Getting Started

Everything from your first grip to your first round, in the order you actually need it. Start here if the game is new.

17 guides

Golf for Beginners: The Complete Guide

Golf is not hard to start. It is hard to start well, because almost everything a beginner gets told first is the wrong thing to work on. This is the order that works.

18 min read

Beginner

Golf Course Types Explained: Links, Parkland and More

Course type is really two separate questions wearing one name: what the land is like, and who is allowed to play it. Confusing the two is how beginners end up on the wrong first tee.

11 min read

Beginner

Golf Etiquette: What Is a Rule and What Is Just Manners

Golf etiquette is mostly convention, and a small part of it is written into the Rules with a penalty attached. Knowing which is which stops you worrying about the wrong things.

12 min read

Beginner

Golf Handicap Explained: What the Number Actually Means

A handicap is not your average score and it is not a label. It is a portable measure of what you are capable of, built so a 22 and a 6 can play each other a close match.

11 min read

Beginner

Golf Rules for Beginners: What You Actually Need

Nobody expects a beginner to know all of the Rules of Golf. A short list covers almost everything that will happen to you in a round, and knowing it is the difference between playing and guessing.

10 min read

Beginner

Golf Scoring Explained: Par, Birdie, Bogey and the Card

Golf keeps score in a private language, and nobody explains it before you play. Par, bogey, stroke index and the little boxes on the card all mean something specific.

11 min read

Beginner

How Long Does a Round of Golf Take? The Real Maths

A round of golf takes as long as the tee sheet allows. The governing body publishes per-hole timings that add up to under four hours, and almost nobody plays in that, for reasons that have very little to do with how fast you walk.

11 min read

Beginner

How Many Clubs in a Golf Bag? The 14 Club Rule

Fourteen is a ceiling, not a target, and the golfers who count their clubs on the first tee are the ones who never get the two-stroke penalty.

10 min read

Beginner

How Much Does Golf Cost? A Realistic UK Breakdown

Golf has a reputation for being expensive, and about half of that reputation is earned. The half that is not comes from people pricing the version of golf they saw on television.

12 min read

Beginner

How to Book a Tee Time: What to Say and When to Book

Booking a round of golf is the one part of the game nobody explains, and it is where most first-timers quietly give up before they have swung a club.

10 min read

Beginner

How to Break 100 in Golf: What Actually Has to Change

Nobody shoots 99 by hitting better shots. They shoot 99 by hitting fewer terrible ones, and the tracked data is unusually clear about which terrible ones matter.

11 min read

Beginner

How to Get a Golf Handicap and Post Your First Scores

A handicap is not awarded for being good enough. It is issued to anyone who joins the right kind of club and posts a few scores, and most golfers wait years longer than they need to.

10 min read

Beginner

How to Use a Driving Range: A First-Timer's Guide

The hardest part of a first driving range visit is not the swing. It is walking in not knowing where to pay, which bay is yours, or what the flags in the distance actually mean.

11 min read

Beginner

What Clubs Does a Beginner Actually Need to Start?

Nobody needs fourteen clubs in their first year. Half a bag will cover every shot you can currently hit, and the clubs you skip are the ones that punish you hardest.

11 min read

Beginner

What to Wear Golfing: Dress Codes Without the Guesswork

There is no single golf dress code. There is a common core that almost every course accepts, and a set of local rules on top of it that nobody publishes in one place.

10 min read

Beginner

Your First Golf Tournament: What Changes in Competition

A competition round is the same golf course and a different set of obligations. Most of what catches first-timers out is paperwork and procedure rather than pressure.

12 min read

Beginner

Your First Round of Golf: How the Day Actually Goes

Almost nobody is nervous about their first round because of the golf. They are nervous because nobody has told them the shape of the day.

10 min read