Lesson advice for a beginner

[Tom_J]

Hi all

I'm new to this forum, and relatively new to golf. I say relatively as I used to play regularly, left it for about 5 years and over the last year have got back into it.

I would say that I probably play off about a 20, although this is not official. I am about to embark on some lessons, but am the king of indecisiveness!

I have 2 clubs nearby (for anyone that's from sussex, they are East Sussex National and Mid Sussex), both offering coaching. But I don't know which one to go for, Mid Sussex has a Golf Monthly Top 25 coach (Neil Plimmer) and East Sussex has amazing facilities, albeit without the Top 25 coach!

Neil's coaching style is all about the mind as well as technique (www.openmindgolf.com), whereas at East Sussex they focus on technology to analyse technique.

I just have no clue who to go for, I'm sure any professional will vastly improve my very very amateur game, but I wanna make sure I spend the cash wisely as I don't have a lot of it!

Any advice?

 

[silliwilli]

Depends how technical you like your instruction to be. Personally I feel that you need to see your own swing to understand it and would recommend the second option if they use video analysis. Although such a quality coach would be hard to turn down. Why not try one or two lessons at each and see which you prefer. I find you and your coach must have compatible personalities in order to achieve your desired improvement!

 

[NeilTappin]

Tom_J,

Welcome to the forum. As I'm responsible for putting together the instruction articles for GM, I have worked quite a bit with Neil Plimmer at Mid Sussex. Neil's a great bloke, easy to get along with and certainly won't blind you with too much science. He's got loads of great drills and exercises that you can work on between lessons - this should really help.

I also know of Sarah MacLennan at East Sussex National as she used to be on our list of top 25 coaches. She's also an excellent coach and was only left off our list in 2006 because of time constraints.

Either Neil or Sarah would be a good option... Let us know what you choose to do/how you get on

Neil

 

[PaulOHagan]

I can't comment on ESN but Neil Plimmer at Mid Sussex is a top coach and as mentioned above he is a really good guy.

 

[birdieman]

Tom,
Do not go to a Pro expecting to turn into a 10 handicap just like that, there is only so much a Pro can do, many people will never be good golfers no matter how many lessons they get. For 99% of us there is no shortcut, hopefully you were blessed with a reasonably natural golf action at birth. Just make sure you enjoy the game. You will find the lower you handicap becomes the more angry you get on the course, expectations are more often than not never met. Read the other post about breaking clubs, we've all been there, I tend to implode rather than explode but the result is the same -another 0.1.