Posted by Golf for Beginners

When it comes to golf for beginners, it is really crucial that you're mindful of certain things that you'll run across on the golf course. I've written before about golf etiquette for beginners and how to introduce golf to beginners for example by way of the driving range prior to heading out onto the course. But there are other things that you might not realize so I'll talk about a few here.

Tee Boxes

Something that you as a new golfer will have to know about is the tee boxes. Every golf course you visit will probably have multiple sets of tees. Many have at least 3 sets of tees: forward tees, middle tees, and back tees, often called championship tees. Other courses may have as many as 5, 6 or even 7 sets of tees. Most of these tees are color coded to help you know which one is which.

But, you may wonder, which set of tees should I play from? Golf for beginners is grueling enough just trying to hit the golf ball, but you also have to know how far you hit each golf club. You have to know how far you hit your clubs, especially your woods, because this will specify which set of tees you should be playing from.

At a course with 3 sets of tees, the rules of thumb for selecting the right set are pretty simple: the championship tees (back tees) are for low-handicap men. The middle tees are set up for middle to high handicap men, low-handicap or long-hitting women, and low-handicap or long-hitting senior men. The forward tees are primarily for middle or high handicap women and seniors, and beginners of golf.

Unless you know that you are able to hit the ball a long distance, with greatness of accuracy and consistency, then start from the forward tees. Later on, as you become more skillful, you will be able to pull back to the tougher set of tees.

Here is an awesome guidepost that you will be able to use to estimate which tees you ought to be playing from as a golfing beginner: if you're not able to reach the par-3 holes in one shot, or unable to reach the par-4 holes in 2 shots from the set of tees you're playing, it's a good sign that you need to play from the shorter set of tees.

Golf courses provide total yardages from each of the different tee boxes. Here's another general rule of thumb for deciding the distance at which to play on any given golf course (thus helping you to pick the right tee to play from): Take your average 5-iron distance (I said average, not your career distance), multiply that yardage by 36, and choose the tees that just about matches that yardage. As an example: I hit my 5-iron about 160 yards. So 160 X 36 = 5,760. So I choose the tees closest to 5,760 yards in length. Some of my friends play from the back tees all the time, but I try to always play from the tees that match my length of the tee. If you do this as well, you will no doubt make quicker progress as a beginner of golf.

Yardage Markers

All golf courses have yardage markers of some sort. What are yardage markers? As the name implies they mark yardages that tag various points from tee to green. For instance, you will most often find yardage markers denoting that you're 200 yards, 150 yards, and 100 yards from the green. In addition, a lot of golf courses put yardages on sprinkler heads and other objects found in the fairway. All of these markers can help you to determine which golf club you need to play. This way when you begin to play on the golf course and you come across a yardage marker you will be able to know how far you are from the green, and you'll be able to know which club to play.

But here is a question a golfing beginner may have: Are the yardages measuring to the front of the green, to the center of the green, or to the rear of the green?

Let's assume that the majority of golf courses are accurate in how they determine yardage. If they are then all yardages given are to the center of the greens.

A few golf courses will list multiple yardages on sprinkler caps or other yardage markers planted in the fairways. In these cases, the yardages listed are usually to the front, center and back of the green. Even so, if only one yardage is listed, it's to the center of the green.

The more that you play the game of golf, the more familiar you will become with yardage markers.

Golf for beginners requires that you know what yardage markers are for and what tee boxes are for. If you know these things then you will be on your way to hopefully enjoying the game of golf.

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