WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE COURSE READY?

This is something I'm asked often by golfers that just wish to get out on the golf course. Each golfer I see starts their golf journey with an analysis and a first lesson. During this time I really want to know have they any experience with golf, indoor golf, or at the driving range and if so how much and how was the experience?

Once I know how beginner a beginner you are it's time to get to work and check the swing, introduce you to some sound fundamentals in golf such as how to stand, how to hold and grip the club and what are the signs we've hit a good shot. Now unlike most coaches I'll be upfront and explain how much variability there is in swinging it 'right' but we will build a swing that creates THREE KEYS TO BEING COURSE READY.

1. The swing needs to let the club hit the ground and the higher the skill the club will hit the ground ahead of the ball, towards the target side, in almost the same spot every time.

2. We need to create power, enough to hit the ball far enough to complete the hole without holding up other golfers.

3. We need to know where the ball will go, we need to control the direction.

THATS IT - Well very watered down but thats really the basic task of the golf swing.

Now you have an idea of the task of the swing how good to I advise you to be to be course ready? In Hong Kong, the standard of golf requires a handicap typically lower than 36, now at this point you may not know what the handicap system is and thats a topic for another post, but put simply the lower the handicap the better the golfer and the handicap very loosely is a representation of how much better or worse you may be compared to a highly skilled golfer. The handicap system will allow you in a relatively short period of time, allow you to play golf against a high skilled golfer and have a competitive game together.

Using the image below you'll see the TRACKMAN GOLF (My belief the best indoor golf training possible for both coaching, practice and simulated golf) standards I advise you to reach to get close to the highest handicap (36 H'cap) ready for on course play.

Trackman golf will help you benchmark your skills and watch your progress to get ready for the golf course or whatever your golfing goals may be.

Now the timeline: That depends on you as a golfer. How hard you work, how much you self practice and how well you commit to a sport for life. If you asked me to give you a ball park answer, the most dedicated can feel they have a covered the many aspects of golf in 6 months, and others around the one year mark. You may hear of coaches promising golf results in short windows but keeping it simple only makes the process more complicated due to the lack of details and understanding. Take a look for yourself at many of the areas of golf and decide if you can introduce yourself, learn and develop all these areas of your game in a group class for 4 weeks?

Hope you've enjoyed this post and look forward to your experience. Please let me know in the comments how long it took you to get to the golf course and how prepared you felt?

Coach Mike Bygrave - Shots Factory Indoor Golf Wanchai

To Book an Analysis contact via whats app. Discounted first hour analysis at $900HKD