The Simple Rules of Golf
The Basic Rules of Golf
When simply put, golf is a very straightforward game: put the ball into the hole in as few strokes as possible. A "stroke" is a swing, or whenever you make contact with the ball. So, if you make take four strokes to get it into the hole, you made hit the ball four times. To being a golf hole, you start on the "tee box". There are markers on each tee box designating you to where to tee off from. From there, you hit your first shot, and advance to the hole from there. A hole starts on the tee box, and ends at the green (the putting surface where the hole is located). Typically, in between the tee box and the green is the "fairway" which is low-cut grass that allows for golfers to hit the most precise shots. The only time a hole will not consist of a fairway is what is known as a par 3, which is the next thing to understand.
One of the first things to grasp about golf is what par means. Throughout an 18 hole course, the "par" score will usually fall between 70 and 72, and will consist of roughly four par 3s, four par 5s, and twelve par 4s. Par means how many shots a golfer should take on a hole. Therefore, on a par 3, the player *should* make it in three strokes (although this may not typically be the case for most beginners). Based on your score to par, it relates to your score. If you shoot the par for the hole, you went even on that hole, or "E". If you make it in one less than the par for the hole, you finished at -1, and if you finished one about the par for the hole, you finished +1. When all 18 holes are completed, you take all the scores and compare it to par. For example, on a par 72 course, the player completes the 18 holes in 82 strokes, they would have finished the round at +10 (For most, a pretty solid score!). If you need some more understanding on the breakdown of a par, watch this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StxFxLr0GTY
Now that you have an understanding of the simple version of the sport of golf, click on the other pages to take a bit of a deeper dive as to how the game works!
