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So a buddy of mine came up to me and decided to tell me that he is interested in picking up the game of golf. Truthfully I think he just wants an excuse to escape from the wife every once in a while, but whatever. So I've been having him work on his grip and doing drill than include chipping and pitching just to get him used to the feel of the golf club with the proper grip, posture, stance, impact postion, etc. I know at times starting can get pretty overwhelming (gets overwhelming when you kinda know what you are doing and struggling), so my question is: when is it time to move him from chipping/pitching to the full swing? What's a few drills to help move to this transition? Literally, this past Sunday was the first time ever in his life to pick up a golf club with the intention of playing golf with it.

The poor sole doesn't even know what a green, draw, slice, fairway, teebox, etc etc is. He was also interested in going to one of the Harvey Penick Golf schools, but I figure that would be more beneficial if he had a little bit of the foundation worked up since most classes they try to hit all areas of the game in a short amount of time. I'm trying to get him to go to a pro, but at this point his ego and wife are holding him back from ponying up the money for one.... ANy suggestions guys?

Basics of golf-

Golf Club Basics

Golf Etiquette Basics

Some Basic Terms

A Few Basic Swing Tips


Hope these help. Show them to your buddy :)

A good start would be a book by George Knudson...The Natural golf swing is a great book co-wrote by Loren Rubestein.

Won't the Penick school set him back more than a local pro?

Borrow him a club and go to the range and give it a whirl.....

pg, I think it's great that you're eager to take the time to help out someone new to the game, friend or stranger.

Most importantly, enable him to have fun while making mistakes as a beginner. I've tried to coach my son (15) the past couple of seasons, and experienced very little success. His most common reply? It's not fun. And no matter how hard I try to make it fun, it usually backfires. I've realized that I can't force him to enjoy the game. He will either come around and someday want to learn to play, or he won't.

We're no different than kids. We don't enjoy the frustrations that come with the challenges of golf. Be encouraging, and teach him the basics and ettiquette of the game. Once you've helped as much as you can, then encourage him to get lessons. At that point, he can make the determination if golf is something worth investing more time and money into.

Keep it simple. If you do nothing more than teach him the ettiquette and the basics, you've made his next step (lessons) much more applicable.

Ace has given you some good links for beginning golfers. :)

My advice is to take him out to the range and let him hit some balls. What made me come back to golf over and over again wasn't the lessons. It was the fun. That round that's 10 over you handicap can be completely offset by one good shot. If he's not having fun...He won't love the game. At least at first. Later on is soon enough to start getting serious about the game. "Let them have FUN!"

Well thanks for the tips guys. Sunday when we were out at the range, I felt myself at times talking too much and trying to give advice on too many things at once. Then it dawned on me that this was the first time that he has ever hit with a golf club and my expectations needed to be adjusted down a bit. Then I just gave him one task to work on (posture, grip, and chipping type shots) and let him be for the rest of the time unless he asked questions or if I saw something that really needed to be addressed. I also told him to take a step back every once in a while to avoid being a robot on the range (just blindly hitting ball after ball w/o thoughts, etc) and also to give him an opportunity to watch other people. I figured I would familiarize him with the game, get him to the basics and them send him off to an instructor. Gonna have him do a ride along with me this weekend so I can explain situations, course etiquette, what to do when, etc, etc during a typical round. Hopefully it wont be one of my "off" days

Oh, and he is set with his irons....I decided to cut him a deal on my old irons and sell them to him for $200 (2005 RAC OS2's 3-pw steel shaft in excellent condition).

I would say that you've helped him more, especially considering the deal that you gave him on the irons, than he can appreciate at this point.

Good thoughts about not overwhelming him with info. Very good.

With a little luck, you might have him hooked on the game in no time. :)

VERY good thought on the not over-whelming with info. I'm a beginner of about 4 months, and I've learned most everything from my friend who has been playing all his life, and a negative handicap and it=s contemplating trying to go pro in the next 5 years. I'm very lucky to have him helping me, and my progress is credited just to him and me being addicted to the game already. (I also have a few books that have alot of pictures of pro swings, I used those too, with his helping point out subtle points) But he used to swamp me with corrections. I couldn't keep up, and after a few swings, I just wasn't interested anymore. But then I broke it down, taking his most basic advice, getting that down, then moving on to his more advanced advice. Give him basic things to work on. Laugh with him, remind him to forget about where the ball goes. Get his swing right, after that, the ball will behave a little better. He's already got some nice irons to learn with...my friend hasn't been THAT generous!

When my son was 10ish and was learning to play with me, I found I had to back off on the direct instruction in order to let him have fun. After he had gotten the bug, I made sure that he and I went to the range at our home course at a time that I knew our pro would be practicing...and positioned us nearby so my son would be sure to see his beautiful swing. Sometimes my son would just stop and watch and absorb. Dang, kids sure are good at imitation! His swing became so fundamentally sound it was scary.