Last week I decided to explore different ways to grip the golf club. Since I am a beginner holding a club in my hand feels unnatural anyway I hold it. I looked up many different type such as:

The Traditional

Interlocking

Vardon (overlapping)

The baseball

I did not like the baseball grip as I felt I was moving my wrist to much when I swing which causes me to top the ball. I am in between the interlocking and Vardon grips as these feel the most comfortable when swinging and I have less mobility of my wrist which benefits my game. I did need to find videos explaining these grips which are hyperlinked on each name because simply looking at a photo wasn’t enough for me to understand.

Let’s talk about golf etiquette! I have only golfed with my family and close friends at some local courses. I went out recently with my boyfriend and his friends and although they don’t take it serious they were teasing me about my etiquette on the course so that inspired me to learn more. The first thing I learnt was to not speak loudly during someone’s tee off and especially their back swing.

Another thing I got called on was walking on someone’s line. I didn’t understand this so when I found it on the PGA website I was able to read what they meant.

The rest of the rules I mostly knew about or don’t apply to my personal game of golf as someone who does it just for fun.

One this I appreciate about the PGA website is they broke down the etiquette rules by the different portions of golf like

ArrivinG

Warm up

Tee off

Game play

Putting greens

Etc.

This helps understand what you should follow as the game progresses. Another thing I appreciate was the “improve your game secretion” where you can find videos of drills in order to help your form and overall performance.

For my first week of learning golf I decided to start from the very beginning before I step foot on the greens. Golf terminology is something I have heard but I’m not 100% “fluent” in. Some of the terms I was familiar with was

Par – the amount of strokes on that hole

Birdie – 1 stroke under par

Eagle – 2 strokes under par

Bogie – 1 stroke over par

And so on

Some new terms I have heard but did not know the meaning would be

Slice – shot with an extreme curve to the right

Hook –  is where the ball curves powerfully from right to left and left to right if the player is left-handed.

Mulligan – an opponent may permit one to replay one’s last shot.

There are many other terms to learn but these are the ones I found most important as a beginner.

One thing I liked about this site was the way it’s layed out . They didn’t have a long intro to the page as sometimes if I see multiple paragraphs I have to scroll past I will just go to another site but this one was short which made me stay. Secondly I love the alphabetical order of the list. This makes it easy for a beginner like me to look up a term when I hear it on the course. Lastly I appreciated the closing paragraph of encouragement and use of the language in the game of golf.

A “complaint” I have with the site would be that they combined Ace and Hole in one almost together as they assumed most people know what a hole in one is so they only put ace as a term.

Welcome to Tee Time with Harli!

As mentioned in my introduction I have decided to focus of Golfing for my learning project. I am very new to golf and have only played a handful of times. I am aiming to not only develop new skills but also confidence in them. One of my undesirable traits is that I don’t like doing things I am not good at so I will avoid it at all costs but this stops here with this project. I am so excited to start this journey because I got a full time job at the club house which means I have a membership to the golf course and can enjoy my summers out their but also because golf is one of my moms and boyfriends passions so I can’t wait to finally get the courage and knowledge to do it along sided them.

To Tee off my project I will be doing some research into what the game of golf is all about. The rules, language used, what is required to play, etc. I did get my own set of clubs as everyone I plan to golf with is left handed and I am a right hander but I think it is a good investment as here in Moosomin golfing is a big part of their community.

Here is a video of my first time playing golf last summer!