Golf lessons - worth the money?

[BornSlippy1994]

Hey everyone,

Recently started playing golf again, and loving it. Down to a 18 handicap atm, and have shot a couple of 14 over rounds since starting playing again 3/4 months ago.

However, I feel like I've plateaued. My short iron ball striking is great, and I'm comfortable on and around the greens. Yet, ever since starting to play again my long irons and woods, particularly my driver, are super inconsistent and I don't feel like I'm improving in that regard. To be frank, it's driving my berserk. If I hit a good tee shot I'm confident of making a par or a bogey, but hitting a good tee shot on some rounds is rare.

Due to this, I've been considering booking some lessons with my course pro. However, to be honest, the price is really putting me off. Even booking a couple of hour long lessons will stretch my already stretched finances.

But, if I'd learn plenty in a couple of hours I'd be happy to pay it. Therefore, what I'm asking is, should I book a couple of lessons? Or will that little tuition have very little affect, so I should just continue trying to work it out myself?

Thanks!

 

[Region3]

If you saw a driver for sale for £100 that meant you'd hit a few more fairways per round would it be worth it?

You must be prepared to put in some practice though to make whatever changes he recommends to you feel natural. No good taking it to the course and expecting improvements just by thinking about what he said.

I'd go for the shortest duration he sells to start with, just to see if he makes things understandable to you.

 

[Huwey12]

You're not alone with the longer sticks, it shouldn't take long for your pro to identify the problem
I find you have to be more precise with the grip and especially the wrists with the driver, keeping the lead wrist nice and flat facing away from you and not looking up to the sky
A good pro will pick this up very quickly

 

[MrC]

I am in the same boat finances wise but a couple of lessons would I think be very worth it.

if you self teach the reality is that as you play more you will find a way of getting slightly better and slightly more consistent (I did). However you may be keeping bad habits (I was). And in the long run it will hold you back.

You have something quite specific that you want to improve. Your driving. Therefore a pro should be able to offer something in the first lesson for you to work on.

Then I would practise, practise and practise it for a month/2 months.

Then go back for a follow up lesson to check progress and make sure you are still doing what you need to.

You can take a view then if you want to have any more lessons.

I had 2 lessons and it improved me. I keep saying about more but time and money has stopped me. One day I will

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Depending on the financial situation maybe look at a block of lessons as they normally work out cheaper or you get 6 for the price of 5 etc and then you can use one or two now to fix your ails and then have the rest to work on the game over the winter

 

[Deijavoo]

I'm not near your standard but I was playing where I am now about 6 months ago. I started lessons around April and got instantly worse scores. Thing is, I got there before with bad habits and now I feel like I could improve greatly whereas I had no idea how to get better before. Does that make sense?

 

[BornSlippy1994]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Booked a couple of lessons for the next few weeks. Had a chat with the pro at my club first and he filled me with quite a bit of confidence. First lesson he recommends we focus on some really basic, fundamental stuff, not necessarily just driving as he thinks shorter irons are most likely masking some issues I have generally with my swing. Second lesson he's going to go through driving specifically, as well as advice with hitting the other longer clubs.

Hopefully he'll give me some advice that, with a bit of practice, will ingrain some good habits into my swing going forward!

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Hey everyone,

Recently started playing golf again, and loving it. Down to a 18 handicap atm, and have shot a couple of 14 over rounds since starting playing again 3/4 months ago.

However, I feel like I've plateaued. My short iron ball striking is great, and I'm comfortable on and around the greens. Yet, ever since starting to play again my long irons and woods, particularly my driver, are super inconsistent and I don't feel like I'm improving in that regard. To be frank, it's driving my berserk. If I hit a good tee shot I'm confident of making a par or a bogey, but hitting a good tee shot on some rounds is rare.

Due to this, I've been considering booking some lessons with my course pro. However, to be honest, the price is really putting me off. Even booking a couple of hour long lessons will stretch my already stretched finances.

But, if I'd learn plenty in a couple of hours I'd be happy to pay it. Therefore, what I'm asking is, should I book a couple of lessons? Or will that little tuition have very little affect, so I should just continue trying to work it out myself?

Thanks!

How long have you been on the plateau? And in non-qualifiers how often do you play 2-3 under your handicap - as a percentage of rounds played.

 

[BornSlippy1994]

How long have you been on the plateau? And in non-qualifiers how often do you play 2-3 under your handicap - as a percentage of rounds played.

I feel like it's been at least a month since my driving, and longer clubs generally, has improved. My scores have been improving as my irons are more consistent though.

I'd say I probably shoot 2-3 under handicap maybe 15%-20% of my rounds. Shoot 1 under to buffer about 60% of the time, and my other rounds I shoot over. However, when I don't play to my handicap, I shoot some stupidly high scores as I have rounds where I just cannot get off the tee and into play.

On Sunday I played 9 holes, made 4 pars, 1 bogie, and 4 triples/worse. All the triples were caused by shocking tee shots...

 

[bobmac]

When you say the tee shots are shocking do you mean the contact or direction ?