Beginner Golfer Mistakes You Can Easily Avoid

From an outside perspective, golf can look easy, attracting many beginners. However, the truth is that golf is challenging, especially when it comes to mastering the sport. There are a lot of mistakes beginners tend to make, which can slow down this process quite a bit. When playing golf, it’s essential to know what mistakes to avoid. Thankfully, most of these mistakes are easy to spot and fix. So, as long as you know what to keep an eye out for, you can easily avoid them. To help you, we’ve put together a list of beginner golfer mistakes you can easily avoid when starting.

Swinging way too hard

One of the most common beginner golfer mistakes is overestimating the force you need to put into a swing. And this is understandable for beginners; it makes sense to think that more force means more distance. However, there’s much more to golf than just swinging hard, as every pro will let you know. The exact technique of hitting a ball so it goes a long distance can be challenging to pin down. Yes, swing speed is essential, but you need a sense of tempo. And, of course, the arc of your swing means a lot, too, so don’t just swing without thinking. Thankfully, you can practice this at home, although we recommend consulting an expert first. After all, if you don’t know what to work on, you can quickly reinforce bad habits, so always consult a pro before practicing yourself.

Gripping the club too tightly or too loosely

When starting, it can be challenging to figure out exactly how to grip the club for optimal results. Hold it too loosely, and you’ll encounter problems. Hold it too tightly, and you’ll run into similar issues. All in all, no one can tell you exactly how tightly you need to hold your club. You’ll have to figure it out on your own; however, some general pointers can help you figure it out.

All in all, you want to grip the club tightly enough so that it’s secure but not hard enough that you lose power and fluidity when turning your shoulder. It can be a difficult balance to figure out, but you’ll get it eventually through practice. And remember, if you’re planning to move to Fort Worth, adequately protect your equipment during the move, and find pros to deal with the process and make it easier.

Practicing the wrong way

As we mentioned briefly, practicing can have the opposite effect when done wrong. If you don’t know what to work on, you can reinforce your mistakes instead of fixing them. Whether practicing at a course or at home, you need to have a goal in mind. If you want to fix your swing, focus on that. If you're going to improve your grip, focus solely on that. Practicing without a goal is terrible, and you should avoid doing it. Also, before practicing, consider talking to a pro about what you could improve. And when it comes to practicing, consider getting a practice putting mat so you can practice at home. Of course, you can’t practice everything at home, but being able to practice is always a good thing. Assuming, of course, you don’t reinforce your mistakes while doing it.

Improper alignment

Another one of the fairly common beginner golfer mistakes is improper alignment. Aligning yourself the wrong way means your aim will be way off target. As such, alignment is one of the essential basics every golfer needs to do right. But it’s a fact that even professionals can slip into bad habits, which is why everyone should spend time working on their basics. The most common misalignment is aiming too far to the left, which causes you to cut across the ball when swinging through.

All in all, proper alignment should be among the first things you should get down. After all, playing well is hard when you can’t be sure you’re aiming at the right thing. Additionally, consider a new hitting mat if you want to improve your practice sessions. The right equipment can help you in the long run, so consider some upgrades.

Using the wrong golf clubs

When starting, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the complexity of the equipment needed for golf. As such, it makes sense that you won’t start with custom-fitted clubs. In the long run, however, you’ll need to get clubs specifically fitted to your swing. Standard clubs are well and good for learning the basics, but if you want to seriously get into golf, their balancing isn’t going to be enough. As such, and we recommend doing this as soon as possible, you’ll need to get a set of clubs fitted explicitly for your swing. When you have a club made for you, you’ll be able to control your swing much better. And since golf is all about proper technique, having a fine level of control is incredibly important. So, sooner rather than later, get yourself some custom-fitted clubs to use. on the course.