A Golf Primer for All: Part One

Regardless of whether one is a total beginner at golf, a tour player looking to refresh their fundamentals, a teacher of the golf swing, or involved in the fitting and making of equipment used for play, I shall initiate this blog, Waggle Weight Wisdom, by stripping away most of the advanced details and hype concerning how to play the game of golf, and start with a more simple approach toward playing and playing well.  Before getting into deeper specifics of certain golf subjects, it is important here to lay some basic groundwork and develop an outline from which to expand on later.  By keeping these elementary principles firmly in mind, which contain the nucleus of how to develop and maintain one’s golf game for a lifetime, more complex ideas and analysis should be easier to comprehend later.  These primary goals will be referred back to often when discussing more detailed golfing matters in future dialogue.  While this broadest of framework is open to variations in wording and the number of sub-topics, I consider its central theme to be “Playing Golf” in its absolute form.

Playing golf well requires paying attention to three fundamental areas.  The first and most obvious task is learning how to swing a golf club.  This includes both the physical requirements to complete the task and the attitude one has regarding what it takes to swing a golf club consistently well.  Some of my thoughts about what a golf swing truly comprises will be placed on the record in my posts in short order.

The second assignment is the proper fitting of equipment.  I am mostly referring to one’s golf clubs here, but this can be expanded to also include the golf ball that is used and even the clothing one wears that can potentially affect the outcome of play.  Putting a golf club in a golfer’s hands, for instance, that fits the player as well as his/her fingers are attached to his/her hands and compliments the golfer’s game is a skill that must be mastered in order to get the most out of the player’s talent.  The ability to fit a golfer’s equipment is as integral a part of one’s golfing talent as the swing that is developed and is certainly part of the overall learning process of how to play the game efficiently.  I will discuss various aspects of equipment fitting, including the general state and effectiveness of the custom golf club fitting segment of the industry, and several individual golf club specifications that, to this day, remain poorly understood and applied to golfers.

The third duty is to learn how to play the game once you get on the golf course.  This would involve everything from mental decisions about what type of shot to play and the steps necessary to execute the stroke, to physically adjusting your swing for different shots, to keeping your composure and patience.  My daughter, for example, has a beautifully formed golf swing with very limited playing experience, but she still makes almost a full swing when just off the green.  As she focuses the greater part of her life on other studies at this time, we mostly have some fun with it and duck for now.  But this aspect of learning the game is also essential, just like golf swing formation and equipment fitting, toward being successful at playing golf.  At this early stage of the Waggle Weight Wisdom Blog, I cannot speculate about how much attention I might give to on-course management and play in my posts.  More on these three basic goals will follow in the next entry.