How to Start Golf

Thinking about starting golf can feel intimidating, but the truth is, a good golf swing is much simpler than most people think. It’s not about strength or confusing mechanics, it’s about learning a few basic positions and letting your body do the work. This guide will walk you through the essentials - from how to hold the club to the feel of a balanced finish - giving you a clear, step-by-step path to hitting the ball with confidence.

First, Change How You Think About the Swing

Before you ever touch a club, it helps to have the right mental image. A lot of new players see golf as an up-and-down chopping motion, hitting at the ball with just their arms. This is the surest way to get frustrated. Instead, I want you to picture something different: the golf swing is a rotational motion. It’s a coil and uncoil, like a spring. The club swings around your body in a circle, not up and down.

The power doesn't come from your arms. The power comes from your body - the turning of your shoulders and hips is the engine that moves the club. Your arms and hands just guide the club along for the ride. If you can get this one idea into your head, you're already ahead of the game. It’s all about turning, not chopping.

The First Connection: How to Hold the Golf Club

Your grip is your only connection to the club, and that makes it the steering wheel for your shots. How your hands sit on the club has a huge influence on where the clubface points at impact. A wacky grip forces you to make all sorts of strange moves in your swing just to get the ball to go straight. Getting it right from the start makes everything easier. While it will definitely feel weird at first, stick with it.

Step-by-Step for a Neutral Grip (for a Right-Handed Golfer)

To start, hold the club out in front of you with the clubface pointing perfectly straight up and down, what we call "square."

• The Left Hand (Your Top Hand): Bring your left hand to the side of the grip. The club should run diagonally across your fingers, from the base of your pointer finger to just below your pinky. Close your hand so the palm rests on top of the grip. When you look down, you should be able to see the first two knuckles of your hand. The "V" formed by your thumb and index finger should point roughly toward your right shoulder.
• The Right Hand (Your Bottom Hand): Bring your right hand to meet the club so your right palm covers your left thumb. Think of the middle of your right palm sitting right on the side of that left thumb. The "V" formed by your right thumb and index finger should also point up toward your right shoulder, parallel to your left hand's "V".
• Locking it In: You have three common options for how your pinky and index fingers connect:
  • The Interlock: Your right pinky hooks under your left index finger.
  • The Overlap: Your right pinky rests on top of the space between your left index and middle finger. This is the most common grip.
  • The Ten-Finger (Baseball): All ten fingers are on the grip, with your right pinky resting snugly against your left index finger.
  Honestly, just pick whichever one feels most comfortable and secure. There's no single "best" option here.

Your grip will probably feel unnatural, and that’s okay. The golf grip is unlike how you hold anything else. Trust that this strange feeling is the foundation for a consistent swing.

Setting Up for Success: Your Posture and Stance

Just like the grip, the way you stand to the ball will seem odd. But this athletic posture is what allows your body to rotate powerfully and consistently. Getting this part right sets the stage for the rest of your swing.

Building Your Setup from the Ground Up:

1. Start with the Clubface: Before you worry about your feet, place the clubhead on the ground directly behind the ball. Aim the leading edge of the face at your target. This ensures you're aligned before you even settle in.
2. Get into Posture: Now, stand up straight and then bend forward from your hips, not your waist. Push your butt back as if you were about to sit in a high chair. Let your back stay relatively straight while your chest tilts over the ball. Your arms should hang down naturally and tension-free directly below your shoulders.
3. Set Your Feet: Once your upper body is in position, take a stance that is about shoulder-width apart. This gives you a stable base for rotation. Too narrow, and you'll wobble, too wide, and you won’t be able to turn your hips freely. Your weight should feel evenly balanced, 50/50 between your left and right foot for an iron shot.
4. Ball Position Made Simple: Where should the ball be relative to your feet? As a beginner, keep it simple. For any of your middle-to-short irons (like a 9-iron, 8-iron, or 7-iron), place the ball dead in the center of your stance. As the clubs get longer (like your woods and driver), the ball will move forward in your stance, until it’s off the inside of your lead heel for the driver.

Once you’re in this position, take a deep breath and let the tension go. You want to feel athletic and ready, not stiff and ridgid.

The Motion: Building an Easy, Repeatable Swing

With a solid grip and setup, the swing motion itself can flow naturally. Let's break it down into three simple phases.

Part 1: The Backswing

The goal of the backswing is to coil your body and store power. Think "rotate," not "lift."

• One-Piece Takeaway: Start the swing by turning your chest, shoulders, and hips away from the target all together as one piece. You're simply turning your body.
• Setting the Wrists: As you start turning, allow your wrists to hinge naturally. You don’t need to force it. This wrist hinge helps set the club on the correct angle (or "plane").
• Stay in Your Cylinder: Imagine you’re standing inside a tall barrel or cylinder. As you turn back, try to rotate inside that cylinder. Avoid swaying your body to the right. It’s a turn in place, not a lateral slide. Turn back until you feel a comfortable tension in your back and hips - that’s the top of your swing.

Part 2: The Downswing and Impact

Now it’s time to uncoil. If the backswing stored the energy, the downswing delivers it to the ball.

• The First Move: From the top of your swing, the very first move down should be a slight shift of your weight and hips towards the target (left for a righty). This simple move does something incredible: it ensures you hit down on the ball, making solid contact first, then brushing the turf after.
• Unleash ahe Rotation: Once that little hip bump happens, all you have to do is turn. Unwind your hips and chest open towards the target as fast as you comfortably can. The arms and club will naturally follow on the same path they went up.
• Don't Help the Ball Up: Your job is to hit the ball and trust the club’s loft to get it airborne. Trying to "scoop" or "lift" the ball into the air is a very common mistake. Focus on turning through the shot and letting the clubface make contact with the back of the ball.

Part 3: The Follow-Through and Finish

A good shot doesn’t stop at the ball. The final phase of the swing shows that you committed to the shot and maintained your balance.

• Keep Turning: As you strike the ball, keep rotating your body. Let your chest and belt buckle turn all the way through until they are facing your target.
• Weight on the Front Foot: In a good finish position, almost all of your weight (about 90%) should be on your front foot. Your back heel will have lifted off the ground naturally to allow this.
• Hold Your Finish: A balanced finish is the sign of a swing that was in control. Try to hold your pose for a few seconds until the ball lands. Your arms will be extended and then will fold comfortably around your neck or shoulders.

Final Thoughts

Starting golf becomes manageable when you break it down into these pieces. Don't try to perfect everything at once. Focus first on a good grip and setup. Then gradually build the feeling of a rotation-based swing. Consistency comes from a repeatable setup and a simple, balanced motion, not from a thousand complicated thoughts.

As you get out on the course, you'll inevitably face situations that leave you scratching your head - a tough lie, an awkward distance, or just needing a second opinion on what club to hit. When those moments happen, we built Caddie AI to act as your personal course expert. You can get instant advice on shot strategy or even take a photo of a tricky lie to get a recommendation on how to play it, removing the guesswork and helping you play with more confidence from day one.