My cousin has taken up golf recently and is really enjoying her new-found pastime. She's been having the odd lesson lately and is apparently doing quite well for a beginner.

Anyway, I am going to visit her next month and she has suggested we go for a round of golf at her club (I think it's nine holes). It's something I'd really like to do and sounds like it could be fun.

The thing is, I've never played golf in my life. I've played mini golf of course, but am not much cop at that and last year was even beaten in a game by my mum. So a real game of golf on a real golf course with real clubs and real golfers waiting for me to hurry up and get on with it could be a disaster.

My last mini golf experience was just a bit of fun on a very breezy day, so I don't really see that as a true indicator of my natural golfing ability. In a proper game, I think I should be OK with putting when I'm on the green bit and might even be able to cope with driving the little buggy thing around.

But actually getting the ball from the tee to the green might be more of a challenge than I realise. Driving a golf ball with a decent swing looks straightforward enough on TV, but like most things I'm guessing it's probably not as easy as it looks.

I've done a variety of sports over the years, played quite a lot of football when I was younger as I'm sure we all have, played a bit of cricket and rugby at school, a couple of games of tennis and badminton, and even hockey which I actually did extremely well at. I can also hold my own at snooker and pool, if you can call them sports, so would like to think I'm not a complete waste of space when it comes to ball games. But I've never played a proper game of golf.

Do you play golf? Is it really difficult to pick up? Is teeing off an easy technique to learn? Do I really need to go and have some lessons before I even attempt an actual game? Do you have any tips that a complete beginner like me should bear in mind? Or should I steer well clear altogether and just go and have a drink in the clubhouse?

I'm not expecting to win (although I will desperately try!), but would like to at least give my cousin a good game and get around the course before it gets dark. So any advice would be welcome!

Cheers, everyone.

Its agreat game...but I would advise going to the local golfing range and either having a lesson or simply borrow a 3 wood and a 7 iron and hit a 100 balls or so to get the feel for it

The Voice of Reason In An Otherwise Mediocre World

You lost to your Mum!

I'd give up to be honest.

You fed me, you bred me, I'll remember your name.

Don't worry about this. It was probably what I was most worried about before I ever played a round and you'll soon realise that people who've played for years can still play slow or make a fool of themselves by duffing shots.

You don't need a lesson in my opinion but I'd go to the range and hit 50-100 balls first. Just try to hit the ball to start with and don't go for distance. Then have a chip and a putt and a go in a bunker.

Ask the person you play with to help/tell you what you should be doing to keep the pace of play up. ie don't spend too long looking for balls (watching where a bad shot goes instead of turning away in disgust/shame helps this), don't leave your bag on the front of the greens while you putt out or forget to put a flag back in etc. If it's all going wrong just let a group behind play through.

Optimistic as ever

driving range is a must. other than that, just enjoy it. it's a fantastic sport.

@sxp55555

Get yourself all the Pringle clobber, knee length diamond socks, V Neck Jumper, melton cap. You'll blend in well.

Get some of those long metal sticks and whack the ball hard as you can

Paua oouaarancì Irà chiyeah Ishé galé ma ba oo ah