Golf Greenhorn

The USGA publishes a little pamphlet with some of the basic rules of golf. In this series of posts, I’ll be sharing what some of those rules are so that you won’t need to seek out the pamphlet yourself. We’ve already covered golf etiquette as well as match & stroke play rules, today we’ll discuss the order of play. This is very important in golf, so study these carefully.

1. On the first tee the honor is determined by the order of the draw or, in the absence of a draw, by lot. (10)
2. In match play, the ball farther from the hole is played first. The winner of a hole tees off first on the next hole. If a player plays out of turn anywhere on the course, his opponent may require him to cancel the stroke and replay it in the correct order. (10-1)
3. In stroke play, the ball farthest from the hole is played first. The competitor with the lowest score on a hole tees off first on the next hole. There is generally no penalty for playing out of turn. (10-2)
4. In four-ball competitions, partners may play in the order they consider best. (30-3b and 31-4)

The USGA publishes a little pamphlet with some of the basic rules of golf. In this series of posts, I’ll be sharing what some of those rules are so that you won’t need to seek out the pamphlet yourself. This post covered the first section of the second page, match and stroke play. The numbers in parenthesis indicate which USGA rule that applies.

1. Put an identification mark on your ball. If you can’t identify it as yours, it’s lost. (27) If your ball becomes unfit for play, you may replace it, without penalty, on the hole where it becomes unfit or between holes (5-3).
2. Count your clubs. You are allowed a maximium of 14 clubs. (4-4)
3. Don’t use an artificial device or unusual equipment or use equipment in an unusual manner for gauging or measuring distance or conditions, or to give artificial aid in gripping. (14-3)
4. Don’t ask for advice from anyone except your partner or your caddie. Don’t give advice to anyone except your partner. (8-1)
5. During a hole you may practice swing but not make a practice stroke. Between holes you may practice chip or putt on or near the putting green of the hole last played or the tee of the next hold but not from a hazard. (7-2)
6. Play without delay. (6-7)

Much like the advice provided in the USGA rules on etiquette, these are all straightforward rules. The difference is that these are more than guidelines for polite behavior on the golf course, these are rules. It’s important to know things like the 14 club maximum or where you can practice. Failing to follow these rules carry consequences.

The USGA publishes a little pamphlet with some of the basic rules of golf. In this series of posts, I’ll be sharing what some of those rules are so that you won’t need to seek out the pamphlet yourself. This post will cover the first page on Etiquette.

1. Don’t move, talk or stand close to a player making a stroke.
2. Don’t step on another player’s line of putt.
3. Always play without delay and keep up with the group in front.
4. Don’t play until the group in front is out of the way.
5. Shout a warning if your ball may hit someone.
6. Invite faster groups to play through.
7. Repair divot holes and ball-marks. Smooth footprints in bunkers.
8. Don’t drop clubs on the putting green or lean on your putter.
9. Replace the flagstick carefully in an upright position.
10. In the case of a serious breach of etiquette, the Committee has the authority to disqualify a player.
11. Leave the course in the condition in which you would like to find it.

Many of these rules are fairly intuitive but the biggest one, for beginners, is that you need to follow them. No one started off a perfect swing or the ability to hit the ball well, but nothing stops you from understanding and following golf etiquette.

Yesterday I gave a written explanation of what we covered in our PGC class, here’s a video from VideoJug that does a better job of illustrating the technique, rather than the class:

The first Play Golf Columbia class covered putting and last week the second class covered chipping. Chipping is generally used for when you are just off the green and need to give your ball a little pop onto the green. The things we covered in class were how to address the ball, the proper grip, ball position, and then the swing itself.

The most important part about chipping is that your body is still doing the pendulum motion we did with putting. You don’t really put much muscle into it, letting the momentum of the club do all of the work. The chip isn’t designed to put the bar very far, just far enough to get it on the green and close to the hole.

Generally, you want to keep the ball position in the middle of your stance. The exception to this is if it’s in deep rough. In that case, you want to put it farther back into your stance so that you aren’t battling through grass to get to the ball.

Chipping Drill

To practice, we setup on the putting green and setup with three balls. We put the first ball on the green about ten to fifteen feet away from the green. We put our second ball on the fringe, the area on the edge of the green where the grass is trimmed ever so slightly higher. The third we put about a foot back from the fringe, in the rough (it could be the fairway, but you don’t have fairways on the practice green). You try to putt the first ball, chip or putt the second (it’s borderline what you want to use), and then chip the third.

Practice this from above the hole, beside the hole, and underneath the hole to get a good feel for it. When chipping, the ball should pop.

Last weekend I played a round of golf with some friends while we were down in Nags Head, North Carolina. We were playing at The Pointe Golf Club on a wet but otherwise beautiful course (they had a deluge of rain the last few weeks, very wet for the region). The staff was very friendly and I’d gladly play there again.

As I was keeping score, my friend asked me if I could also keep track of her putts as well. She said that her father (or uncle, I forget) found it helpful to keep track of the number of strokes you had on the green to give a better indication of how you did. It’s a little more information than a count of strokes and less than what some people do, which is track fairways hit, greens in regulation, and putts.

In the end, the more information you have the better, right?

One of the best things about the Internet is the wealth of videos online. I did a quick search and found a slow motion video of Tiger Woods’ swing. I believe this is his swing before he adjusted it a few years back but the principles are still the same. The amazing thing about watching this video, and the commentator makes note of this, is Woods’ incredible flexibility. Another thing I noticed was that as he started his back swing, nothing else besides his shoulders and arms moved.

If you thought about taking group golf lessons at Fairway Hills or the Play Columbia Golf 1 set of classes, but weren’t sure what was involved, here is the syllabus that was handed out on Day 1. It’s a once weekly, five week class and the syllabus explains what you’ll learn.

As I post about my experiences with each of these classes, I’ll link to them below.

Lesson #1: Putting – On the green or fringe

• Grip and Style
• Stance – Feet shoulder width apart, knees flexed, back straight and bent from the waiste, arms hang to hold club
• Pendulum Swing – club straight back and straight through the ball, always take a practice swing

Lesson #2: Chipping – off the green/fringe or rough

• Grip
• Stance
• Pre shot routine – stand behind ball and get the target line, address ball with feet together, get the proper grip on the club, set club behind ball, ball position, move left foot and then right foot for proper stance
• Chipping reminders – Play ball back in stance (heel of back foot), 60% of body weight forward (toward hole), same pendulum swing as putting (no wrists)

Lesson #3: Full swing with 6 Iron

• Grip
• Stance
• Pre Shot Routine
• Half swing drill – Left arm straight parallel to ground, wrists hinged to 90 degrees, check points (toe of the club pointed in shot direction, thumbs up, back of left wrist facing away from you)
• Full swing drill – half swing drill plus hip turn

Lesson #4: Full swing with Driver/Sand Tp/Chip & Putt

• Grip
• Stance
• Pre Shot Routine
• Changes for hitting the driver – ball position is left heel, wider stance, arms extended more, sweeping action to bein swing
• Learn how to hit the ball out of the SAND!
• Chip & Putt Drill – Chip three balls to designated hole, then putt each ball until holed and keep score

Lesson #5: On course

Play a scramble for 2 or 3 holes, learn what it is like to be on the course – Q&A session

Last week, after renewing my interest in the wonderful sport of golf, I signed up for Play Columbia Golf 1. It is the first in a series of three introductory level golf classes offered by the Columbia Association here in Howard County, Maryland. The Play Golf Columbia 1 class is a series of five hour-long weekly classes ($110) where you get to learn all the basics of the game of golf. In our first class, we learned how to properly putt the ball.

I’m in the Tuesday 4:30 group. Class began with a little “icebreaker” type of activity where we each talked about why we were in the class, what we hoped to get out of it, and how much time we would be willing to spend practicing each week. I’m taking the class because I’d like to properly learn how to play golf, rather than the hacking I’ve been doing on the back deck.

After that quick discussion, we went onto the putting green where we did a series of drills designed to teach us and improve our ability to putt. Don, the instructor, did an excellent job teaching us the fundamentals of both golf, golf etiquette, and putting. We did “three ball drills” where we would try to hit a cone from three feet and then ten feet away.

Three Ball Drill

The drill was simple. Place three golf balls three feet away from the cone. You had three tries to hit the cone. If you hit it, you immediately went 90 degrees and repeated the drill from another direction. If you miss, you continue along regardless. Once you went all the way around, place the balls ten feet away.

Lag Putts

After the three ball drill, we did one where we were somewhere close to twenty feet from the cones. The goal now was to try to get the ball close to the cone. The idea was to hit the ball well enough that you could two-putt the ball into the cone.

We finished the day with a little golf etiquette and a super-long putt. He taught us how to use the ball markers and about how you shouldn’t walk on someone else’s putting line. It was basic stuff, things I had read about online already, but it was a valuable class because you always need a solid foundation before you can build anything else.

I eagerly await next week where we’ll cover chipping.

What are USGA Course Ratings & Slope Ratings?

According to the USGA’s course rating website:

Every golf course receives both a USGA Course and Slope Rating for each set of tees that is rated. The rating established for the scratch golfer is known as the Course Rating. There is also a rating for the bogey player known as the Bogey Rating. This Bogey Rating is not normally published but is used to determine a Slope Rating. The Slope Rating is an evaluation of the relative difficulty of a course for players other than scratch. The USGA Course and Slope ratings are then calculated and certified by the authorized golf associations before they are issued to the club. These ratings are vital in calculating a person’s handicap for that particular course (Course Handicap).

A scratch golfer is someone with a handicap of 0, that is, they are pretty freaking good. Essentially the two values are ratings that help a player determine their handicap when they play the course.

How is that rating determined? All the challenges of the course are factored in, from length to course layout (location of bunkers, traps, etc) to prevailing wind and altitude, to determine its difficulty.

What does the USGA Course Rating number mean? The number is the number of strokes a scratch golfer would need to complete the course, taken to one decimal point. So a 72.5 would mean a scratch golfer would need approximately 72 and a half strokes to complete the course.

What does the Slope Rating mean? It’s the difference between the Bogey Rating and the USGA Course rating times a constant factor, it’s usually a number between 55 and 155. The idea is that it’s the “slope” of the line you would draw indicating the number of strokes a player would need as they declined in skill. The higher the slope, the harder the course because the greater the separation between a scratch golfer and a bogey one.