If you have not tried it then believe me when I say that golf is one of the most rewarding and pleasurable sports you could possibly choose. You get to unwind and play in the company of friends while relishing the sunshine and marveling at Mother Nature in all her glory.

There is one problem. Although golf may look easy, as any veteran player knows, it is not as easy as it looks and most novices take a long time to come to grips with even the basics of the game.

In spite of the fact that golf is quite correctly classed as being a sport it is quite different from most of the other sports which we ordinarily all watch or play. Consider, for example, a sport such as football. Here the game is for the most part physical in nature and your function as a player is very much to respond to whatever is going on around you, frequently with significant physical effort. Naturally there is some mental activity involved in a game of football, but the main focus of your attention is really on using your physical skill and strength.

However, golf is one game in which, although you are competing against other people, you are in addition competing against yourself and, most importantly, it is a game where you are in total control of the action. You set your ball up on the tee but after that nothing is going to happen until you make it happen. In this instance you are not responding to what is happening around you but are making all of the play yourself.

This is a very great difference as it means that the game of golf requires a degree of focus and level of concentration as you control everything in your game which is something that you do not find in other sports.

Golf is a difficult game to master because as well as getting to grips with the physical aspects of the game like the mechanics of the golf swing, you also have to learn how to produce the state of relaxed concentration needed to control that swing in just the correct fashion to achieve the shot you require.

It is this ability to master not only the physical but also the mental aspects of the game that dictates exactly how good a golfer you will be.