10 Simple Golf Tips for Beginners & High Handicap Golfers

Golf is notorious for being one of the more challenging sports to master. Remember every single digit or scratch golfer was once in your shoes as a beginner golfer.

With the right blend of dedication and practice you can work to develop a great golf swing and get your handicap heading south. With that in mind, we've created some key golf tips to help guide you in the right direction.

Once you’ve checked out the tips below, you’ll need app that can make the game as easy as possible on the golf course. Hole19 is the way to go - it's totally free and used by over 3 million golfers worldwide. If you haven’t already, download it today!

Now on with the tips...

Sort Out Your Grip

Let's start out by talking about one of the most crucial parts of your swing - your grip. It’s one of the key checkpoints on the way to playing good golf, so if you want to hit many more great shots you've gotta get your grip game on point.

Your grip is the only connection between you and the club, so it’s like the glue that holds everything together. Whether you go baseball, interlocking or overlapping, you need to find a grip that works for you and that is technically sound. It might take a little trial and error until you settle, but if you can get a functional grip sorted it will make the game a lot easier.

Invest in a Lesson

Nothing beats personalized instruction early in your golf journey. A pro can spot issues in minutes that might take you months to figure out on your own. Bad habits form quickly, but professional guidance sets you on the right path from the start.

Watch Golf Tips Online

Can't make it to a pro? Quality online instruction can be incredibly valuable. The key is finding one or two coaches whose teaching style resonates with you – then stick with them rather than bouncing between different methods.

Work On Your Other Fundamentals Too

It's vital to spend some quality time learning and practising the fundamentals of your golf swing. We’re talking about the all-important trio of posture, ball position, and alignment - they're just as crucial as your grip!

Trust us, if you can get these fundamentals nailed down, they will make a massive difference. Even the pros spend more pre-tournament range time perfecting these basics than they do working on technical aspects or Hollywood shots.

Practice with Purpose at the Range

Don't become a guy who simply machine guns golf balls at the range with no real plan of attack. Instead, try to work a little smarter and you’ll get plenty more from each session. Always aim for a target and break up your practice by going through the bag and sharing the bucket between your driver, woods, irons and wedges.

Learn to practise with competition in mind and challenge yourself during the session to keep things interesting. Spice things up by seeing you how many drives you can keep within an imaginary fairway, or maybe even how many wedge shots you can land within a few yards of a chosen flag.

We actually have pretty cool app for all your driving range needs - it's called CORE Golf (available on iOS). Now you can make every session count and take your practice to the next level.

Spend Some Time on the Practice Green Too

If you want to master the greens, you’ll need to put in some serious work! That means spending some quality time on the practice green before and in between rounds. And don't miss out those lag putts - they're just as important as the short ones. Improving your distance control on long range putts will help you avoid many three-putt disasters.

Working on your putting game is a surefire way to lower your scores and impress your buddies. If you dedicate the time and effort into developing a better putting stroke, you'll hole more putts and be on your way to some serious golf improvement.

Play Your Own Game

When you're on the course, it's time to put your blinkers on and focus solely on your own game. Don't worry about how your pals are doing, just stick to your strategy and don't let any ego battles get in the way of your plan of attack.

If you're feeling like your trusty fairway-finding iron is the way to go off the tee, don't let your buddy's big booming drive tempt you into pulling out the big stick. Stay true to yourself and your game, and you'll be in much better shape to get the most out of your round.

Maintain Consistency

Mid-round swing changes rarely work. Instead of constantly adjusting your technique during a round, commit to what you brought to the first tee. Save technical experimentation for the range.

Manage Your Mindset

Golf is hard - you know it and we know it. If you have a stinker of a round, try not to dwell on it. Every golfer messes up every once in a while, and you'll certainly have your fair share of struggles when you’re first starting out. The key to having an enjoyable round is to set realistic expectations based on your current skill level.

We golfers often underestimated the transformational power of our minds on the golf course. If you can shake off a bad shot and keep moving forward, you'll post a far better round than the golfer who can't let it go.e.

Always Review Your Round

Don't forget to take some time to check out your rounds, even if you haven't been on your A-game recently. When you're chilling at home, whip out your Hole19 App and check out the Performance tab - it's your secret treasure trove of all your previous rounds.

You can see all sorts of cool graphics that break down your driving accuracy, GIR %, putting stats and more. Take a peek at your scorecard and try some positive reinforcement by recalling the amazing shots you’ve hit, and spend some time reminding yourself where you wasted shots along the way.

You can tap the three dots at the top right then Review Round and, if you're a Premium user, add Notes to any hole for future reference. Pretty cool, right?

We hope you have enjoyed this list of top tips for new and beginner golfers.