Realistically, you need to practice before you expose yourself to being savaged by the course. Sure, by all means go out with friends for a social knock around at your local course, but that is not the same as proper practice at a driving range or at some suitable venue near you, like a park (although most local authorities forbid golf practice in public parks), or a field.
As kids, our aim was to hit the ball as far as possible and we experimented with a variety of grips and stances that would achieve that, copying as much as we could from adults we saw hitting the straightest and longest ball.
Fortunately, these days young people are taught from the outset that a proper setup, ie stance, grip and alignment, is vital and that the short game is the most important part, so you see youngsters out around the practice greens chipping and putting.
I do not believe these basics can be learnt properly from articles or books. You cannot see what you are doing, so what you think you are doing may well be quite different from what you are actually doing. If you doubt this statement, get someone to video you.
Thousands of articles and books have been written on various aspects of the game, many of them contradictory, or espousing new methods, or resurrecting old ones, so you should only use these after you have been taught personally by a professional and have tried what you have been taught for a while. And no, I am not a professional trying to drum up business!
However, I recently came across a book which I found most interesting & which I feel would be of value to a beginner even before they have lessons. I have tried out some of the tips in it & they work for me. It is 'The Inner Game of Golf' by W. Timothy Galwey, which can be obtained from Amazon here
My next article will cover putting, because this is a part of the game which doesn't need too much space, but which will save you shots when you get it right.
