So you want to play golf like Park In-bee?

By Kim Jeong-kyoo

Park In-bee won the 2016 Olympic gold medal with the look of a lioness stalking its prey. The pleasure from watching Olympic golf might have inspired you to take up the game. If so, don’t hesitate to learn to play. You’ll experience pleasure you could not imagine before. Once you’re hooked, you’ll never want to stop playing.

To learn to play golf effectively, you must first find a good teacher. A good teacher can quickly decide how you learn. Your teacher should know if you would learn best by watching someone demonstrating a swing or by feeling the swing yourself. Your teacher should know if you would learn best by analyzing and understanding the swing. Practiced top-class teachers know how they should teach each of their students. Know yourself and find a teacher who speaks your language.

As a student, you need to stay prepared to listen and make sure you take clear, simple notes. Write down the main points of the session and make sure they accurately reflect your teacher’s lessons. If any points confuse you, don’t forget to clarify them. Critically, you need to know that learning a golf swing takes time and patience.

But once you start to take lessons, chances are you’ll hear some clichés about the golf swing. Don’t force yourself to stick to the following four myths.

Leave your head still

This restricts you from turning your body fully. This also prevents you from swinging your club gracefully on the proper plane. To swing back properly, you need to let your head shift slightly to your right side as you turn your shoulders. You cannot turn your shoulders properly unless you let your head move naturally to your right side on the backswing.

Keep your eyes fixed on your ball or keep your head down through your shot

This deprives you of every chance to release your club fully. To unleash your power fully into your shot, you need to let your head turn as you rotate your body. Henrik Stenson, the British Open champion, allows his head to turn early toward the target as he hits the ball. Annika Sorenstam, a 10-time major champion, turns her head early, too.

Turning your head too early can cause your right shoulder to jut out, inflicting an outside-to-in swing fault on you. But you don’t need to worry about your faulty shoulder move. If you stay clear of lunging forward toward your target, nothing wrong will happen. Don’t force yourself to keep your head down. Make sure you release your eyes at impact so your head and your body turn naturally toward your target.

Keep your left arm straight during your swing

This leaves your shoulders, your arms, your wrists and your hands tense. Tense muscles rob you of your chance to swing your club gracefully. Keep your arms as straight as possible. More importantly, your arms need to feel comfortable. You should not try to keep your left arm ramrod straight throughout your swing.

Slow down your swing

Swinging your club slower plays havoc with your ability to hit the ball as far as you want. To hit the ball far, to the best of your ability, you need to increase your swing speed to the maximum.

Of course, you need these moves to hit your ball solidly. But these notions about the swing can be harmful to you rather than fruitful. Don’t stay obsessed with these notions. They breed tension, inhibiting you from swinging your club naturally and freely. Neglecting to swing your club fluidly, you’ll never hit your ball far to your satisfaction.

Instead, if you have difficulty hitting your ball solidly, make half-swings or three-quarter swings. This will give you more chances to hit the ball well. Also, use a tee at the early stage of your learning.

Granted, you need to hit your ball accurately toward your target. Still, you first need to learn to hit your ball as far as possible before you try to hit it accurately. You can improve your shot accuracy after learning to hit the ball far enough. But increasing your distance later is not as easy as you might think.