Golfing is a hands-on game. You will not learn how to play well by watching a video or playing a Nintendo game. You can watch all the pro golf games on TV you like, but are you able to you remember how Tiger Woods did it when the ball is in front of you and the club is in your hands?

People make millions out of golfing videos, golfing tutorials and golfing games, but few people have ever got anything from them. You will learn far more by spending an hour with the club golf pro.

If you truly want a video to watch at home, why not make your own whilst you are spending an hour with the golf pro? Take a youngster with you to shoot your lesson on a camcorder.

The first suggestion for novices is to keep your eyes on the ball. This might sound self-evident, but if you watch beginners taking a shot, you will often see that they look away too early. This can result in a sliced stroke or even a miss. If you have your eyes on the ball, you will not lose it either.

While putting, stand squarely over the ball. The ball ought to be midway between your feet and your head should be directly above the ball. This also permits you to get a decent line of sight to the hole. The stroke should be smooth, with a graceful follow through.

Keeping the ball on the fairway is a problem for most novice golfers. It appears all to easy to slice the ball into the rough. This has to do with your stance. A sliced ball is one that has been hit on its side, like putting side on a snooker ball to make it spin in that direction.

If you put side on a golf ball, it will spin in that direction and veer off in that direction as well. The answer to this problem, is to always hit the ball squarely will the centre of the blade of the club, unless you want it to curve in mid flight. That is for advanced players though. Novices should concentrate on learning how to hit the ball in a straight line.

Hooking the ball is a different difficulty altogether although the affect is similar – that is that the ball goes off to the side. Hooking the ball has to do with swing and posture. It is usually the result of not driving the ball straight ahead of you, but slinging it to the opposite side of your dominant arm. That is, right-handed golfers will hook the ball to the left.

To right this, practice hitting the ball just a couple of yards into an upright bucket or a dog’s basket. Every day you should move the basket back a few feet until you can confidently chip almost every ball into the basket. Then go for power and attempt to hit the ball from the tee onto the green.

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