Improve Your Golf Swing

What’s your handicap when it comes to your golf game?  Are you immediately thinking of your bad back or the fact that you can’t seem to keep your head down?

A handicap in golf is not a reference to what’s keeping you from playing a great game.  Your handicap is the numerical measure of an amateur golfer’s ability to play the game over the course of its 18 holes.  This number represents how many strokes above par that a player will achieve on any typical day; this number is subtracted from their total score at the end of the round.

It’s not easy to calculate a handicap but it typically means the average number over par from the player’s previous rounds.

Note that handicaps are not used in professional golf.

Now that you know a bit more about the technical aspects of golf, why not try to apply some of these actual rules to your next game?  Many amateur golfers hit the links with friends or family and just make up their own way of playing as they go along, and of course there’s nothing wrong with that.  But typically rules govern any game for a reason – they’re meant to keep the game interesting and challenging and to make it fair for everyone.

If you understand the reasoning behind handicapping or see how different team plays are arranged, you may find that your game is much more interesting than when you go out and just start hitting the ball and counting strokes.  You may find that team play renews your interest in the game or may find that when you approach a hazard the right way, your score actually improves!  So don’t turn you nose up at these different elements of the game but keep them in mind the next time you’re on the course and you may find your game improves as does your overall enjoyment!