Golf is one of those sports that almost anyone can take up and take great enjoyment from. At the same time, while the point of the game is simple, the implementation is extremely complex. It’s easy to pick up a club and whack a ball. But getting it where you want it to go in the fewest strokes is a skill that few ever master.

There are plenty of pitfalls for a new player taking up golf. These are eight things that come to mind.

1. Not understanding that to get the ball up in the air with an iron, you need to hit down on it. This is one of the most fundamental techniques to good ball striking. But it’s not intuitive for a beginner to understand that hitting iron shots with a descending blow will get the ball up in the air. Consequently, it’s easy to try to help the ball in the air and end up “scooping”, or trying to hit it on the upswing, causing thin contact (or fat contact depending on where and how severely the swing bottoms out).
2. Not taking lessons. It can be expensive, but when a golfer first picks up a club and fires away, habits are developed that can last a lifetime. Even a few lessons can get a player on the right path early and in a much better position to play well later on.
3. Playing with unsuitable equipment. I’m not suggesting that a new player needs expensive clubs. However, a new player probably won’t understand how to select clubs with the correct shaft flex, length, and lie angles. Getting decent results with the wrong equipment can lead to swing compensations that will cause problems down the road.
4. Failing to understand the importance of the short game. When you’re standing on the tee of a long par five, looking at the flag waaaaaaaay in the distance, it’s hard to tell a new golfer not to worry about the first 450 yards, because the last 100 are what really matters. It’s true, though. I can’t stress enough that scoring happens within 100 yards.
5. Ineffective practice. It’s natural for a new golfer to want to get on the range and start to improve. Practice needs to have a purpose, though. Simply beating balls downrange will become ineffective after a new player develops enough hand-eye coordination to start making good contact. After that, mindless practice will usually be worthless. It’s important to plan each shot, develop a pre-shot routine, and execute each shot, while making sure to learn from the results, whether good or bad.
6. Hitting driver off the tee when the player struggles with that club. If a new player hits the driver well, then by all means, hit it. But many beginners struggle with the driver. Standing on the tee, there’s no reason to gamble with a driver. Hit the longest club that you feel comfortable hitting. Suppose you’re playing a 400 yard par-4. If the best club in your bag is a 7-iron, then hit it off the tee. If you can hit it 150 yards down the fairway, hit it off the tee and then hit it once more. From there, you’ll have 100 yards in and can make two putts for bogey. There’s no reason to spray your driver into trouble off the tee because it seems like the thing to do.
7. Letting the wrists break during putting. On modern greens that roll quickly and smoothly, there’s no reason to break the wrists when putting. The wrists should stay firm throughout the stroke. The putting stroke is a pendulum action, originating in the shoulders. Often, beginners feel they need to help the ball get to the hole on long putts and break those wrists down. This leads to inconsistent contact and distance control. Keep the wrists firm and let the stroke work like a pendulum.
8. Under-clubbing. This is one plagues most high-handicappers, not just beginners. When selecting a club, the tendency is to pick the club that would be correct if the next shot will be perfectly struck. The problem is that high-handicappers rarely strike the ball perfectly. Even Ben Hogan remarked that he only struck a few shots perfectly each round. And his misses were probably a lot better than those that the rest of us have. Beginners should get into the habit of realizing that hitting the perfect distance is rare and almost every shot will be short by some degree, whether it’s by a little or a lot.

There are a ton of gotchas waiting to punish new players. What are some that come to mind for you? Or even better, which ones got you when you were first learning the game?

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Further Reading:

Practicing With a Purpose (Life in the Rough)

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