Most of the frustration new players experience is entirely mental. They become overwhelmed by information and this causes them to make even more mistakes. In reality, there are really just a few basic golf tips for seniors just beginning that can make for a more enjoyable learning experience every time you step on the golf course.

Golf in a Nutshell

Golf is made up of a variety of parts. For example, you have the long game which will require great timing and strength. Then of course you have the short game, which will require precise motor skills with your hands. You then have putting, which will demand aiming ability. To top it off, every hole you play will have specific hazard zones you need to avoid when hitting the ball.

Developing your long game will require hours on the practice tee and driving ranges testing various swing techniques and ball positions. Developing your short game takes many hours on the practice greens familiarizing yourself with your clubs and improving your accuracy in pitching, chipping and putting.

Practice, Patience and Perseverance

Nothing in life comes easy. Golf is a sport that takes great skill and skill can only be attained through practice, patience and perseverance. You can read every golf tip and watch every video but nothing is going make you a better golfer faster than being patient and practicing your technique, but you can’t let the learning curve discourage you. The reward for your hard work will be a great shot…and there is no better feeling in the world.

The fact is that golf is a game of patience. If patience is not one of your better virtues, beginning golf is a good way to develop it. It can take years to get to a point where you have absolute control over your swing and the ball. But the journey is fun and rewarding as you progress.

As a new golfer over 50, remember that learning comes a little harder and teaching new movement patterns to our bodies can take time. Just stick to it, even when it gets tough. Golf is a game you will truly enjoy and have fun with the rest of your life!

I wonder where the term “golf widow” came from in the first place.

I spend a lot of time doing my own thing while my man is on the golf course and believe me, I don’t wear black and mourn!! After going through a couple of seasons away from the game because of a health challenge, I am back playing, though not nearly as often as my honey.

It was my first husband’s passion about golf that got me into the game in the first place. I was 22 and quickly surmised that if I wanted to spend time with him, I needed to take up golf. Fortunately, I LOVED it. As a matter of fact, I became consumed with the game on my own. But I do have him to thank for getting me into golf in the first place.

But golf WIDOW? Yikes! What a stark and awful image. Ladies, if your hubby or main squeeze is spending too much time with golf….I challenge you to an attitude adjustment! Let me let you in on a secret….he is still alive and you are NOT a widow! Ha!

There are ways to reconnect with your man USING GOLF as a tool to build your relationship. Here are 5 tips to help you get out of that widow garb and get out there and FLIRT with your man!

1. Find a friend who is in the same boat and make a plan. Most of us have friends whose life mirrors our own. Surely you know another woman who is spending a lot of time alone while her man golfs. Between you, create a plan to explore golf to see if there is a gateway for you to begin to enjoy the game.

2. Find an instructor who will split a lesson between the two of you. Working in a small group as you are experimenting with golf is really fun. Golf is such a social game and it can be great fun to get together with girl friends to practice before grabbing a bite of lunch. We get together to shop and eat, couldn’t we also putt and eat?

3. Ask for a short game lesson first. Get familiar, really familiar with putting and chipping. There is no reason that a woman cannot excel at the short game. Two cool advantages here: one, men admire a woman who knows her way around the green and two, it sets you up for a great date night. Imagine this scenario: You invite your shocked husband to a putting practice session followed by cocktails or dinner, you can spin a great romantic evening out of this!

4. Join Women on Course. This is the coolest group ever.  I love the nine hole play dates called Dine and Wine.  Women who want to socialize and explore golf are meeting all over the country through this great membership site.  There is an event in San Diego today and I can’t wait to go.  Beginners are more than welcome and you can get all the info you need at the site!

5.  Never call yourself a golf widow again!! Begin to see yourself as a member of the golf community.  If your man LOVES the game, he will love your interest, trust me.  Sometimes guys tease about not wanting “the last bastian of male dominance sullied by female invaders,” but there are plenty of others who are craving your company out there.  As you become more comfortable and confident, he will respond to you with respect.  I love putting contests with my husband.  We frequenty practice together and we both enjoy spending the time together.

Golf Widow?  Not me.  I am a golfer who plays less frequently than my man and I treasure my time with him on the course.  I am carving out a place in golf that is uniquely my own.  Developing my OWN golf confidence, separate from him is making me a better player.  Our golf dates are more romantic because of MY attitude.  I don’t know about you but I LOVE romance and golf dates are so easy once you know a few basics!!

Visit Golf In Love for your Free Report on How to Find Romance on the Golf Course

How historical would this be? Here is a list of the oldest golfers to win a major championship:

* Julius Boros: 1968 PGA Championship, 48 years, 4 months, 18 days
* Jack Nicklaus: 1986 Masters, 46 years, 2 months, 23 days
* Old Tom Morris: 1867 British Open, 46 years, 99 days
* Hale Irwin: 1990 U.S. Open, 45 years, 15 days old
* Roberto de Vicenzo: 1967 British Open, 44 years, 93 days
* Harry Vardon: 1914 British Open, 44 years, 41 days
* Raymond Floyd: 1986 U.S. Open, 43 years, 9 months, 11 days
* Ted Ray: 1920 U.S. Open, 43 years, 4 months, 16 days old

Watson turns 60 in September.

For all golfers over 50, watching this Open turns back the clock for all of us. How does he do it?

For all of the muscle and brawn of the American game, the game in the United Kingdom is very different on its links courses. The elements are every bit a part of the game as the strength of the golfer. Strength is marginalized and imagination and touch are emphasized.

This is why we have seen Greg Norman last year and Tom Watson this year contend in the Open Championship. We won’t see older golfers give it a run at the U.S. Open, The Masters, or the PGA Championship…all majors that are played on long courses built to challenge Tiger Woods.

While Tiger is back at home in Florida wondering what could have been during his opening round on a calm day by the Firth of Clyde, Tom Watson is enjoying a glass of wine in the Watson Suite at the Westin Turnberry Hotel making his game plan to capture his ninth major championship.

We’re all rooting for Tom Watson tomorrow. I hope to be back tomorrow to write a glowing review of his championship finish. But even if he falls short, this weekend will forever be remembered by golfers over 50 as a classic.

What if there was a “secret” expert tip to a lower score, a strategy time tested that even the seasoned professionals employ every time they play? What if to use this “secret”, you didn’t have to change how you play golf at all? Here is the secret tip for playing a consistently strong game for golfers over 50:

Never Hit A Shot That You Have Not Yet Practiced

It seems so simple, and you might be thinking to yourself, “That’s it?” The truth is that following that incredibly simple piece of advice can prove pretty tricky. Think back to the last round you played and see if this scenario seems familiar:

Your shot off the first tee slices just a bit, plopping the ball down in between trees. You have the option to play it to the side and back to the fairway or launch a super-straight, low long iron shot through the trees. The second choice could put you right at the green, but there are a lot of obstacles and you aren’t very familiar both with the terrain and not very comfortable with your long iron. Because it can put you closer to the hole, you go for the second choice… and before you know it, you’ve started your round with a triple bogey or worse.

It might seem like you are adding extra strokes by playing it safe, but sticking with shots you are confident about will probably save you strokes, not to mention embarrassment, in the long run.

You wouldn’t bet your life savings on your first-ever hand in poker. You wouldn’t drop the steepest cliff on the mountain your first time skiing. In any activity you have to build up your skills comfortably through practice. You never want to introduce something brand new to your golf game in the middle of a round.

Stick to the shots you know you can execute when playing most games and especially in competition and use your practice time to expand your repertoire and try new shots. This is a sure fire way to lower your score and show dramatic improvement each and every time you play golf.

The Right Lessons

If you were to type “golf lessons” into Google it would yield hundreds-of-thousands of results. Which “golf lessons” are worth your time? You want to make sure that the lessons you watch are backed by a professional golfer or better yet a professional golf instructor, and a good place to start is right here at Golf Over 50 with the featured video in the right column. We’ll feature videos that are specific to the golfer over 50, including fitness, swing technique, and golf improvement tips.

Another good place to look is the website of your favorite print golf magazine. Many magazines have taken their expertise to the worldwide web to encourage interactivity from their community of readers. Part of having these websites is the ability for magazines to take their old text-to-picture instruction sections and transfer the lessons to a much easier to understand video. Since the videos are backed by your favorite magazine, there is no question as to the quality of instruction presented. Golf Digest has an excellent resource that is worth checking out.

Sites such as YouTube are an awesome to place to find specific lessons. For example you could look for “chip shot golf” or “golf tee shots” to find videos on those specific aspects of your game. Be aware of who you take your advice from on YouTube. The best way to gauge an author’s credibility is to look at his rating, the comments presented on his videos and his overall collection of videos. Obviously, an author with two dozen five-star instructional videos is likely to know his or her stuff.

Utilizing Video Instruction

Simply watching a video, regardless of the quality of the instruction, is not going to do you much good on the course. You need to watch each video over and over again, making sure you pay attention… not just to what is being said either.

The true benefit of a video lesson lies beyond the verbal instruction. In fact, most people find such instruction to be somewhat distracting and confusing. You need to become a video analyzer with a precise eye for detail. Things such as shoulder alignment, stance width, grip position and ball placement are as important as the steps needed to execute the technique.

As you watch these videos make sure you are focusing on the demonstration more than what is being said. These video lessons are your chance to see an expert golfer execute the precise movements of golf. Each run through will put the image of the motions deeper into your psyche, and since visualization can overpower skill-level you might find the lessons stick better and you progress faster. Take the motions, all of the steps needed to put together a perfect technique, and try to describe them to yourself in your own words. The great thing about video lessons is that you can make them cater personally to you!

A final tip is to make sure you practice what you learn. If you can, download these videos and upload them to your iPod, Blackberry or other video-capable mobile device – then take them with you to your practice session. Remember, if you don’t practice any of the things you learn than you really haven’t “learned” anything.

Exercise is something that you definitely need to add in your life when you get older. Finding fun ways to exercise – like golf – can enable you to exercise without feeling like it is exercise. This can go a long way to helping you do it regularly and exercising together can make it a special time between the two of you. By making golf a regular part of your life, you can get the benefits that come with golf, including maintaining your weight, decreasing your risk of heart disease, and slowing the aging process.

Spending time together doing something fun can help you both to enjoy your life more. And it’s never too late to learn the game of golf. Even if one of you has never even picked up a golf club, it’s a game that can be learned later in life and shared for a lifetime. A few lessons and your beginner golfer will be hitting the links with you and having fun. Make the most of this new time of your life and spend time together doing fun activities, whether it is golf or another activity.

Seeing new places is another great aspect of playing golf together. You can travel all around the country and world and play on many different golf courses together, creating beautiful memories that you will have for the rest of your life. Adding golf to your travel itinerary helps make every trip that much more special and will give you the opportunity to meet new people, see new places, and enjoy a great game on top golf courses throughout the world.

Simply put, retirement is more fun when couples can enjoy the game of golf together. It offers you exercise, fun, challenges, and new experiences that you both will enjoy long into your life.

The most obvious example of this is concentrating too hard on your target. The point of putting is to get that ball in the hole and some golfers become so focused on setting up a good line that they forget to gauge the speed of their putt.

Your target line can easily hypnotize you into forgetting the little, but vital details that go into making a successful putt – especially on a green that is very contoured and a lot of break. You can simplify your putting and start putting with confidence using these two simple steps.

First You’ll Set Your Line

You first matter of business when you step up to your putt is to read the break. Taking into account the contours of the green, create an imaginary line that will be the ball’s path of travel. Now concentrate on a spot mid-distance between the ball and the hole, adjusting your aim based on this spot.

Always mark your ball and line up your putt from behind. When you’ve found your line and see the mid-point mark you’re lining up to, you can use a little trick that many good putters use. Take a line or wording on your golf ball and line them up towards your target spot. Now, when you are standing over your ball you only need to align to the line or wording on the golf ball and trust your line!

Now You Gauge Your Speed

Once you have determined your line, let it go. Clear your thoughts and focus your attention now on giving the ball enough speed to follow your line into the hole. Again, the contours of the green and where the ball breaks will play an enormous part on how much speed you will need.

Remember that target spot you created mid-distance between the ball and the hole? If you have a short putt, you can bring that point closer to you; if you are facing a longer putt that requires more power, move the spot further towards the hole. This is a great way to keep from over or under-powering your putts.

Breaking apart the putt into these two steps makes the process much easier, but you aren’t going to see those fantastic putts the pros make unless you practice, practice, practice! To become a master with your putter you are going to need to build your comfort and confidence with putting on any green from any distance, you are going to need to develop a natural sense of speed and distance which comes only from hours of practice on the putting green.

There is an excellent program to help you cut putts off your score. Most golfers putt between 33 and 40 times per round. Imagine cutting just 6-8 putts per round off of your score!

The program is called “Breakthrough Putting Secrets Revealed” and they offer a free report on “3 Days to Stop 3-Putting”. This is a very good program and I encourage you to check out their site and read more.