David Rycott

Recognised around the world as a gentleman’s sport, golf has built this reputation around a core set of values that are unique to the game. While other sports might pretend to uphold these values, few football matches from amateur friendlies to international competition games for instance are known for their sportsmanship. This ‘spirit of golf’ extends far beyond the players themselves, too. As any spectator of a major tournament will witness, the fans are expected to subscribe to the golfing etiquette.

As explained as part of the ongoing blog from David Rycott, theguidelines about behaviour are not to prohibit people from taking part, or have been artificially designed to make golfing elitist. Instead, they are an extension of the sport’s rich history. Although the modern game is attributed to Scotland, golf’s origins go even further back, to Ancient Rome or Medieval China where similar sports have been documented. However, Scotland does stake claim to golf as the world knows it today from as far back as 1457 when it was banned by the king for being too much of a distraction to learning how to shoot a bow.

Over the course of the game’s history, golf has refined the rules and regulations, ensuring that the sport remained an honourable game. In fact, the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers is recognised as having published the original rules of today’s game and the clue might be in their title.

Honourable Rules

Overall, the rules of golf are there to be considerate to other players, to take care of the court and minimise the damage to equipment. Golf is largely played without a referee to keep track of every player and as such the responsibility of the rules is down to each individual. This approach to rule-keeping is important to golfing etiquette, as respecting others in play will be rewarded with other people respecting you when it is your turn to tee off.

Officially, player’s etiquette is written into the Rules of Golf, to recommend the correct behaviour while on the course. Although in this section these guidelines are not necessarily enforced like a penalty in football, it is possible for the course administration to disqualify a player if they are deemed to be in breach of these rules.

Maintaining the Course

Golf courses are nominally, large expanses of open land that require a great deal of maintenance. Owners of a course appreciate that this will see an average amount of wear and tear, but as far as the spirit of the game is concerned, the course’s maintenance is also the responsibility of players. It is acceptable to make a divot, accidentally, for example when missing a shot but walking away from the divot afterwards is generally frowned upon. Courses are equipped for accidental damage, with seed packets available or sand for a quick fix of a shallow divot.

In addition to divots, it is also the responsibility of a golfing party to repair any damage caused by golf shoes and to rake bunkers over. At all times, the best practice is to regard a course repair as whether you would be happy taking a shot there.

Considering Others

The happiness of others is paramount to good etiquette in golf. In a similar fashion to repairing the course after play, the spirit of golf is also protected by players who uphold the following values to keep golf fun for everybody.

Teeing off or taking a shot on the putting green takes time and concentration, too much spin or power can deviate the ball far from its intended location. In order to minimise distraction, it is required of other players and spectators waiting for the tee, to do everything they can to keep noise levels down. The same goes for practice swings in the line of sight of other players and certainly no deliberate distractions.

Putting is a typically difficult time for golfers and behaviour around the putting green is important. Spiked shoes are rare but these days the tradition of not walking through a putting line so as not to disturb the ground is still upheld. Make a mental note of the balls on the green and when it comes to your put, always walk around the lines of the various shots.

Finally, it is up to everyone on the course to keep each other safe. Accidents do happen, but all precautions should be made, especially when teeing off. Obstructions to lines of sight might make this difficult over long distances but keep everybody away from the tee, not just for safety from the ball but also any loose twigs or stones. Same goes for any practice shots too.

Upholding the Spirit of the Game

A common misconception that people have about golf is that it is a particularly difficult sport to learn. While there are a number of rules to pick up, as well as techniques and equipment to consider, ultimately, golf is not exceptionally hard for most people. The primary objective for most golfers is to simply enjoy a good time with some family and friends. While some people go on to play at a high level, entering tournaments and winning championships, this type of mastery is not necessary for enjoyment. David Rycott is an avid golf fan who plays for enjoyment and likes spending time on the golf course with people he knows.

One of the main benefits of learning to play golf is the networking opportunities it affords. Even taking a few introductory lessons can help aspiring golfers meet new people and learn new skills. A preparatory series of golf lessons is often inexpensive, and can make getting out on the golf course far less intimidating for a first time player. Many times, the golf facility offers the use of their equipment during the lessons, meaning that new golfers can try out different types of golf clubs to see which ones feel the most comfortable. There are a number of online golf articles from David Rycott that can also help golfers figure out which equipment works best for them.

Many people report that taking a golf lesson with a friend is extremely rewarding. The host facilities are often glad to welcome new players, and offer tours of their premises prior to the lesson. A good lesson will usually start with an explanation of terminology so that players can learn the lingo and understand the basic rules. Then, players get to work learning the proper technique for swinging a club, using a putter, and escaping a sand trap, among other things.

Many recreational golfers will go through a period when they are frustrated by inconsistencies in their game. One minute they can hit the ball straight down the fairway to bounce onto the green, the next minute they fluff a simple putt from just a few feet. Often they just shrug their shoulders and claim it is not their day or blame bad luck. If they are honest though, they will acknowledge that they are responsible for their inconsistent play. All regular players, including David Rycott, go through phases like this.

In many golfers that experience this problem, the main causes of these problems are lack of practice or taking too long between rounds of golf. To achieve their potential, a golfer should be out as often as possible on the practice range, putting green or just playing a round on their local course. Not only will this help them to improve the individual parts of their game, but it will also help to make them a more consistent player.

It is not just important to practice golf as often as possible, but it can certainly help to target any practice sessions to work on a particular aspect of the game. Going to the driving range every night will improve that part of the game, but it will not help with putting. The same goes for spending too many nights on the putting green and none on the driving range. If possible, aim to spend some time practicing and then follow it up with a full round of gold. This will help you to see the improvement after each session and the variety will help to retain interest.

Keen golfers, like David Rycott, will certainly enjoy the extra light during the summer months. This allows plenty of time to play in the nice weather, but many courses have all-weather facilities that keen golfers can use throughout the winter months to practice whenever they want. Those that want to practice their golf but do not like the inclement winter weather could also consider a golfing holiday to Spain, Portugal or even Florida where the weather is great for golf all year round.

All golfers need to practice regularly to improve their game. Regular consistent practice is the key to achieving your golf targets – whether that is to improve your handicap or just beat your friends. It might not be easy, but it is the only sure way to get better at golf.

Most regular golfers will have an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of their own game. Some players struggle to drive the ball and spend every tee shoot wondering which piece of rough it will end up in, while others have problems with putting and often take twice as many shots on the green as the other players to sink the ball. It does not matter how good they are with the other parts of their game if the bits they struggle with are pulling them back down again.

One of the best tips to anyone that wants to improve their golf is to identify their weaknesses and work hard to fix them. Unfortunately, the only cure for these weak areas is to spend lots of time hitting balls in practice. If the approach play is the problem, then it will need hours on the driving range until the ball goes further and lands in the right area every time. In the same way, anyone that struggles with putting needs to get out and spend hours on the putting green practising how to sink the ball from any part of the green.

Another option would be to go out and play golf nearly every day on a variety of different golf courses. This would challenge the skills of any golfer, even experienced golfers like David Rycott, and allow you to learn how to adjust your game to match any course or conditions. However, this could prove to be considerably more expensive than making more use of the facilities of your favourite club. 

No matter how much hard work you put in, even the most optimistic person would not expect to see continual rapid improvement in their game. Natural talent limits how good a golfer can be, but practice and hard work will see any golfer improve until they reach the limits of their abilities. This can take time though, and it is important not to become discouraged when things do not improve quickly.

There are few golf courses in the world that stir up the same excitement in avid golfers, like David Rycott, than the Old Course at St Andrews. The ancient home of golf, the Old Course is the progenitor of all the other great courses of the world. For David Rycott, playing the Old Course at St Andrews is a magnificent experience, filled with heritage, spectacle and a fiendishly challenging game of golf.

People have been playing golf on the Old Course at St Andrews since all the way back in the early 15th Century. St Andrews is the place that inspired the original golfers to develop and refine the game into the enthralling sport we know today.

Originally however, golf at St Andrews was outlawed. The Scottish crown thought golf was distracting peasants from the important business of archery practice, and so it was banned. Just like a little rainstorm doesn’t stop golfers today, a royal ban didn’t put off medieval golfers either. Eventually James IV of Scotland himself became a fan, the ban was lifted, and golf was allowed to flourish again.

Over time, the Old Course has had a tangible impact on golfing traditions. The standard modern course layout of 18 holes was inspired by the Old Course. The Old Course is also home to the world’s oldest golfing tournament; the Open Championship. Over the years the Open Championship has seen all of the greats of golfing history.

For modern players, the Old Course at St Andrews presents a unique challenge. Although the inspiration for all other golf courses, the Old Course is quite unlike any other. Without any single designer, the Old Course is famous for its eccentric design features. The features that immediately stand out are the vast greens. They have multiple holes and sometimes stretch out for more than an acre. Gradual fringes also make it so there’s little definition between the greens and the fairways, giving the Old Course a uniquely natural feeling to its design.

The Old Course is infamously challenging, but ultimately totally absorbing. Famous golfer Bobby Jones fell so deeply in love with the Old Course; he said it’s the one course he’d choose to play the match of his life.

The game of golf is all about enjoying the majesty of the great outdoors. For avid players like David Rycott, the best golf courses blend beautiful locations with expert design. A great golf course transforms golf from a leisurely game into a fiendish challenge and an unforgettable spectacle.

Some of the best golf courses around the world include;

Pine Valley, USA

Situated amidst the tall pines and vast landscape of the Southwest Jersey sand barrens, Pine Valley has benefited from the influence of some of history’s best landscape designers. A whole host of expert designers were drafted in to create a course that is perfectly balanced to create the most absorbing challenge for keen golfers.

Cypress Point, USA

If Pine Valley is famous for its expert design, then Cypress Point is famous for its stunning location. Found in California, Cypress Point runs along the state’s dramatic Pacific Coastline. Taking players across sand dunes, through forest, and onto rocky coastline, playing through Cypress Point introduces players to a unique natural spectacle.

The Old Course at St Andrews, Scotland

The Old Course at St Andrews is the ancestor of all other great golf courses. Set against a dramatic Scottish backdrop, the Old Course at St Andrews is overflowing with golfing history. Since the early 1400s, St Andrews has had a golf course, although the sport was disapproved of until king James IV of Scotland himself became a fan. Playing on a course as significant as the Old Course at St Andrews allows players the chance to tread in the footsteps of history.

Royal Melbourne, Australia

Golf is best enjoyed beneath the brilliant rays of blazing Australian sunshine. Royal Melbourne is set is a gorgeous position on the far side of the world. The Royal Melbourne has no water for you to lose your ball in, just fiendish networks of challengingly laid bunkers.

Royal County Down, Northern Ireland

Overshadowed by the looming mountains of Mourne, Royal County Down is an evocative stretch of emerald Irish grasslands forged into a challenging golf course. For a challenging experience in magical surroundings, the golf course of Royal County Down. Although it has never hosted an open, Royal County Down is widely regarded as one of Britain’s most absorbing courses.

David Rycott is a Forex trader (view a profile of David Rycott here) who in his free time transfers his love of a challenge to the golf course. Working towards lowering his handicap, David Rycott spends a lot of time developing his short game and especially on putting. Putting is more challenging than many people think and a lot of amateur and improving players become despondent and lose confidence when they cannot make a putt. However, it should be remembered that even on the PGA and LPGA Tours, from eight feet away some 45% of putts are missed. Players who have a good short game are often able to outplay those with a great swing, as even when the ball falls short of the green they are able to get it into the hole in the minimum number of shots. Those who can putt accurately on a regular basis are likely to be closer to par than those who can drive the ball onto the green first time but the struggle to sink it.

One of the key factors to remember when lining up a putt is to play for more break rather than less. Most holes are on a slight angle and when a player consistently misses to the low side of the hole they have little chance of it going in. When a shot is slightly off but to the higher side of the hole, there is more of a chance that it will naturally roll in. Having the right speed is more important than having exactly the right direction so long as the ball does not head towards the low side of the hole.

A putt should gently roll the ball rather than hit it and the key to making this happen is keeping the putter low to the ground through impact and beyond. Where the putter is too high the ball will hop, which decreases the accuracy of the shot.

As a keen golfer, David Rycott is always on the lookout for new techniques and tips in order to help improve his game. The psychologist K. Anders Ericsson coined the term deliberate practice when researching how humans gain mastery over any given pursuit and it can be applied to the game of golf. Deliberate practice, rather than just practice, involves pushing outside of one’s comfort zone, working not just on hitting the ball straight and true but on identifying areas of weakness or those shots which are tricky or uncomfortable and then focusing practice sessions on those areas. A deliberate practice plan of action will be different for each player as it depends entirely on which areas the individual feels uncomfortable. It may be that a player feels they do well in practice and in casual games but then cannot live up to their own expectations in games where there is money involved. For those players, making a small bet on every round played will eventually help them to overcome their fear and become a better player. Where a golfer’s heart sinks when their ball lands in the rough, they may have to spend hours taking practice shots from the rough until it becomes second nature.