Do golf lessons work?

[Kennysarmy]

Working for me....I've had 2 lessons (3 weeks apart) and my last 3 stableford points were 38,38 and yesterday 44 - gross 72 - my lowest ever for 18 holes (OK, so winter mats and course slightly easier) but I've got a much better setup with the driver, reduced lateral movement and hitting my irons so much better.....

 

[stefanovic]

Working for me....

But not for long. Golf is an endless cycle of fault - fix - fault - fix.

 

[Swango1980]

I'd recommend them for most beginners, or golfers who are having a nightmare with a certain type of shot / shots. But more caution to players who are actually doing pretty well and just looking for tweaks to their game. Need a good coach, and probably a good understanding of your own game, otherwise a minor change could ruin other shots that you are currently very successful with. Need to be patient as well, as very few of us normal golfers can actually implement a change immediately due to that thing called muscle memory

 

[Orikoru]

I watch a lot of Golf Sidekick on YouTube, he's probably my favourite YouTuber at the minute. He advises only to bother getting lessons if your swing is either so bad you can't get round the course, or if your natural swing causes strain and injury. Other than that he says just play your swing and practise your short game like mad and you'll shoot good scores regardless. His handicap is 4 by the way, if that makes a difference. He often puts up videos of friends of his who have the most awful swings you've ever seen and a huge slice, but they play off 9 or something because they just know how to work with what they have and be sensible. I really think there's a lot of truth in it.

Although that does of course imply that a short game lesson might be worthwhile if you're failing at that.

 

[ademac]

I watch a lot of Golf Sidekick on YouTube, he's probably my favourite YouTuber at the minute. He advises only to bother getting lessons if your swing is either so bad you can't get round the course, or if your natural swing causes strain and injury. Other than that he says just play your swing and practise your short game like mad and you'll shoot good scores regardless. His handicap is 4 by the way, if that makes a difference. He often puts up videos of friends of his who have the most awful swings you've ever seen and a huge slice, but they play off 9 or something because they just know how to work with what they have and be sensible. I really think there's a lot of truth in it.

Although that does of course imply that a short game lesson might be worthwhile if you're failing at that.

I think it all depends on how you see things.
I wouldn’t necessarily think a Youtuber who plays off 4 is qualified to be telling people if they should have coaching or not, plenty of +handicap golfers who have coaching.
I also don’t think a 9 handicap is a really good standard of golf wether you have a slice or not etc.

I’m not saying people who play off 4 or 9 or any other handicap aren’t good at golf, I just think it depends entirely on how you view things and what you want from the game.

 

[Orikoru]

I think it all depends on how you see things.
I wouldn’t necessarily think a Youtuber who plays off 4 is qualified to be telling people if they should have coaching or not, plenty of +handicap golfers who have coaching.
I also don’t think a 9 handicap is a really good standard of golf wether you have a slice or not etc.

I’m not saying people who play off 4 or 9 or any other handicap aren’t good at golf, I just think it depends entirely on how you view things and what you want from the game.

Yeah you're not wrong. I think I just personally don't want golf to become a chore. It's something I do for fun at the end of the day, when I see some people's posts about how hard they're having to work just to make infinitesimal changes to their swing and the results are not even directly quantifiable - that just doesn't sound like fun anymore.

The whole ethos of working with your natural swing and just making gains by having a good short game is way, way more appealing to me. It isn't just Golf Sidekick, there are plenty of other YouTubers I watch advocating it (Robin Matthews-Williams, Just Your Average Golfer), and I'm reading Bob Rotella's 'golf is not a game of perfect' at the minute, and there's a lot of it in there as well I think.

Of course, none of this means that golf lessons don't work. I suppose the summary is they only work if you have the mindset of wanting to work. If I actually took a lesson for whatever reason, I don't think it would work great for me as I wouldn't have the work ethic to make it work.

 

[Dan2501]

Personally if I have nagging issues in my long game and my swing - I'd find it more fun to go and get that fault fixed and be able to play without that fault affecting my score than just attributing it to my "natural swing" and trying to get around it by working on short game. A good short game is obviously going to help you score, but only going to get you so far if you're driving it off the planet or shanking it into the trees.

 

[stefanovic]

A good short game is obviously going to help you score,

Improving you short game is great. But only at the expense of your long game. Improve your long game and your short game will suffer.
Nicklaus had a great long game but an awful short game (as reported by a fellow pro) and he was the most successful player ever.

but only going to get you so far if you're driving it off the planet...

So should the old QI question of how many moons the Earth has needs to include all those golf balls in orbit?

 

[RangeMonkey]

Do tooth braces work?
Yes, but not everyone needs or wants them.

 

[Dogma]

Not working for me at the moment.

Change of coach as I've moved jobs and things just aren't clicking with him after three lessons.

Lovely chap, but the drills he gives me just don't work for me.

I'm massively In to Out and flip my wrists at impact which results in either a big block or a hook.

Starting to wonder if I've gone too far down this path and it's going to take a ridiculous amount of work to get me hitting the ball straighter.

 

[larmen]

How quickly do you lose it again?
...
Lesson on Saturday coming up.

So, having topped 2 buckets during the week I was there 20ish minutes early. Doing a bit of warm up I realised that I take the club up and back on the takeaway, so I just took it up.
During the lesson I then learned once again that I take it up, and than down and back on the downswing. So I took it back way to early which made me come out to in (or in to out?).
We snug into the studio and did some drills and shots on his proper launch monitor for about 5 to 10 minutes, my already corrected path was still 16 degrees out, but we got that down to 6ish very quickly now that I could see what is wrong. Back onto the range and onto the big stick. 1st shot I concentrate so much on the setup I forgot the whole swing thing we just talked about for 20 minutes. That's basically in a nutshell what happens to my golf outside the lesson. Back concentrating, and I sky a few, and then take a stream of drivers down the virtual fairway. 170 to 180 yards only, but all lovely down the line. Session over and I finish my balls replicating that with the 3 wood, 3 hybrid and even my nemesis clubs, the 5 iron.

Well, the proof will be in the pudding next Tuesday when I hit the range again. Don't think I get a round or even 9 holes in tomorrow.

 

[larmen]

Another lesson today, this time an hour on the launch monitor.
Came way to much in to out again because I moved the swing up and forward instead of just up. I basically didn’t coil and just moved. Now I know, I just need to remember to do it out on the course. At the end we hit driver and I got a couple of them to 180 carry. I wonder how that will work out tomorrow.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Another lesson today, this time an hour on the launch monitor.
Came way to much in to out again because I moved the swing up and forward instead of just up. I basically didn’t coil and just moved. Now I know, I just need to remember to do it out on the course. At the end we hit driver and I got a couple of them to 180 carry. I wonder how that will work out tomorrow.

So good isn't it when you can see data to verify what you're actually doing rather than just relying on feel. Now you know what to do go and work on the drills, go back, see the data again and I am sure you'll be surprised how much path and face angle have changed

 

[Dogma]

Not working for me at the moment.

Change of coach as I've moved jobs and things just aren't clicking with him after three lessons.

Lovely chap, but the drills he gives me just don't work for me.

I'm massively In to Out and flip my wrists at impact which results in either a big block or a hook.

Starting to wonder if I've gone too far down this path and it's going to take a ridiculous amount of work to get me hitting the ball straighter.

So I thought I'd quote myself.

In the time since I wrote this, I've found myself a GM Top 25 coach and have had one lesson and have another booked in for another two weeks time.

Absolute night and day between him and my last coach.

It seems that I'm not massively In to Out and don't flip my wrists and have some entirely different issues

My fault is actually hitting every shot on the heel and having an overly strong grip

Since the lesson, I've never hit the ball so well and am looking forward to my next lesson!

 

[ridonver]

I took two lessons and my ball striking improved a little.

 

[fourthroundgolf]

I have never paid for a golf lesson in my life, I have received advice from pro's on a casual basis but never actually had a proper assessment.

My game has stalled somewhat and I seem to be going backwards if anything. I am loathe to have someone completely change my swing as I am at the stage of my life where I just want to go out and play with a bit of consistency instead of spending half my time looking for my ball off the fairway. I feel I just need a few tweaks here and there, mainly on driving the ball straight and help hitting longer irons.

Do you suggest just a 30/45 min lesson to start just to have my swing assessed, or anything more? What are you looking to pay? I have looked at local PGA pro's and they are looking to charge between £40 and £50 for an hour lesson, I take it this is the going rate.

Anyone like to share a success story from seeing a teaching pro?

I am a teaching pro in Los angeles. 45 minutes is a good amount of time to assess your swing. Research your pro, some of the best instructors I got lessons from weren't PGA members but it was word of mouth through a professional players or future touring pros.

(Edit: link removed)