Golf Trip Tips for Beginners: Your Swing

It is just about the only action in a game of golf that you make -- and therefore the only part you can improve on! Your swing will be the focus of many sunny, relaxed days if you are a beginner golfer -- but before you can improve it, you need to understand it. If you are going on a golf trip or golf vacation, it's the perfect time to brush up on your technique -- we get you started.

A good golf swing is…

There are several criteria to make a good golf swing -- in general, not singularly. The main criteria of success is how close to the hole you get, obviously! Your golf swing should also:

• Be comfortable -- you shouldn't make any movements that might injure you
• Be strong -- you should slowly learn how to hit the ball further and further
• Be consistent -- you should have a system for ensuring that your swing is the same every time, when you are in the same situation
• Be flexible -- if you are in a different situation, you need to be able to adjust your swing accordingly

Practice time

Experts recommend that you hit at least 50 balls twice a week, or two buckets of 50 once a week. If you are going on a golf trip, you'll obviously get much more intensive practice in a shorter amount of time.

The basics of a good swing

• If you golf right handed (which can be different to being right-handed in general life), stand with your left shoulder facing the ball. Other way round for a left-handed golfer.
• Your shoulder should be parallel to where you are aiming
• Feet should be shoulder-width apart, and you should bend your knees slightly to help your body rotate
• Grip-wise, your left hand should be ¼ inch from the top of the club, with your thumb going down its length. The little finger of your right hand should be between your middle and forefinger of your left hand, and the other fingers slotted in between. Right thumb should go down the shaft also.
• Hold the club firmly but not tightly -- firm handshake tightness will be fine
• Keep your arms loose on the backswing, with your weight on the right side
• The apex of your swing should be shoulder height
• Watch the center of the ball on the way down
• Rotate your hips left (if you are right handed)
• Your hips should clear the hitting zone before your hands
• Snap your right wrist on impact to get the best distance

Keeping these tips in mind should ensure that your golf trip is a time for improvement, not frustration!

Hybrid Clubs - Should You Bring Them on Your Next Golf Trip?

Golf is a very simple game -- there really isn’t much room for innovation and improvement in the game itself, only the players within it. There has been one major innovation in recent times, though -- hybrid golf clubs. They are often used in place of the long irons in your set -- the flatter that iron is, the more it is likely to defeat you! Hybrid clubs are used to replace the three and four irons most usually, and some players are even using them in place of the five and six irons. Should you bring them on your next golfing vacation? We explore the ups and downs of hybrid clubs.

What are hybrid clubs?

They combine the features of both wood and iron clubs, hence the name! Basically their design helps ensure that recreational golfers can get the ball in the air more easily, make mishits fewer and farther between, and not quite so dramatic as they might have otherwise been.

Hybrid have a squarer face at the point of impact -- or at least, players are better able to keep them square at impact. One of the downfalls of long irons is that they simply don’t get much practice time, so incorporating the features of a wood (which we are more used to using) in a club used in long iron situations immediately helps improve your game.

However it isn’t only amateurs that can benefit by using hybrid clubs; and using hybrids certainly doesn’t mean that you'll be limiting your game in any way for later on. A significant proportion of golfing professionals touring the world now use hybrid clubs. You can do exactly the same thing by taking hybrids on your next golf vacation!

Improvement on shots hit out of the rough is the biggest benefit of hybrid clubs -- if you're a beginner or intermediate golfer, this will help ensure that several bad games on unfamiliar courses don’t ruin your entire golf holiday. When you use a long iron to hit out of the rough, it takes a lot of skill to overcome the issue of the grass grabbing the face and hosel, meaning that many out-of-the-rough shots are low and short. And generally disappointing! Hybrid clubs are not cheating -- they are simply the way the game is evolving.

I would recommend that you look into bringing hybrid clubs on your next golf trip. Rent a set first and check out the benefits -- you won’t want to go back!