Piggybacking off of my Vegas thread about a newbie playing, this friend of mine is taking up golf with no experience. Tennis background. He's athletic but starting from scratch. We're hoping to have him able to play without embarrassment in two months.

What should I recommend to him as the quickest, simplest way to become functional enough to actually play golf and maybe shoot 120? The challenge is that he works a lot of hours and doesn't have a ton of money to just do weekly lessons. He will be more self taught (and YouTube taught) than anything.

Should I have him maybe take a couple lessons if he wants to spend that money and then supplement with YouTube? Or online coaching? All thoughts are welcome, both from a learning standpoint and a beginner strategy standpoint. I'll be playing with him and coaching him through all of the etiquitte and pace of play and course management stuff so I just want to find out how to help him get the club onto the back of the ball as quick as possible.

There is no substitute for just going to the range and hitting balls. There are numerous ways to make this more effective, but there is no way around getting his butt to the range and swinging the clubs. You should go with him. Yall split a sixer of talls and go hammer some balls.

Sword543w said:

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Don't play games that he has to keep his individual score. Nobody should be hitting over 100 strokes on a course. Partner up and make it fun.

That's tough. Give him one of the youtube guys that does a video on grip, stance, setup, and short game. Tell him he's not allowed to watch any other approach.

He'll have a shot at some semblance of a game if he practices one approach/technique.

Then, he can get hooked and fall down the rabbit hole like the rest of us and try it all.

He needs to figure out how to get off the tee, get the ball in play (find a YouTube video on hitting driver). I'd also just putt, putt and putt. Whether it's in his office, living room, whatever…just start putting and getting a feel.

Quickly, he must grasp that triple max is his friend. He'll be shooting in the one-teens before you know it.

I played at a par 3 course yesterday with a guy that had been playing 3 months. He was decent. He kept pace and he was athletic and didn't try to force kill the ball. Start with basics around the green and move outward from there. And definitely don't make him play his own ball. Partner up.

Don't force him to play from the tips and tell him it's fine to leave the driver in the bag in deference to his 5W

I'd recommend watching some of the youtube videos of Golf Sidekick...he goes very much into depth about how to break 100 with maximum of 150 yard shots and just keeping the ball in play. I think he is the best youtuber for beginners to see that bunting it around and keeping it in play is the way to lower scores...not full send on a driver from every tee box.

Golf Sidekick does the same thing for how to break 90 and 80 - so he can continue to follow that channel. He is mainly about course management and not swing. It is an excellent way to learn to think on the course to maximize your scoring.

Danny Maude is my favorite for swing lessons. He keeps is super simple.

2 in person lessons
Lesson one: grip/stance/ball position/aiming and basic full swing - if these are wrong then he can't improve
Lesson two: reinforce lesson one..then move to chipping toe down with putting stroke, putting setup/grip/stroke.

Play shamble to get him started - he can work on his conservative driving (with 5w or hybrid) and then pickup in most cases and drop with you.

If he is athletic, temptation will be to swing as hard as he can - and we all know where that leads. He can break 100 and never hit more than 70% power. All about keeping it in play and advancing it in generally right direction at that level. Really have to drop the ego if he is an athlete.

Simple bag of 5 wood, 4-5 hybrid, 7-8-9-P-Gap-56. Wouldn't even carry a driver or 3 wood and no long irons.

There are two ways I play. Play for score or play for shots. Play for score means try not trying to make a hero shot out of a bad lie or try to reach the green from a long distance when you could hit short, chip and 2 putt for a bogey. Play for shots will have you trying to make the hero shots or take chances that may not be smart from a scoring standpoint. I like to play for shots because I like to know what my potential is. I may try to hit a ball over water that is 180 yds out which for me is a limit. But if I don't try, I will never hit it over.

As far as shooting 120 in that amount of time, I guess maybe?… if he's a natural? But almost certainly not. I wouldn't focus on any sort of target score. Instead, focus on the enjoyment, both his and y'alls.

I know a lot of people will say short game, but I agree with others who say learn to hit the ball first. That's gonna be more fun than two putting every hole, or learning the 8 iron bump. A beginner would get more out of half swings to learn contact at the range than grinding at the short game area.

In order to do that though, at the very least he's gonna need to learn the proper grip and stance/posture, whether that be from a lesson/group lesson of some sort or watching youtube videos.

From there, he needs to bang some balls. There's just no way around it.

I think the phrase "drive for show, putt for dough" is one of the most off base phrases in golf… followed closely by "keep your head down." If you drive it like crap, you ain't putting for anything important.

Exactly. To your point on enjoyment, you are not going to give a pot of piss for how good your short game is if you duff it off the tee, duff it in the fairway, and duff, duff, duff your way along. That's not fun. And as a newbie, I also don't care how long you spend on your short game, it's still not going to be very good.

The battle with golf is feel vs real. That's where some advice and an educated pair of eyes upfront can save so much time. A newbie may watch all the videos possible and think they know what they are looking for, but when they get over a ball, everything is awkward. Right feels wrong. Wrong feels right. Great athlete or not. If you lack time and money, then pickleball may be your game . But for someone on a budget, group beginner lessons/classes would be the way

PGA
Posture
Grip
Alignment

Those are simple things he can learn to make himself presentable.

Then try to learn a basic chip and basic pitch. Get some semblance of distance control with putter.

3/4 swing with decent contact will have you in play and having a lot more fun than swinging out of your shoes and slicing/hooking/fatting/thinning it to God knows where.

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Should I have him maybe take a couple lessons if he wants to spend that money and then supplement with YouTube? Or online coaching?

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In-person lessons are way more efficient than anything you can watch on Youtube or advice received from online coaching and friends. Youtube, for me, became a supplement and a way to try new things AFTER establishing some solid fundamentals. Find a reasonably priced instructor in his area, and have him take at least 2-3 lessons going over the basics (grip, alignment, swing path, using the hips, etc.).

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All thoughts are welcome, both from a learning standpoint and a beginner strategy standpoint. I'll be playing with him and coaching him through all of the etiquitte and pace of play and course management stuff so I just want to find out how to help him get the club onto the back of the ball as quick as possible.

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Goes without saying, but make sure he has the right clubs. Forgiving and easy to hit. Not a one size fits all, but when I started taking the game more serious it helped me tremendously to have a "rescue club" in the bag. Something that is easy to hit, long, and can bail him out of mis-hits or shorter distances off the tee. Like Danny said, it won't be much fun watching your friends drive the ball 250+ when it takes you 3 shots to do the same.

Learn to play from tee to green. Beginners lose more strokes by not keeping the ball in play with their driver and iron play.

Also, it's more demoralizing to top your drive and see it dribble 30 yards past the tee box than 3-putting every hole.

Kirky said:

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3/4 swing with decent contact will have you in play and having a lot more fun than swinging out of your shoes and slicing/hooking/fatting/thinning it to God knows where.

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This. I'd also add if he is not able to advance a tee shot very far by the time y'all head out there, then just tell him other than taking a few tee shots here and there to just go drop up with someone else in the group and begin his hole there, taking half or 3/4 swings focusing on smooth punches forward.

It's agonizing for the player and the group to watch a guy take 4 shots to advance it past the ladie's tees.