On course lesson.

[Kennysarmy]

Two mates have arranged an on course 9 hole lesson with our resident PGA teaching Pro - they offered me the third spot, no charge - just need to make a donation to the captain's charity.

I've never had an on-course lesson before - so don't know what to expect.

Anyone had one - what did you get out of it? Did you end up playing the holes as normal or was it more a case of focusing on one or two aspects of your game.

I've been struggling a bit recently with my up and down percentages (currently running at 43% for the last 5 rounds), so if it's acceptable I'll be looking to throw a couple of balls down around the greens and getting him to watch and comment on my technique and offer some advice for improvement.

Current handicap is 8.

 

[patricks148]

Had one a couple of years ago and one from the prev pro when i first joint and we just played a few shots from where i was a having problems, a couple of the deeper pot bunkers, a couple of tee shots off the very back tee i struggled with and some different approach shots.

Luckily our pro have both had very good amateur careers and both have won pro events.

Def helped, and showed me a few different shots i wouldn't have used before.

off 4

 

[duncan mackie]

I would also expect the pro to ask you what your thought processes were when you ended up with a challenging up and down🤔
Avoiding the impossible is as much about what you set out to do as it is about delivery performance.

 

[Curls]

Depends on the pro. Some will just observe and not say much. You'll wonder what's going on and then over a coffee after the round they'll disect your strategy and ability based on what they saw. They can't really do a huge amount on your swing thats better at the range, so its about what shot/club choices you are making and your ability to execute them (or otherwise) would give them areas you should focus on / lessons.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Had a couple. Really interesting and really helpful. We didn't do much technically but focused more on strategy, club selection and course management. We did some green reading and a bit of bunker work and then had a debrief over a nice cooked brekkie. A lot to take on board but a couple of video clips and an email wrapped the lesson up nicely. Well worth doing

 

[Kennysarmy]

Thanks for the responses, I'm looking forward to it and will report back.

 

[Orikoru]

I don't have lessons but if I did I would vastly prefer an on-course one I think. Sounds much more useful to me to play from different lies, having a proper target, and going through your shot selection. Rather than then just hitting a load of balls off a range mat.

 

[bobmac]

I'm not sure how much you'll learn when there's 3 of you sharing the lesson but I hope it goes well.
The good thing about on course lessons is the pro gets to see your 'real' swing, not the posed driving range swing.
And he will see what your strengths and weaknesses are so will be able to advise you what areas to work on.

 

[Wilf]

I've had a couple and found them very useful, the lessons focused more on strategy and trying to hit specific shots in certain situations after watching me play the shot first without comment. For example i hit a shot which missed the green left from the middle of the fairway which he then pointed out should never happen (missed on the zero chance of up and down etc) and then we spent 10 minutes hitting the correct shot and shot shape, getting the visuals / feels etc to replicate that to remove that miss from the equation so nowadays I'm always either hitting green or missing right which is either a 4 or a 5 rather than a 6 or 7. We spent time on a couple of my bogey holes trying to work out strategies to get me off the tee and in play.

It helps that I've had lessons with my Pro for years and he knows my swing flaws and how we try to manage them given I don't have the time to really go down the route of big swing changes so we always have an off course lesson a couple of times a season to keep reminding me of what issues creep in and what to look for / fix, so on course is all about situations, results and minimising mistakes.

With my lessons my pro is also playing so I get to see him hit shots which is also interesting to see and hear about his processes.

 

[Grant85]

I'm planning on at least one of these when the course is off winter conditions.

I've had some productive lessons on short game, but ultimately these are about technique more than shot selection. We have a reasonable practice area, but it is all quite flat and doesn't have real greens. Everything is a bit spongy.

I feel pretty confident about my chipping now in terms of making good contact with the ball, so shot selection is going to be very important.