Friday, January 6, 2012

The Basic Rules Of Golf Are Constantly Changing

The rules of golf are constantly being amended and added to. This set of tips will explain some of the basic rules and help you understand the game a bit better.
Match Play
There are two ways to play golf: match play and stroke play. In match play, each hole is a separate contest. The scoring is as follows: if you win the first hole, you are one-up; if you lose it, you are one-down; if you tie it, you are all-square.
Stroke Play
Stroke play is a round of golf in which the score is kept by adding the total of strokes taken throughout the round (9 or 18 holes). Another name for stroke play is medal play.
Your Responsibilities
You have several responsibilities as a golf player. Here are a few:
Read the rules on the course you’re playing on.
Tee off on time.
Always use your correct handicap.
Record your score correctly on your scorecard.
Play your own ball.
Practice
You are not allowed to take practice shots from any hole, or on any hazard. Local courses may have their own rules about this; make sure you’re familiar with them.
Asking Advice
When playing a round of golf, you’re not allowed to ask anyone except your caddie or partner for advice on how to play. You can ask about rules, however. You’re not allowed to give advice to your opponent or fellow-competitor, either.
When to Play
When playing a hole, the player whose ball is farthest from the hole plays first. This is important to remember because, if you play out of turn, your opponent can make you replay your shot.
Teeing Ground
The area you tee your ball to make the first hit of each hole is called the teeing ground. You can put your ball between the tee markers, or a little behind them. You’re allowed to place your ball as far as two club lengths behind the markers. If your ball accidentally falls off the tee, you may replace it without penalty.
As It Lies
A big rule in golf is that you must play the ball as it lies; you can’t move it to a better spot. You can’t improve your shot by pressing down the turf behind the ball. If you find yourself in a hazard, you can’t touch the sand, ground or water with the club before or during your back swing.
How To Strike
You must hit your golf ball swiftly while making a shot. You aren’t allowed to push, rake, or scrape the ball. You also aren’t allowed to hit or touch the ball while it’s moving.
Water Hazard
If your ball is in a water hazard, you can play it as it lies. If you can’t find it or don’t want to play it, you need to add a penalty stroke and drop and play another ball from where you last played, or drop a ball behind the water hazard as far back as you want.
Dropping Your Ball
When you drop your ball, stand straight, hold your arm out straight and drop it. There are several rules about when this drop doesn’t count, and you’re allowed to re-drop.
Here are some of those circumstances:
If it hits the ground and rolls into a hazard
If it comes to rest more than two club-lengths from where it first struck a part of the course
If you are dropping away from an immovable obstruction or ground under repair, etc., and it goes back into the obstruction.
The Putting Green
When your ball is on the green, you’re allowed to brush away leaves and other loose impediments within your line of putt. You’re not allowed to test the surface of the green by rolling a ball or scraping the surface.
Hitting the Flagstick
There are several rules about hitting the flagstick. Here are a few:
If your ball is off the green, there is no penalty if you play and your ball strikes the flagstick.
If your ball is on the green, either take the flagstick out or ask another player to hold it and take it out when you play your ball.
In match play, if you putt and your ball hits the flagstick when it is in the hole, you lose the hole. In stroke play, you must add two penalty strokes to your score for the hole.
Ball Interference
If another ball is in your line of putt, you can ask the owner to lift it. If your ball is near the hole, and could be in the way of another player’s shot, you may lift your ball.

This articles comes from http://golfswing001.blogspot.com/

What is a Simple Golf Swing?

By John Lynch
This may be the most startling news you ever heard – “A simple golf swing is the secret to a great golf game!”
Eighty percent of the 27 million golfers in this world do NOT achieve a handicap of less than 18. The vast majority of these golfers credit inconsistency as the culprit – inconsistency in their swing.
How many shots per round could you shave if you hit the ball solid, straight, and longer each time?…
7 strokes?…
10 strokes?…
Even more?
If you’re too busy with life to even think about your defective golf swing – what are you to do?
Read on…
The secret: A simple golf swing starts with using your stable spine as an axis to keep your swing on plane – you must swing around a stable spine!
Most high handicap golfers do not swing around a stable spine – they have more sway and unnecessary movements than you could shake a stick at.
Your swing will be most effective if you coil around your stable spine with limited hip rotation – the secret to tremendous power!
Since you are limiting your hip rotation you don’t have to swing the club back too far, your backswing will be shortened yet you will still be storing plenty of power in your backswing coil.
So what have we learnt so far in creating a simple golf swing?
- Swing around a stable spine.
- Your hip rotation is limited.
- Your backswing is shortened – you don’t have to swing back to parallel.
The truth is the most effective swing does not have a lot of moving parts to it. The best golfers on the planet have built themselves a simple golf swing utilizing only the movements that promote solid contact and consistency.
You want a simple golf swing you can perform correctly over and over again – even under the pressures of tournament play.
In fact, once you have programmed your subconscious with a simple golf swing that is fundamentally sound, you know longer have to think about it – your simple golf swing will become automatic! You program your subconscious by practicing the fundamental components of a sound golf swing until they are engrained.
Conventional swing thinking says a fundamentally sound golf swing should have a lot of sway in it and the golf club should go back to parallel at the top…
This is hogwash!
The more moving parts to your swing – the more room for error.
By simplifying your swing with less moving parts you minimize the chance of errors in your swing!
Once you have programmed your simple golf swing into your psyche, you now only have to think about hitting your target.
What a beautiful feeling it will be when you are not thinking about your golf swing out on the golf course – you are only thinking about what matters – things such as your target, your lie, the wind, the slope, or any other factor that affects getting your golf ball to your target….
Isn’t the object of golf to get the ball into the cup in the least amount of strokes?
So go build yourself a simple golf swing and start scoring on the golf course like you’re capable of!
Hit ‘em Long and Straight!

This articles comes from http://golfswing001.blogspot.com/

Playing The Golf Swing Punch Shot

The golf swing punch shot has always impressed me out on the golf course when it has been executed properly. It has been one of the most interesting golf shots that I learned to play and have watched others perform. It requires the art of timing and touch to master the art of a soft landing punch shot or a bump and run. This type of shot saves golfers a number of strokes from time to time, and is quite effective in a tough situation.
The punch shot is pretty much the only golf shot that you must quit on the follow through. Feeling the club head is very important in executing a good punch shot. The golf shot is lead by the left forearm (right-handed golfers) and requires little arm movement and more wrist action. To visualize this shot, imagine throwing your forearm wrist and club head at the ball and quitting the follow through at impact.
Depending on the distance of the shot needed determines the golf club selection and how far to take the club back, mainly with the wrists. Both wrists and forearm control the distance of the club going back and through as the club picks up speed coming down towards the ball with your knees and hip starting the down swing, and only to quit the golf swing punch shot after impact.
I have seen players perform and play this shot using a driver right through to a pitching wedge. The loftier clubs are needed to get the ball up quickly. The club selection is very important on accuracy on how far and how high the ball will come off of the clubface.
There are a number of reasons to quit on the follow through on this type of golf shot. One situation would be a restricted golf swing because of a tree stump ahead of your swing path and or a branch where the golfer has to keep it low for a certain distance. Another reason would be to simply control the distance of a particular golf shot. One may want to use a 3 iron for a more restricted golf swing and keeping the golf ball closer to the ground to clear the branches before it starts to rise. The 7 iron would help pick the ball up right away to go over a tree stump or clear a branch, but one would have to use the power of the forearm and wrist for distance when using loftier clubs.
Another golf swing punch shot to practice would be an uphill mound facing you with a green sloping away from you and the pin tucked closely to the front with no green to work with. Take out a 7 iron and close the clubface a little and punch the golf ball off of and against the slope face of the mound to make it fly straight up and land softly onto the green. The mound in front of you must have a considerable amount of slope for this golf shot to work, but it is a very impressing punch shot to perform.
Practicing and mastering this golf swing punch shot will save you strokes and help lower you handicap. There are good golf swing instruction manuals on the Internet that will help you master this punch golf shot when needed in a pinch.

This articles comes from http://golfswing001.blogspot.com/

Tips For Getting Discount Golf Vacations on Myrtle Beach

If you are thinking about a taking a golf vacation there and you search for a perfect golf course invariable one place which would crop up everywhere you look is the Myrtle Beach. It is known as the Golf City of the world. If you need a golf vacation it has to be here.
The statistics show that it has around 120 golf courses spread around a radius of 60 miles. These sixty miles of earth is not only golf courses but also beaches. This place in South Carolina is called the Grand Strand. The number of visitors coming to this place is 14 million visitors each year, enjoying the warm sandy beaches and the best of the South Carolina weather.
Myrtle Beach is fun for the family or for the golfing enthusiast who wants to take on the challenging courses of the region. There are activities abounding for groups of all ages and that makes this South Carolina region very much the hub of activity all through the year.
The outdoor activities include variety of things that a family can do like going out to the NASCAR speed park or the Hard Rock Park. The other attractions include Myrtle Beach Pavilion Nostalgia Park and Myrtle Beach Pelicans.
Golfing is what defines the Myrtle Beach and it has scenic golf courses that can lure you for years together. For women and even for kids there are special golfing lessons and teeing times where you can tee without the constant eye of the other golf players milling around.
The famous architects of golf courses all over the world like Dan Maples and Willard Byrd have designed a few courses dotting the Myrtle Beach landscape. Now if you are planning a golfing vacation in Myrtle Beach then you need take into consideration some of the golf courses which are in the North Carolina area. This area is not as publicized as the South Carolina area of the Myrtle Beach. This North Myrtle Beach vacation area is a must for people especially if you want to get some acclimatization to the area before you proceed to more famous cousin which is the Myrtle Beach area in South Carolina.
Reserve your vacation package and enjoy that special golf course and better still enjoy the beaches also all along the Myrtle Beach. Since it is a family package you will enjoy more as well get to play your favorite game which is golf.

This articles comes from http://golfswing001.blogspot.com/

Tee your Way to Great Golf Resort

Great things come in great packages, so to speak.
In particular, golf resorts provide more than a golf player would ask. Generally, it caters to different kinds of people and not just golf enthusiasts. Golf resorts can really stand out in the vacation business.
Due to its nature, golf resorts literally have rooms and villas situated in a secured place. The rooms and villas are full of necessary services usually seen in a typical resort: large air-conditioned rooms, luxurious bathrooms, cable televisions, and internet connections.
Most of these golf resorts have magnificent views coupled with mild and healing climate. Landscapes and ornamentations are carefully drawn in the most luxurious way. There are beautiful pools and ponds that captivate visitors.
However, unlike other types of resorts, a golf resort caters to the specific needs of a golf player or a golf aficionado. These golf resorts are specially made for people who want to relax, have fun, and at the same time enjoy playing golf.
There are golf resorts that offer a variety of golf packages. They have several golf championship courses. Generally, most golf resorts have 18-hole course, par 63 Challenge course, and an 18 hole live turf Putting course.
Because of its specialized nature of market, golf resorts are dedicated to make every golf player a better player by trying out their different golf courses in a more comforting manner. Nearly every golf resorts offer golf lessons that will help every golfer improve their playing skills such as swing and putting.
Other golf resorts offer a variety of golf instruction programs for golfers of all skill levels. Golf resorts may offer individual instruction, group clinics, corporate clinics, junior clinic or multi day golf instruction packages.
On the other hand, there are golf resorts that can give practice facilities to beginners or to those that just want to try playing golf for the first time. In this type of golf resort, their practice facilities can give you the chance to work on all aspects of your game from wedge to driver. These golf resorts could offer you a place where you can practice your putting, chipping or pitching on a large two tier putting green.
In the United States, the most well known golf resorts are situated in Central Florida and Southern California where the climate and views are a perfect concoction so as to make golf resorts very entertaining.
Other golf resorts are Avila Beach Golf Resort in California, Eagle Crest Resort in Central Oregon and Championship Golf Resort in Central Florida.
The Eagle Crest Resort boasts of its golf courses carved out of an ancient juniper forest huddled at the foot of the majestic Cascades. Eagles Crest Golf Resort is also known for its meticulous grounds keeping, fast true greens, and beautiful summer wildflower displays. And because of their lower elevation, Eagle Crest Golf Resort have the longest quality golf season in Central Oregon making them adept in keeping one of their championship courses open all year round.
The Avila Beach Golf Resort, on the other hand, has lavishly landscaped greens. The Avila Beach Golf Resort driving range has great teeing areas and is open from dusk till dawn. They also offer various golf instruction programs.
The Championship Golf Resort likewise caters to most golf fanatics and players. This golf resort is easily within 20 minutes of all the top attractions such as Disney and Universal Studios. And because it is situated at the west of the attractions, Championship Golf Resort could be easily reached using Florida Turnpike and Osceola Parkway toll roads, with which vacationers could avoid the heavy congestion often experienced when approaching from the east.
Aside from these three marvelous golf resorts, there are still many other golf resorts waiting to be discovered and enjoyed. You could try looking for them at the Web because most of them have Web sites already; or you could ask for brochures and pamphlets of different golf resorts.
With the wonderful things mentioned, you can be assured that golf resorts are great alternative ways of making your vacation or golf activities truly an invigorating one.





This articles comes from http://golfswing001.blogspot.com/