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    Golf: A Beginners Guide and Reference
    Golf: A Beginners Guide and Reference
    Golf: A Beginners Guide and Reference
    Ebook97 pages1 hour

    Golf: A Beginners Guide and Reference

    By Ron Celano

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    About this ebook

    A guide and reference for anyone that wants to take up the game of golf or is in a position to mentor a new player or is an experienced player who wants to contribute to making the game more fun for others. From buying equipment to learning, playing and enjoying all aspects of the game, this book discusses how to avoid the pitfalls and how to get a more pleasurable experience from the game of golf.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRon Celano
    Release dateApr 10, 2012
    ISBN9781476176543
    Golf: A Beginners Guide and Reference

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      Book preview

      Golf - Ron Celano

      Introduction

      Ever since the stick-and-ball games of the 15th century people have had a love and hate relationship with what came to be known as golf. Be that as it may, there is something about the game that made it grow and prosper. According to the National Golf Federation, golf participation has gone down over the last several years, but lately the game has shown a resurgence with more people taking up the game for the first time and others coming back after a hiatus of a few years. There may be any number of reasons that people left the game. Cost, crowded golf courses, slow play and golf courses that are too difficult to play, to name a few. Another reason is that golf may not have been fun anymore.

      I guess one could say that I am passionate about golf, although, I am not an avid golfer. I don't play as much as I used to because of physical issues and other commitments. On the other hand, I do think, read and write about golf just about every day. So, why am I writing another book for beginners? After all, there are plenty of good books already published of this genre. The reason is that I don’t believe there is enough written about what drove people away or prevented people from taking up the game in the first place.

      1 Past Experiences and Initial Thoughts

      Growing up, I lived near a private golf club and some friends and I would frequently camp outside the fence near a green and watch as the groups came through. When I got to be a teen, I became a caddy at that same club and other than having to wait in the caddy shack for a bag I enjoyed every minute of it. There was something cool about carrying a member’s golf bag and being outside walking the course. In those days the members took a lunch break after nine holes and I always looked forward to getting a 25-cent allowance between rounds for a hot dog and a soda. People took their time, enjoyed the day, had fun and rarely did they get upset over anything. It made for a fun filled day and I felt fortunate to be involved in the whole experience.

      After high school I went to college. Upon graduation (and after active time in the Air National Guard) I got a full time job at a major American auto company. One day a colleague asked me if I played golf. I said no, but mentioned that I had spent a lot of time around a golf course. He asked me if I would like to join a golf league and I immediately replied that I didn't have any equipment and that I didn't know the first thing about swinging a golf club. He assured me that I was not alone and that he knew where I could get some cheap used clubs. So being unprepared and having never swung a golf club, I showed up at our local golf course on the designated afternoon after work. This was not the right way to start playing golf as I explain later, but I became hooked and have been ever since.

      There were basically three kinds of golf courses back then, municipal courses, privately owned courses and private clubs. Although resort courses have been around since before the 1920's, they didn't become popular until the late 1970's and early 1980's when public golf started to boom and working people could afford to go to them on their vacations. Resort courses are built in the most beautiful places in the world and the idea of spending a few days at one of them is very appealing. As more resorts were built, the courses got longer and a heck of a lot more difficult. Developers did their best to try and outdo their competition by building courses that were more appealing and more challenging. They were built (and still are) to attract professionals, amateurs and average golfers alike. This is one of the problems with golf today. Most average golfers do not have the ability to shoot a decent score at many of those kinds of courses and sometimes playing them is not a fun experience. Municipal and privately owned courses are trying to keep up, but in many cases there is little money to make improvements that are going to attract more golfers. When improvements are made, green fees need to go up to pay for them. Unfortunately, the par 3s, 9s and 18 hole municipal and privately owned courses are the ones that are closing down. This is despite a net increase in golf courses in the U.S. over the last 10 to 20 years.

      Golf equipment was relatively expensive in those days and continues to be today. We didn't make enough money to buy new equipment every year. In fact, years would go by before I bought my first new set of clubs. We didn't care. We used what we had, did the best we could and went out to have fun. With courses getting longer and more difficult, equipment manufactures started developing and incorporating new technologies in an effort to help all golfers get more accuracy and distance. I remember the first metal woods and thought that those would never replace the traditional wood woods we were using. We could not afford them anyway and as it turned out it did take a few years before they became the standard. Today it is not unusual for golfers to buy a new set of clubs every year so that they have the latest technology with hopes of improving their game or being able to tackle that new 7200-yard course everyone is talking about. Despite new equipment development, average scores for most golfers have stayed steady for the last 100 years. That is, about 97 for men and 114 for women for 18 holes on a regulation course. At least part of this can be attributed to the fact that golf courses are getting longer and more difficult coupled with new technology in golf equipment barely keeping up.

      Today, many people play golf two or more times a week. That along with local courses closing and with working women and children taking up the game, it is becoming harder and harder to get tee times on already crowded courses. This translates to a game that is no longer a leisurely sport with people going out to enjoy the day.

      These days, most courses employ rangers and for some their job is to make sure that people play in a certain amount of time (usually around 4 hours 15 minutes for a foursome). In contrast it usually takes 2 professional golfers on average over 4 hours to play an 18-hole tour event (with 70 players in the field). It usually takes 3 professionals over 5 hours (with 156 in the field). Time Par or the time it should take to play each hole, as determined by the rules crew for each tournament is normally much different. At one tournament, for instance, Time Par was 2 hours, 14 minutes for the front nine and 2 hours, 15 minutes for the back, plus 5 minutes to make the turn. Time Par for the entire round by a threesome was calculated at 4:34 and 3:58 for a twosome. Where is the justice? At some courses (I don’t claim this to be the norm), if you don’t play in the designated time you may be asked to pick up the pace and in some cases you could be asked to leave. That is not a formula for a fun day by any means. You might think I am down on professional golf from what I just said, but I really am not. It is just that I don’t think golfers of average ability (and without the benefit of a caddy) should have to compromise their game or experience by playing to higher time standards then the professionals do. Professionals should be setting the example, of which they clearly are not.

      After reading the above, you might think about why anyone would want to take up golf. The fact is, it is one of the most widely played games in the world. The combination of the skill required and the competition makes it very attractive in this highly competitive world. At any given time an average golfer can score a par, birdie or an eagle, just like a professional can. Making the

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