Doug Werner - Golfers Start-Up: A Beginners Guide to Golf

Golfers Start-Up

A Beginners Guide to Golf
2nd Edition
By Doug Werner

Tracks Publishing
140 Brightwood Avenue
Chula Vista, CA 91910
(619) 476-7125
www.trackspublishing.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Copyright 2010 by Doug Werner
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Werner, Doug, 1950

Golfers start-up : a beginners guide to golf/by Doug Werner. - 2nd ed. - San Diego, Calif. : Tracks Pub., c2010.

p.; cm.
(Start-up sports ; #7)
ISBN: 978-1-884654-76-3
Previous edition: 1996.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Golf--Amateurs manuals. 2. Golf--Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title. II. Series.

2010934312
1010

GV965.W47 2010
796.352--dc22

Dedicated to

Tom Dailey
Patrick Marlborough
John Carroll
Rudi Southerland
Jaime Rae Sandoval

You have made my game
and the production of this book a remarkably
pleasant and productive experience.

Thank you!

Richard Penner
Bob Zabaronick
Tom Morton
Mark Sook Suchomel
Kathleen Wheeler
Dave Recker
Mr. Earl
Mark Nobel
Lynns Photo
ColorType
Fred Stewart
Tom Komin
Gloria Sandoval
Jimmy Sandoval
Tim Fox
Red Werner
Ann Werner
Cheryl Haab
Bookcrafters
Gene Wheeler
Genie Wheeler
Ron Brady
Phyllis Carter
Ted Jackson
Jim Clinkscales

Tom Dailey
Patrick Marlborough
John Carroll
Rudi Southerland
Jaime Rae Sandoval

Bill Stewart
Henry Ford

This book lays it out for the beginner who wants to learn how to move the ball along. How to hit the ball well enough to get out there and play a few rounds. Golfers Start-Up is simple, easy to read and light in spirit. Its intent is to connect with the unskilled player unfamiliar with the sometimes confusing culture of golf. A culture that loves its language and its many explanations for doing things. I wrote it during my own learning experiences so it has a greenhorns point of view that should ring true with most beginners and everyone else who cares to remember their first clumsy and frustrating days.

The first half of the book is instructional and the last part is an accounting of my own golfing education. Obviously, its not a Celebrity Golfers Diatribe, however, in its own stumbling and endearing way, that is probably its greatest strength. If nothing else, beginners will find solace, hopefully a few laughs and not a bad angle on the ancient art of stroking the little white ball.

Golf is a difficult game to learn (writing this book was easier) but that doesnt mean it has to be blood, sweat and tears. With the right attitude its alotta fun. Even in the beginning.

Doug Werner

Although enjoyed by millions, many folks cant understand the lure of golf. Of all the reasons Ive heard about why folks dont play, this one seems to pop out more than most:

It just seems so stupid. Walking around all day and trying to hit a little ball into a hole.

And who can argue with that? I certainly wont.

Seems so stupid? Sure does. Sometimes it seems even more stupid when youve played awhile.

Walking around all day? Seems like it. Eighteen holes takes about four hours on a good day.

Hitting a little ball? Indeed. A difficult thing to do at all, let alone properly.

Into a hole? Impossible! Its hard enough to just hit the bloody ball, let alone aim it at a target.

So I agree. I guess thats why I didnt play as a younger person. Too many really cool things to try instead. Like surfing or mountain bike riding or snowboarding. Golfing was just so uninspiring compared to the action sports. Hard to do and just sorta blah, you know?

Despite all that, if you can hit just one ball so soundly

that you finally feel the lovely crush of ball against sweetspot,

so that the fullness and fineness of that honeyed hit glides through your hands, arms, shoulders and back like something erotic and faintly electric,

and as a result the ball takes a long and soaring, straight and mighty path toward the target

its a certainty that youll want to hit another.

That is The Basic Lure of Golf.

Sweetness Smacking it on the button and sending it long, straight and true is heady stuff. Its the quest, the pleasure and the addiction of golf.

Golf is a common denominator among a giant swath of humanity. A unique one in that all golfers find the game fascinating if not compelling. Its a wonder, its a lark, its a challenge and its a laugh. Nothing else is quite the same and nothing else animates an encounter quite like golf. Even if its just a conversation about golf.

Golfers love to talk golf. They love to share advice. They love to talk about the great shots and the lousy shots. They love to connect with each other through the game. Ive surfed and skied and snowboarded and sailed and skated and enjoyed all kinds of other things, but its golf that reigns when the jawing begins.

In other words its a great way to spend time with people. Through play or conversation.

Contrary to what some may think, golf is good exercise if you walk the course. Eighteen holes is maybe five miles of brisk walking. Ive played jogging between shots and that, as you can imagine, is quite a workout.

Golf is also played outside in an attractive or downright beautiful setting that opens the heart and mind among those of us who spend so much time in enclosed spaces.

A challenging physical effort it aint, but then again, its not billiards either. Stay off the carts and move at a good clip, and youll get some exercise.

No doubt about that. Golf demands thought, concentration and focus. You gotta think about the lie, or setting, of the ball, which club to use, how to use it and even the weather every time you address the ball. The variables come at you from all directions.