Golf is a very competitive sport. It requires lots of skill and accuracy to play your shots far and well. Many people believe that it is a sport where you hit a ball with a stick, but that’s not the case, it is far more interesting than just that.

Here’s a simple explanation of Golf: Golf is an individual sport where you compete against others, If you are in a team, your score will still be counted by how you did individually.

Golf is a sport that contains knowledge and skills, and you must be fully concentrated in the sport to play well. Other than that, golf also contains a variety of rules and regulations for every competition. The rules are not the same for every competition. For example, for some competitions, you are not permitted to use range finders (Tools for finding range, I will mention it later on).

Now onto the tools required for golf, pretty important if you ask me, but I would only be explaining a few since there is a lot of equipment in golf. A Range finder, Golf Clubs, Golf Balls, Tees, Markers, Golf Bag, and Golf Gloves. Maybe you can do some research on these things, but I won’t be explaining it.

Now on to some rules and regulations in golf.

Common rule: when your ball lands inside ponds next to a golf hole, or you can’t find your ball in trees, you take either a 1-2 stroke penalty, depending on the rules for that competition. After the penalty, you would drop another ball in the closest area playable next to where your ball is lost. But, never closer than your dropped ball to the green than your lost ball.

Stakes. Red stakes are the most friendly ones, when you lose a ball in the red stake-marked areas, you can take a drop in the closest area next to your lost ball, as I explained before. Red stakes also allow you to play your ball when you find it inside the red-staked area. Yellow stakes are only possible next to ponds. When your ball lands in a yellow-staked area, you must drop your ball behind the pond, further to the green. White stakes are the harshest ones. If your ball lands inside a white stake-marked area, even if you find your ball in the white-staked area, it is considered out of bounds. You need to replay your ball where you had played. If there are no stakes but your ball lands in a forest you know you definitely can’t save your ball in, you follow the rules of the white stakes. Just like in tee boxes, if you drive your ball into a white-staked or not-staked area, you need to hit a provisional ball (Basically re-hit your ball). But, if you somehow find your ball when you approach the area where you lost the ball if you didn’t play the second shot of your provisional, you can continue your first shot and pick up your provisional shot.

These rules are always commonly used in Hong Kong, and I know these rules from my experience in multiple competitions in Hong Kong. I expect these rules to also be used worldwide. (According to HKGA.

But, that’s not all, green speed also exists, every golf course has different green speeds, and every day the green speed also may change. For example, 8 or below is a very slow speed, you need to put more force on your ball since if not, your ball may come short of the hole, if it is a 9 or more, you put less force since it is a fast green, even though you think hitting so short would lead to your ball not travelling enough, you are wrong. Green speeds aren’t always calculated so accurately on every golf course, professionals use techniques to calculate the green speed. This of course shouldn’t be what starters should do, it is a very hard skill to learn. But, I would explain nonetheless. Green speeds can be affected by the humidity, you may wonder, how can you feel the humidity? Well, a simple way is to use the grip on golf clubs to calculate it. If your grip is somewhat more sticky than usual, then humidity is high and if it is not sticky at all, humidity is low. Humidity affects your ball’s distance: high humidity causes more air resistance while the ball travels in the air, low humidity means the air has less resistance due to less water vapour in the air. How does this affect putting? Well as you can see, these water vapours can sometimes increase the amount of water included in the green turfs, and if so, your ball on the green would travel more slowly due to your ball also kind of sticking to the green more. Other than humidity, the amount of sand included in the green may affect your ball speed. In some golf courses, sand from sand bunkers (I will explain later on) would sometimes be accidentally transported to the green, that is because when players hit out of sand bunkers next to the green, the force the club gives the stand would lead to the sand getting flown into the green. And that makes your ball go slower since the sand may stick to your ball.

There are two ways professionals can potentially calculate the ball speed, but beginners should use one method to do so. It is looking at the direction the grass on the green turfs is pointing at. This doesn’t affect the speed but it affects the angle you should hit your ball. For example, if the grass is pointing left but the green is horizontal without any slopes, you still need to hit your ball a bit to the right, a small angle to the right.

Golf courses in Hong Kong require you to use these techniques to calculate the green. As HK is surrounded by the sea, the humidity of course is sometimes high, and in HK golf courses, during my experiences playing golf in Kau Sai Chau (Public Golf Course in Hong Kong), Deep Water Bay (Private Golf Course in Hong Kong), they sometimes pour sand onto the greens to keep the green speed stable, and not so fast. You can either use the green speed which is an easy solution to putting your ball, or you could calculate it like what I sometimes do.

Golf is very hard since every stroke comes with different outcomes. Even professional golf players may make errors, and these errors might occur very often when they play. It is a very hard sport to explain, but you can learn it once you are more familiar with it. Some people may fail straight away when they come in touch with golf because only some are suitable to play this sport well. Only a few can reach the top, while some may be stuck for 10-20 years at the bottom, never improving.

Learning a good golf swing is also very hard, some people learn with the guidance of teachers, and some investigate this sport and come up with their own way of hitting.

With the guidance of teachers, learning swings are good but you also need to know why these movements are vital and need to be made. Once you know the reason behind the swing technique, it may be a key to success.

Manners and good attire are needed for golf. You must respect all opponents. You must have good manners, no immaturity, discipline, and obey the rules. Good attire is needed just like in the army. You must at all times wear golf clothes for every competition or just go on the course for practice. A belt is needed to hold your golf pants, tuck in your shirt in the pants, and always wear good golf shoes or sports shoes (Golf shoes are recommended). Wearing golf hats is optional, but I recommend wearing one since it may symbolise that you have good manners and you can help prevent sunburns. (Sunscreen is also highly recommended)

Wearing a hat indoors is not allowed in golf lobby buildings next to the golf course, it may be very disrespectful and rude.

My favourite golf course is probably the East course in Kau Sai Chau Hong Kong, it is perfect for people who enjoy beautiful golf courses. Kau Sai Chau is a little island next to the peer of Sai Kung in HK, you can enjoy the view up in the small hills and mountains of the sea. It is best during summer!

Golf has impacted my life a lot, especially athletes.

I believe that to become a decently good athlete for any sport, you must be in a good mood at all times (Not getting frustrated all the time) and also be in the correct mindset when it comes to playing the sport and during competitions. In competitions, people get very nervous and that happens to athletes too. The strongest and best athletes always stay calm and think carefully in this situation, they think and plan their way to victory. Just like in golf, one of the hardest sports, which also requires you to stay in the correct mindset and always have a positive attitude and manners. During golf practices, on courses or competitions on the course, golfers sometimes grow frustrated because of how bad they are playing. Professional golfers sometimes fail, but they don’t get too frustrated often because to become a professional golfer, you must overcome your emotions and the tension inside you.

With this in mind, I believe that all good athletes should be an idol to you, and you can learn their ways of controlling themselves while in tight situations. This is a really important life skill, but a lot of people might struggle and have difficulties overcoming their emotions and controlling themselves. This is, of course, a hard skill to learn, but all good athletes must have these skills and factors to succeed. After finding out how hard it was to concentrate and focus on a sport like an athlete, they have changed the way I practise golf. When I play badly, I try to act calm and remain with a smile on my face at all times to not distract myself and others. Naturally, I am no match for all those top-notch golfers yet. Many times, I also fail to control my frustration while playing badly. During practices in driving ranges, I try to concentrate and think about how to improve my swings; while I try to think about why professional golf swings and moves are like that, why the moves help with playing well, and what grips could potentially improve my golf game. Athletes have mainly taught me to always remain calm, concentrated, controlled, practice hard and have sportsmanship.