Up your game with a few tips from professional golfer Mr Mark Raven.

Despite its – not entirely undeserved – reputation as the pastime of the wealthy, golf is, at its heart, an everyman sport. The built-in handicap system allows players of vastly different abilities to compete on equal terms, while age is no barrier to success: the relatively low level of physical fitness required to play means that it’s possible for players to remain at the top level of the sport well into their fifties or sixties. In 2009, at the ripe old age of 59, US pro golfer Mr Tom Watson proved this by coming within a single shot of winning one of the sport’s biggest prizes, the British Open.

That’s not to suggest, though, that it’s an easy sport. Anyone who has ever hooked a tee shot into the woods or succumbed to the dreaded “yips” while attempting an easy two-footer will attest to golf’s singular ability to frustrate even the best players, while the seemingly simple objective – hit the ball with the stick until it goes into the hole – belies a set of rules and regulations as complex and arcane as in any sport, if not more so.

“It’s more than just a walk in the park,” explains Mr Mark Raven, a professional golfer with more than 15 years’ experience. In MR PORTER’s latest Masterclass, above, he shows us what it takes to get to the top.

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