Knowing what your goals are as a golfer contributes to how much fun you are going to have learning and playing the game. If your goal is to be no more than a recreational golfer then there is no reason to practice 5 days a week or beat yourself up over a bad round of golf. If you never become good at golf, the key to having fun is not taking it too seriously. I'm not saying that you should fool around or be obnoxious and ruin the day for everyone else. But, just take the game for what it is, embrace the experience and enjoy the day.

If you want to be a more serious golfer that always strives to improve, then you need to know what steps you need to take to get there. There are four components to consider if you want to be any good at this game. Each takes concerted effort to achieve. Getting the right training and devoting the time to practice is essential to being competent in each. The four components are listed in order of difficulty below.

Golf fitness:
Unless you have a physical disability that prevents you from swinging a club, you should be able to play golf at some level. That being said, to play the game well requires that a person be in optimal overall health. That is, to be free from injury, chronic pain, have sound nutrition, adequate rest and so on. Attributes like posture, balance, mobility, flexibility, power and strength, stamina, agility, speed and quickness all depend on being fit.

Technique:
Learning to hit a golf ball solidly is the first technique of many that needs to be developed in order to play golf. To become a better player one needs to learn how to control the ball (shaping shots), how to deal with different lies, wind conditions, weather conditions, play out of bunkers, play out of the rough and other techniques. Many techniques can be learned in a reasonable amount of time. Others may take years to perfect.

Golf strategy:
Managing the course comes with experience. Simply put, the more you play the better you are going to be at it. Knowing your abilities, how far each club goes, how to read a green, assessing lies, shot strategy and others all contribute to lower scores and are going to help boost you up to the next level. A wrong decision usually leads to higher scores. To become proficient you must think about and work on golf strategy starting from your first round of golf and continue with every round thereafter.

The mental part of the game:
To play at a higher level you want to think about things like peak performance, unconscious competence, handling adversity and focus. This is probably the most neglected part of the game for average golfers. So, as I said earlier it is best to work on the mental side of the game right from the beginning. I’ll address this subject again in the section on mental attitude.

Author's Bio: 

Now retired from a major American auto company, Ron Celano has gone on to be a successful artist and writer. He has written several instruction books. They include subjects such as guitar instruction, colored pencil art, golf instruction and was one of the first to develop software for golf club and grip fitting (including manuals). His books are based on his hobbies and interests over a lifetime of learning. He is often quoted as saying "Learn about it, write about it, publish it."