The history of golf as a sport can provide us with an overview of current trends and their effects on physical development for golfers. Strength and conditioning for golf has only taken center stage in the last 15 years. This is largely due to Tiger Woods, and in addition to the growing popularity of the sport among younger players. Consider that there were only a handful of PGA professionals utilizing strength training back in the late nineties now virtually 90 percent of professional golfers are utilizing some form of resistance training whether with a physical therapist or personal trainer.

Defining Function: What is functional training? Function is clearly defined as a "purpose" following this definition functional training can be defined as performing a function or a skill. Strength training is still relatively new to many golfers. Many misconceptions and fallacies among players still exist today, even though significant research in the realm of exercise science has proven otherwise. Common fears that lifting weights will cause unnecessary muscle mass, that their swing mechanics will be altered; Resistance training will cause a loss of flexibility.

Now, these are simple golf tips. But that doesn't make them any less powerful. I'm going to talk about golf equipment / clothing and it's importance in the game of golf. This is important to everyone, from beginners, to regular golfers. I played a while before I even payed attention to some of these details. I was a rebel when it came to these things. I know better now. If you are on the course to play good golf then you need these tips. Ok, so here are the golf tips. They are in no particular order:

Many golfers do not realize this, but the grip is the most important aspect of the golf swing. Your grip is the only connection you have with your golf club. Many good golfers do not have the greatest swings, but they ALL have good grips. The grip is absolutely essential to perfecting your golf game. Here are a few tips to help you learn how to grip a golf club the right way. To start, there are three basic grip types you should be aware of: interlocking, overlapping, and ten finger (or baseball grip). Which of the three is the right grip for you? That will depend on which one feel most comfortable and natural to you. The grip that feels the most comfortable, will more than likely produce the best results for you.

If you have an hour to put towards improving your golf game here's what I suggest you do to get the most out of this time. When you arrive at the practice area the very first thing you should do is a few stretches to warm up and you should do this for anything up to 5 minutes or until you're warm. Once you're loosened up the next thing you should do is to start off hitting a couple of wedge shots and then slowly go through each club in your bag, hitting a few shots with each one until you reach your driver. This should take about 20 minutes. When hitting these shots you should treat each one as though it's a real shot on the golf course. In other words, choose a precise target for each shot and then go through your normal pre-shot routine.

If I had to pick just one way to score better I'd say, "improve your putting." Because it's a simple formula. If you shot a 100 in your last game of golf and you had 8, 3 putts in that score then it doesn't take a genius to work out that if you could turn those 3 putts into 2 putts then you'd score 8 shots better. Ok, we've worked out that you need to practice your putting, but how? Well it's been proven that the better the putter is the better they are at long putts, so that's where you should spend most of your time practicing. And don't just practice your putting line but rather practice hitting putts a correct weight. Because it doesn't matter if your ball is on the correct line if it's 10 feet short or long. And think about how often your putts are 10 feet wide of the hole. It's not often is it?