball and exercise bands.

[fredsco]

Dear Scott,

As you begin to take up golf, I have a few tips for you. Just some things that might have been helpful and that I've learned along the way.

1) The mental aspect is as important to the game as anything you will ever do with a club itself. You will struggle with this and need to focus on a clear head.

2) Remember this: the only shot that counts is the one you are to hit next. Forget that bad one. Allowing it to cloud your thoughts will not make the next one better. Same with the good ones. See rule #1.

3) Learn proper swing form from someone who actually knows the swing. Don't allow yourself to practice the wrong things.

4) Stop trying to kill the ball. You do not need to over swing. An efficient, fluid swing will help you hit better, more consistent, shots.

5) If you want to score better, you need to practice and become a strong short game player. A well placed pitch/chip saves you more strokes than any big drive or long iron could. Most importantly, you need to be able to putt. Even on a great day, you will putt more than any other shot. Do it well. When you do, it will give a confidence boost that will help all of other shots.

6) Be patient with yourself and learn from your mistakes.

7) After a round, remember your good shots and forget the bad ones. I still haven't figured this one out but maybe if you start thinking about it but perhaps a head start will help.

Most importantly, relax and enjoy the game. Letting your passion to play well to get in the way of having fun does not make any sense at all.

[mchepp]

Wow good topic here. I was in my teens when I started. I had a few pros who were mostly the Bagger Vance types who would stand on the range and spout Golf Digest like tips to me and I never really progressed as fast I should have and then relied very heavily on my short game to get better. An older me would have made me better sooner.

1. The divot comes after hitting the ball, way after the ball, for pros 3-5 inches. To many that would have obvious, to me that was a lightbulb moment.

2. Hit up on the driver.

3. Watch the right elbow position of Hogan when he swings. That is the ideal right elbow position. Everything else Hogan you can probably ignore because you will never get there.

4. Pay attention to how pro's close the clubface. They do it much earlier than I originally thought.

[PivotPro]

Golf appeals to the idiot in us. When I look back I can see that idiot in me - I thought to myself hey I have good hand and eye coordination, how hard can this game be ( but the mind was not coordinated - it reminds me of Bobby Jonnes quote - Golf is a game that is played on a five-inch course - the distance between your ears ).

I would stop being an idiot and take lessons.

Golf, like the measles, should be caught young, for, if postponed to riper years, the results may be serious. ~P.G. Wodehouse, A Mixed Threesome , 1922

[Parker0065]

Fun Thread!

I'm going to be greedy and send three notes:

1) To myself when I was 18: Don't join the Army, stay in school and go play golf for Michigan State like some of the guy's did that you were already beating in highschool (and spend 5 hours a day on your short game).

2) To myself when I was 23: If you did join the Army, get out by 1990, stay in great physical condition, turn pro and try to jump on the "Bomb and Gouge" freight train that's coming in a few years (and spend 5 hours a day on your short game).

3) To myself when I was 9: I know you already spend at least 2 hours a day working on your short game, but you should probably be doing 5 hours a day

OK,,OK,,,if I can only send one message it's: Spend 5 hours a day on your short game!!!

[logman]

Give up golf now and spend more time chasing those university girls.

[jetsknicks1]

Get lessons from the start.

SHORT GAME, SHORT GAME, SHORT GAME.

Big drives are overrated.

[Mr3Wiggle]

I'd send myself Bobby Clampett's book.  As a self taught golfer I spent the first several years trying to hit the ball by flipping the clubhead through impact.  Took me years to unlearn.

[yatzr]

Take the game more seriously.  Make better use of those lessons dad is offering you.  Make better use of the instruction your high school coach is giving you.  You're gonna wish you're a lot better at this 10 years from now.

I've been playing golf casually since I was 14 (I'm almost 28 now...so half my life), but I never really tried to get good at it until two years ago.  At this point, I have much less time and I have to put up my own money to get better.  I had great opportunities to improve back then, and I just didn't take advantage.

[Precis1on]

Take lessons, and actually listen and apply them to your golf game.

And then of course my 7 year old self would go off and do the exact opposite. Damn you my old 7 year old self.

[Maverick]

1. Weight forward

2. Driving DOES matter

3. Club up

[RichWW2]

To my 12 year old self:

1. Find a new game!

Just kidding. I love golf...most of the time.

In reality:
1.  Practice more, take lots of lessons, and take golf more seriously.  That way when you're 27 you'll kick ass at golf and won't have to try as hard to be any good.

[BigT]

1st when you had the chance to ditch your first wife, the one that kept you from golfing for 8yrs, before your dumb butt married her, ditch her.

2nd Find your seconds and current wife, the one that like to ride along when you go golfing, punch her first meatheaded husband in the face, before she marries him, then marry her.

3rd Start Golf with your wife in your 20's like you wanted to.

On the course.

1. Its about you and the course, Man VS nature, not about that knucklehead with the $500 driver swinging to the fences.

2. Its about your game and playing to its limits, not trying to keep up with the knucklehead in #1

3. Practice more, then practice more, then practice more, then practice more, and when your are done, practice more. Great teams dont get that way by figuring things out during the game, they do it in practice.

4. You are right to take the time to take care of your clubs, cleaning the dirt off them before winter storage, keeping the grooves clean ect.

5. Pay as much as you can for a comfortable pair of golf shoes. Dont be tempted buy that $20 pair at kmart.