Golf is the leisure sport, a sport good for making important friendships—there are even course offered in 'business gulfs' at universities as prestigious as Stanford University. It's a calm, pleasant exercise. But there's more to this little-watched sport than you think.

This sport, which once drew a mostly elite following, is becoming a sport that more and more people around the world participate in, and not just in the form of miniature golf. Golf, a game which originated centuries ago in the Netherlands, is more popular than ever. Now that more and more people are entering the game of golf who were not brought up in the social context of golf players, a few tips can be useful in getting newcomers acquainted with golf, and swinging like a pro, or at least like a CEO, within no time.

1. Too many golfers allow their left knee to collapse right during a backswing. Bad idea! This makes your shoulder drop, which in turn makes your hips sway and overturn. To get used to holding your knees correctly, imagine you're holding a basketball between you knees. You should feel stability, as well as tension—the signs that you're doing it right.

2. Also on the topic of backswings, it's essential to keep a slight bend in the knee, and maintain your weight on your right foot. If you don't do this, you lose power and your contact with the ball will be poor at best.

3. Pretend you're a hitchhiker. When your golf club is waist high, you should be able to look around and see your thumb pointing straight up towards the sky. You could also imagine that you're shaking someone's hand, and so keep your hand in the handshake position.

4.

5. Train yourself to swing through the ball, not at it. Swinging at the ball makes your contact weak, whereas swinging at it makes it strong. To practice swinging through the golf ball, place your tee a few inches away from a tree, but when swinging try to hit the ball as well as the tree after it.

6. When it's breezy, swing easy!

7. Try to maintain some rhythm, and don't swing too quickly. Imagine a slight pause when the golf club is high over your head before

8. To get a good swing in golf, you need to move beyond the wrist and use the muscles in your legs and trunk. Amateurs tend to use only their arms and extensions thereof, but the powerful hits come when you use your whole body.

These are a few tips that should help anyone get started on their way to becoming a good golfer. Of course, there is more to golf than simply straightforward swinging, but getting the basics of that most basic part of the game down is the way to start. Once you're confident and powerful in your swing, you can move on to trickier, more strategic fare.

But first, the rising generation of golfers, and even those who have been playing amateur golf for a long time, must learn to hold their own on the course.

Find a Golf Store near you. Learn about the types of golf courses and the history of the golf game.

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