A Guide to How Do I Become a Professional Female Golfer at Any Age
Let’s just admit it-all of us who ever picked up a golf club and took a stroll along the fairway have fantasized ourselves to be a pro golfer sharing the course with the likes of Tiger Woods and Annika Sorenstam. Becoming a pro golfer requires patience and dedication. No matter how old you are, if you put in the right amount of effort, there’s a good chance you’ll make it. If you were ever wondering “How do I become a professional female golfer at any age?’’ stay with us to find out.
Becoming a pro women golfer
1. DON’T WORRY ABOUT YOUR AGE
“Is it too late to become a pro golfer?” Maybe it is, but you’d never know unless you give it a shot. If you keep on thinking about your age, it would hinder your development as a player. Yes, it is advantageous to pick up the game as early as possible, but there are a handful of late bloomers who set alight the course with their brilliance.
Take Katy Harris for example, who turned into an LPGA professional at the age of 32 following two child births and operations on her hand and hip. So, never say never!
2. TAKE GOLF LESSONS
No matter how good you are or how long you have been playing, an expert opinion is always helpful in perfecting your craft. Get in touch with a professional golf instructor and take lessons. You’ll get to learn about your strengths and your weaknesses.
It’s also important to work with a skilled trainer who recognizes how good you have to be to become a pro golfer. You should be training under a person who can identify your shortcomings and help you overcome them. Browse online forums or ask fellow golfers to get coach recommendations.
3. WATCH GOLF DVDS
Binge watching golf videos can help you bring tremendous improvements to your playing style. Yes, there are hours of free streaming content available on YouTube, but we recommend buying golf DVDs where the techniques are put in a sequential order. This is different from watching random YouTube snippets because it allows you to apprehend the pattern you need to be following to become a professional player.
DVDs accommodate a deeper instructional session, which you can re-watch endlessly and of course, skip to the parts which involves tips on improving your problem areas. There are DVDs which concentrate on a specific nuance of the game rather than having a comprehensive take. If you have difficulties with, say your swinging technique, you can purchase a DVD that discusses it in detail.
4. DIVERSIFY YOUR GAME
In recreational golfing, you’d be fine with a limited set of skills. But when you’re out there competing with the pros, you must become proficient in taking all kinds of shots. Putting, bunkering, wedge shots-you need to be comfortable with them all. Tailor your training sessions to provide sufficient time to hone each of these skills.
Spending long hours on the course will be unless you use it to address all aspects of your game. Ask your instructor to assign you a training routine and stick to it. Work with him closely to iron out your flaws.
5. PREPARE YOUR MIND FOR THE CHALLENGE
All LPGA professionals work on sharpening their mental prowess besides their regular course routines. Things can be very different once you walk into the course as a professional player. Golf used to be your happy place; a way for you to relax and unwind. But now, you would be playing it competitively; against a better set of oppositions.
This sudden change of scenario can easily mess up your mind and trigger nervousness. It will have a sprawling effect once you make a mistake, which is inevitable. Prepare psychologically to conquer all mental barriers and be on top of your game.
6. FIND A COMPETITIVE GOLF PARTNER
Becoming a pro golfer would be much easier for you, if you get to regularly practice on your backyard with a partner who takes the game seriously. Vigorous individual attempt is a must to get your game to the next level, but it might not be sufficient without competitive practice.
Finding a good golfing buddy to play with will accelerate your learning process and get you closer to your goal. If you happen to know someone who plays golf, invite them to play together. If you don’t know anyone personally, you can seek for partners online through golf forums.
7. LOOK FOR PLAYING OPPORTUNITIES
You should play as much as you can before turning pro. Sign up for your local golf club, where you will get the opportunity to participate in local and regional tournaments. If you are still in your high school years, try signing up for junior golf tournaments around you.
If you are a college student, try getting into your college team. College golf can expose you to high quality competition, not to mention help you bag scholarships. Playing amateur tournaments and junior, college golf will help you build rapport with the golfing community which will pay dividends as your career moves forward.
8. SIGN UP FOR Q-SCHOOL
Once you’re convinced you’re ready for the big leagues, sign up for LPGA’s Q-School program. It’s a three stage tournament that serves as the stepping stone to LPGA competitions. You’ll start out at stage-I, completing it you’ll get to stage-II and then you’ll move to Q-Series. 45-50 players get to get pass the Q-Series each year to claim a LPGA Tour card.
The tour card will get you access to LPGA tournaments, in which you can take part as a professional. You must maintain a minimum level of performance to retain the card; otherwise you’ll lose it at the end of season.
Now that you know how do you become a pro female golfer at any age, shrug off all hesitations and start working towards your dream. Most of us play golf out of pure love. So, it is exciting to take your passion more seriously and make a career out of it. Practice with perseverance and keep on working on your drawbacks. Always remember, “Champions keep playing until they get it right.”
The 7 Golf Development Areas
To become a pro golfer, one has to pay attention to the 7 development areas. These are known as the most crucial consideration for a golfer. Some amateurs seem to do a lot of practicing but are not able to improve their game. Generally, it happens because the golfer tends to improve a specific area. It is not possible to improve the whole game by improving a single sector.
Therefore, we created a list of 7 development areas with the help of expert and professional golfers. The 7 areas listed below will help amateur golfers to improve the whole game effectively.
1. Golf Course Time
The first thing to improve is the practice time on the golf course. Golf is a game of practice. The more you practice, the more you will be able to improve. One must not include the competition time in the total practice time.
Amateur golfers often ask how long they should spend practicing golf. The answer is at least 9 hours a week.
2. Taking instruction from a coach
It is not quite possible to become a pro without the instruction of a coach. All the professional golfers hire an expert to learn golf back in the day.
An expert coach will be able to find out what is the reason behind the failure with ease. Moreover, the expert will be able to guide you on how to overcome the problem fast. Though it is costly, it is very essential to become a professional golfer.
3. Practicing Short Game
One of the basic mistakes that most amateur golfers engage with is not practicing short games efficiently. They think that practicing the long game will help them to get a lower score and avoid practicing putting which is totally wrong. One must provide the same amount of effort in putting as well in order to become a pro player.
4. Practicing Bunker shots
One of the most difficult hazards in golf is the bunker. Bunker is basically situated near the fairway and green. If one wants to get a lower score in golf then the person must try to avoid hitting the bunkers. However, you cannot tell when your bad luck is going to hit you. Therefore, you must practice bunker shots as well. This will help you in unfortunate situations. It will become very difficult to complete a hole with the determined par if one does not know how to get the ball out of the bunker.
5. Full Swing Practice
The full swing is the combination of aim, stance, posture, gripping, ball flight, etc. One has to practice shots keeping all these things in mind to hit the target place. Basically, it is the first shot of the pars to hit the fairway. If one of the elements of the swing is not accurate, then the whole swing will get affected. But once you learn to take proper full swings, there is no chance you will get lost from your success. Therefore, one should practice accommodating all the necessary things correctly while taking full swing.
6. Practicing Chip, Pitch, and Lob shots
Chip, pitch, and lob shots are the fundamental shots that one must know for lowering the score and for hitting the hole with less effort. Chip shots will help one to hit the hole covering a little distance. Whereas, if the hole is not able to cover with a chip shot, then golfers use a pitch shot. Lastly, a lob shot helps the golfer to hit the ball higher in the air in a short distance to achieve the target. Generally, this shot helps the golfer to overcome the hazards or uphill and downhill problems.
7. Practicing Wedge Skill
Wedge skill is a term that determines shots which is below the full swing. It is the foundation of learning shots with wedges accurately. Practicing wedge skills will help one to avoid bogey, double bogey, or even worse situations. Basically, these shots are taken after the full swing to approach the green within the limited pars. These shots require more control and balance than the full swing.
These 7 areas are very necessary to become a pro in no time. If one avoids any of those areas, then the person must have to suffer in a long run. One must provide at least 30 hours of practice to these areas weekly.
How to become a pro golfer?
Becoming a pro golfer is everyone's dream who has hold a golf club and took a swing. But the process is not so easy and short. One must have the determination to spend years and days in order to become a professional. The person has to go through a long process that includes a lot of sub-processes. Here are the basic processes that one has to go through in order to become a professional golfer.
1. Start playing at an early age
2. Practicing Regularly
3. Mastering skills like putting, chipping, pitching, etc
4. Spending time to sharpen each skill
5. Hiring a coach
6. Play with intermediate and advanced golfers
7. Joining a local golf club
8. Participate in local tournaments
9. Start participating in professional tournaments like NGA, Moonlight, eGolf professional tour, etc.
10. Participate in PGA tour qualifying tournament
11. And Earn the PGA tour card
Without these considerations, one must build mental skills to face horrible situations. And also one must have the ability to spend thousands of dollars throughout the process.
How hard is it to become a pro golfer?
Becoming a pro golfer is not as easy as swinging a golf club. It is not possible to become a professional if you play golf just for fun. One must love golf from the core of their heart and enjoy the process. The process can take a huge amount of time and will consume a lot of money. The person should be mentally very strong so that no matter how bad the situation is, the person should have the ability to stand again.
It can take up to 10 years of learning to become a professional golfer. Also, one has to go through tough times which can increase the duration of the process.
