The Game of Golf

The golf course may seem a fa-off-in-the-future place, where you will not set foot for a long time. But it is helpful to understand the layout of the course to understand what you must learn. When I teach I like to put the pieces of the puzzle together as promptly as possible. Understanding the golf course allows you a look at the big picture, so you can figure out where to put the pieces.

A regulation golf course consists of 18 holes. There are generally three lengths of holes: par 3s, par 4s, and par 5s. The length or yardage of the hole, which will be listed on your scorecard, determines the par. The length or yardage of the hole, which will be listed on your scorecard, determines the par. For our purposes, a par 3 is a short hole, a par 4 is a medium-length hole, and a par 5 is a longer-length hole, which can often look like an eternity to a new golfer.

I remember playing a par 5 at Frenchman's Creek and burying my tee shot into a cork tree. After wedging the golf ball from out of the trunk, not being happy, with my playing partner laughing at me, I remeber looking up and realizing that I had over 400 more yards to travel. This felt like a five-mile-long par 5 at this point.

Par is the score that an expert golfer would expect on a hole under normal weather conditions, including two strokes on the putting green. So, in other words, on a par 3 an expert golfer would hit the ball onto the green in one shot, on a par 4 in two shots, and on a par 5 in three shots, each allowing two puffs for the computation of par.

Now, are you an expert golfer? It is probably safe to assume no, due to the fact that you are reading this book for beginners. So scoring par would certainly be fun but is probably not a reasonable expectation at this time, nor it is a requirement for having fun.

The most important component of the golf course is the hole, not to be confused with the cup. The cup, a four-and-one-quarter-inch hole in the green, is lined by a metal or hard plastic lining, sunk, by mandate of the rules of golf, at least one inch below the level of the green. The cup, the ultimate objective of the player of each hole,is marked by a flagstick, apole about six feet in height, usually with a cloth flag attached.

The goal of the game of golf is to advance the ball with your golf clubs from the teeing area provided on each hole to the putting green and into the cup provided on each hole in as few strokes as possible. There are 18 holes on a regulation golf courses; therefore, you will attempt to do this 18 times. So, in other words, I have to teach you to get from here to there in the fewest number of strokes possible.