Can You Learn to Play Golf on Your Own?

Not every sport is something you should try on your own. Sports like football and basketball are easy enough to get around. Other sports might take some instructing and effort. Marksmanship sports require a lot of instructions, and so do motorsports. 

What about a sport like golf? It seems pretty safe to do, but can you learn how to play it on your own? Yes, but with a lot more effort and possible consequences. Here are the pros and cons of learning golf on your own.

Golf Takes Time – Swings are Difficult to Master

Golf essentially has one move, the swing. When something has a single move, you can bet that the move takes even more time to be perfected. There are many ways to score a goal in football, but in golf, your swing is your only weapon. 

Getting it wrong at the start might mean techniques which will be hard to relearn when the time comes to improve. A bad technique can also injure you. A bad swing can mean constant damage to your hips and shoulders. The swing is important which is why you would do better with an instructor at first.

Learning on Your Own is Fun

There is no denying that learning on your own is pretty fun. When you have to go through every bit of a move on your own, you can make it a personal science experiment. If you change your swing just a tad bit, you can see whether you improve your accuracy or whether you get more or less tired.

This can be a great way to practice learning in general, and not just the swing.

Learning on Your Own Can Have Consequences

Besides injuring yourself, you can injure others with a golf club. It has been a prop in many murder scenes and even horror movies and while some of the scenes are greatly exaggerated, the club can still do damage, as can the ball.

Furthermore, learning on your own, you might skip some very important rules about behaving on the golf course.

Golfing is about the rules as much as it is about the swing. Breaking a rule can get you banned.

Learning sports on your own is possible. Golf is another sport you could learn on your own, but I recommend that you find a course and an instructor, to teach you all the basics, from the swing, the rules, to the unwritten rules of behavior.