So...You Want to Play Golf?

By Tom McCowan

Learn what is golf all about with Walter and Joyce. How to Play a golf ball and better your game. Understand what golf is and how to enjoy Playing golf. I believe that there are things in this book that every golfer should know. Like, You never hit the golf ball! The clubhead hits the ball, you swing the club!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 7, 2014
• ISBN: 9781291715392

Book preview

So...You Want to Play Golf?

So…You Want to Play Golf?

Copyright,

2000 and 2014 Tom McCowan

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN: 84-607-6205-X (Hardback edition 2004).

ISBN: 978-1-291-71539-2 (ebook 2014).

Editorial: Lulu.com

Deposito legal: BI-2636-04

Created, written, designed and IT work by Tom McCowan.

Photography by Juan Ramon Roca Vicente.

Printed and bound by Elkar-mccgraphics. Loiu (Vizcaya) España.

Preface.

So…You want to play Golf?

Tom McCowan.

I would like to welcome you to read my book, as I believe that there are things in its contents that every golfer should know!

The first editions of the book were published in 2003 as hardback versions, printed in both the English and Spanish languages.

Dedicated to all golfers and to all golf courses:

There are no bad ones!  It is just that some are better than others.

To my wife Felisa: Thank you for all your love, support, encouragement, assistance, well-tried patience and constructive criticism.

My Father, Jack McCowan, Crief Golf Club 1940.

I do not remember when I first held a golf club, but I do remember my father showing me how to play golf, on a Golf Course in Montrose during the summer of 1955.

Tom McCowan is a golf professional teaching at Alicante Golf  which is the golf course adjacent to the Husa Hansa Alicante Golf-Spa Hotel. It is situated 500 metres from San Juan Beach and approximately five kilometres from Alicante town centre. The town of Alicante is the capital of Alicante province which is the heart of Spain's Costa Blanca.

Tom is a licensed Maestro y Jugador (teaching and playing) professional under the Real Federacion Española de Golf, a member of the Professional Golfers Association de España, and a clubmaker with a class A certificate issued by the Professional Clubmakers Society.

He has dedicated many years to dispensing golf instruction to a great number of golfers. He spends time with students from all over Europe as well as from Spain where he has lived for more than 26 years.

Among his other skills, Tom makes wooden-headed putters in addition to refurbishing and repairing golf clubs. Furthermore, Tom can custom-fit, recommend and/or adjust a player's clubs, depending on individual needs and abilities. However, more often than not it is the swing and not the club that needs adjusting!

Tom also plays a very respectable game of golf.

Two particular students inspired Tom to write this book and they are referred to throughout this book. Peter and Marlies Nagel spend several weeks each year on the Costa Blanca, enjoying the sunshine, sea and now also their golf. They, like many of his other students, requested that Tom scribble down some notes or provide them with video footage so that they could have something to help them practise when they returned to their homeland. When they practised they wanted not only to hear his voice telling them what to do but also have visual access to what he was teaching.

So this book began as a set of ideas to help them play better when they were not in Alicante.

Tom became aware that the same notes and photographs would also be useful for his other students and for that matter, anyone that wanted to play golf.

We want to Play Golf!

Peter and Marlies Nagel, Alicante Golf Practice ground.

We considered ourselves very lucky several years ago when we met Tom McCowan because from that day our golf lives completely changed. From trying to hit at a golf ball we have become swingers of the golf club and our pleasure from the game has increased enormously.

Tom has taught us how to swing the golf club and we can assure you that once you have felt that ‘swing feeling’ you want to feel it again each and every time.

The simple but confident way in which Tom gives his instructions makes you believe that you can do it. This confidence is the key to his system and after a while you start to recognise his words and then the swing feeling comes.

With his leadership, strength and force disappear from your swing and, with a nice, soft feeling, the ball goes farther and straighter.

These are not just words, it is our experience.

Like everyone, we are not so young anymore and as we now play rather a lot of golf it is of tremendous importance that, with the help of Tom’s lessons, all our physical problems have gone.

Over the years Tom has written us notes, most often on the serviettes in the coffee shop, just to remind us of things to do when we go home. The end result is that he has written us all a book.

We feel that if you read this book and follow his instructions, you will play better and enjoy your golf as much as we do now.

Good luck and best wishes,

Your loyal students

Peter & Marlies Nagel.

Acknowledgements.

Many thanks have to be given to Peter and Marlies Nagel, as this book could not have been written without their inspiration, not to mention their continued assistance and approval.

Tom is privileged and honoured to be able to call them friends. He continues to have the pleasure of teaching them whilst watching their game improve.

There are also a great number of people to thank for their help and assistance in the writing of this book.

Thank you to all the other Walters and Joyce’s who participated with the photography.

A particular 'thank you', to Juan Ramon Roca Vicente-Franqueira for his fine photography and IT assistance.

To Alicante Golf Club, for the use of their facilities.

To Hansa Husa Golf-Spa Hotel, San Juan Playa, Alicante.

To Makser Golf, for the equipment.

To Dunlop Slazenger International Ltd.

To Calloway Golf

To Sun Golf Magazine, for the photographs of the swing finish positions.

Tom on the 3rd tee at Alicante Golf.

Introduction.

So...you want to Play Golf ?

Is the result of years spent teaching people to play golf, people who knew very little about golf and who were mostly not native English speakers. My style of teaching is based on the positive aspects of playing golf and the golf swing.

Golf teaching tends to be corrective, but can only work as such, when teaching experienced golfers that want to make and improve their swing.

Why teach corrective golf when students don’t know what golf is or what to do? They will learn from and understand only what they have been taught.

What has to be taught is what the student needs to do correctly.

a)      The basic skill of swinging a golf club.

b)      The different aspects of the game and how to play a game of golf.

c)      The etiquette of the game.

d)      The equipment needed to play and how it works.

e)      To understand that what we need to do is, to make a swing with a golf club in a form that provides us with the control over the ball's direction, distance and be able to play it (the ball), where we want it to go.

What you do not have to learn is how to hit a golf ball. What you have to learn is how to stop the ball, exactly where you want to play it to!

So Golf is much more than hitting a Ball!

When people don’t speak English as their native language, some of the words used to teach golf can be a little misleading. For example, to ‘break your wrists’ sounds painful but it is part of making your swing.

It is important to know and understand what you are doing wrong, but it is more important to know and understand what you have to do right.

Playing the ball to a position on the golf course should not be achieved by luck, but by intention. The better the intention, the luckier you get!

Golf is a game for life, an on-going learning experience ih air that gives people enjoyment as well as mental and physical exercise each and every time they play.

This book is not like the golf swing, in which the objective is the complete the finish, but throughout it you can find explanations, advice and hopefully the answers to many of your golfing questions, as you continue to work on improving your swing.

Unlike the ‘swing’, golf's learning process never has a finish!

The biggest problem with any golf manual is that (invariably) it contains so much technical information that has to be absorbed, it can confuse and deter the reader. To make sure an instruction book is a valuable learning resource, the information has to be read, analysed, practised, used and stored.

Care always has to be taken, in particular by beginners, not to try to think on all the information at the same time. Too much information can confuse rather than assist in the making of a positive, smooth movement which is required for a good golf swing.

The mind can only concentrate on one thing at a time.

A television golf commentator was once heard to say: Golf is an easy game, it is only very difficult to play good. This means that we, the players, make the playing of golf more difficult than we need to. It was easy for him to say because conditions are slightly different in the commentary box.

One way to use this Golf Manual,

One good way is to set your body more or less in the correct golf posture holding the book vertically between the palms of the hands, with your hands in the positions similar to those on the cover.

When the hand pressure is too light it will slip down out of its cover. But, with the correct hand pressure, the wrists can lift  easily the book up and down.

When there is insufficient hand pressure,

the book will slip out of its cover.

With a correct hand pressure,

the wrists can easily lift the book.

With the book held in your hands

Set up in the golf posture.

Golf posture with the book held in the hands,

and the wrists lifted.

From this position make a backward turn with the shoulders, this moves the arms and the book. Maintain the body or spine angle as you turn and at the same time lift the book up using only your wrists.

This movement is similar to the starting and making of a short backswing turn.

Now make a forward movement by turning with the whole body round forwards maintaining your body angles at all times, as you turn and repeat the lifting of your wrists as you turn.

This is similar to the forward swing movement.

The turning of the shoulders backwards and the rotating of the whole body forwards maintaining a constant body angle together with the lifting of the book on its same angle as you turn, is the same as you will do with a golf club in your hands.

Turn the shoulders backwards

and lift the book using the wrists.

Now turn the body forwards

and lift the book with the wrists.

Turn backwards and forwards,

lifting the club with the wrists.

The white line shows the spine or body angle.

The circle shows the swing plane.

The angle the clubhead swings on is called the ´swing plane angle`. The clubhead stays on the swing plane by turning the body and at the same time lifting the wrists.

Having completed the above exercise with the book and the club, you will have felt the pressure that is necessary to prevent them slipping from our grip and at the same time allow your wrists to be lifted up and down.

Another good way to benefit from the book is to read it and apply the lessons!

Yes, I want to Play Golf !

Please teach me, what is golf?

Golf is good because...  it is a game, a sport, a challenge, even, ultimately, a way of life. Family and friends, young and old, can all play together for fun, or they can compete against each other, or simply compete against themselves by trying to do better than when they last played. Golf maintaining your body angles at all times, as you turn allows you to be in a healthy environment at the weekend, a place where one can get away from worldly worries and enjoy mixing with others who share the same interests and respect the traditions and values of the game. It’s also a way of taking exercise. I don’t know why, said one devotee. But I can only say that I haven’t played for three days and I'm desperate to have a game.

Golf is also beneficial for your health, if your cholesterol is a little high or you're recovering from a heart by-pass operation your doctor may suggest walking as the best form of exercise. As golf is not a physically violent sport, it can be taken up at any age.

Golf is a reason for walking without having to buy a dog, collecting wild flowers or picking mushrooms. Walking for the sake of walking can be a little uninteresting even though it takes us into the countryside. Golf is all these things and more.

It is played at the highest possible standard by fit, dedicated professionals. But it is played by players of all abilities and ages for pleasure as well as to benefit their health and general quality of life.

It is played by people who not only enjoy exercise in the fresh air but also the companionship of their playing partners or the competition for a wee dram or cup of coffee at the end of the round.

What it should not be is a way of doing physical injury to oneself, or to have a good walk spoiled, either yours or anyone else's for that matter.

Convinced, or should I say more?

Golf is, much More!

It is a game in which a small ball is played from where it lies on the ground to another position over a measured course, using well designed clubs, which are used in a form that is referred to as the ‘golf swing’ and up until now has been proved to be the most efficient way to achieve this objective. It could be that someone somewhere will discover a better method, who knows?

The golf swing, if produced in a balanced way with little physical effort, gives maximum satisfaction and enjoyment.

The physical effort in playing golf, should be the walking, not the earth moving or ball hitting.

Golf is a game of precision, not distance. The good golfers can combine power (to achieve distance) with the precision. A ball played a long way in the wrong direction is not the desired result and may possibly be lost.

The objective in golf is to play the same ball from the teeing ground (starting place) into a round hole, in the least number of strokes.

The hole measures four and a quarter inches (10.8 centimetres) in diameter, has a minimum depth of four inches (10 centimetres), and is cut into the ground on what is called the putting green, or simply the green. Its position is marked by a tall, thin flagstick that normally has a coloured flag fixed to the top and is placed in the centre of the hole.

The green is an area that has been specially prepared for putting and the grass is normally a different strain to that used on the rest of the course. This type of grass can be cut very short to create a smooth surface that allows the ball to roll in a manner referred to as putting, hence the name ‘putting green’. This manicured surface is designed to act in a similar way to the ‘green beige’ of a billiard table permitting the ball to roll smoothly without bumps and jumps. Therefor they deserve respect from the players who should leave them, as they would like to find them, without damage, no scuffs or whatever that might have been caused by the incorrect movement of their feet, clubs or the impact of their balls.

A game of golf is often referred to as playing a round. This consists of playing 18 consecutive holes and adding up all the strokes or attempted strokes taken playing within the Rules of Golf  as laid down by the R&A Rules Ltd., the United Stated Golf Association, the National Golf Federations and the Local Rules for the