Playing lessons ?

[jammydodger]

Someone mentioned these in a previous post and it got me thinking as I have one booked for wednesday afternoon.

I've never had a playing lesson before and wondered whos had one and for those that have were they really helpful? What sort of advice did the pro give you or was he just tuning into your thoughts about your course management?

cheers Jammy

 

[bobmac]

Hopefully he wont mess around with your technique too much.
If you are a low handicap, he should examine your choice of shots into and around the greens and possibly discuss red zones and green zones on your course.
I hope you enjoy it and find it beneficial.
Is the pro going to play too, or just walk round with you?

 

[jammydodger]

He will play too and he belts it miles cos i played a pro-am with him before xmas.

I had a 'hitting the woods' lesson with him a couple of months ago and he wasnt overly technical (which was good) and I've improved in that area quite considerably lately. Now my iron play has gone backwards....sigh...

 

[mono217]

Hope it goes well for you.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I'd be hoping he'd talk to you about course management including club selection (why you pick x for that shot), risk assessment, shot visualisation and short game technique (reading putts, picking landing spots)

 

[haplesshacker]

Have fun with it.

I have one at the end of my current batch of lessons. I'd be interested in how it goes for you.

 

[GB72]

I had one a while ago. As well as the course management and shot selection aspect, it also allowed him to see if I was doing anything different when on the course as opposed to in lessons and make some minor adjustments. Was good to be able to see the results immediately on the course.

 

[jammydodger]

Just got back from the lesson and thought i'd share it with you guys.

Course was a bit busy so we nipped on a buggy to find a gap and ended up at the 14th. He didnt play cos he had a lesson straight afterwards and didnt want to eat into my lesson.

I was hoping I didnt hit it great and wanted some of my problems to surface so he could see them. Had to have a chuckle though as I nutted my first drive to leave 135yds (428yd par 4). Anyhow it was great cos i pushed my 2nd just how i've been mucking up recently , happened a couple more times with irons and he said I wasnt transfering my weight to my right side consequently when my hips movedthe club couldnt catch up. Sort of a lean really

Also he noticed that the ball was too central in my stance when putting , made me move it just inside left heel and stroke with more rhythm. Now that did make a big difference I can tell you as I went for 1/2 hour on practice green straight afterwards.

Couple of times left myself only a small wedge in and my usual habit of putting it through the back left occured and he got me to narrow my stance on the shorter shots to enable me to swing through on the line better instead of turning it over.

All in all it was extremely interesting and I hope to put these minor tweaks into effect over the next few weeks .
Thoroughly recommend a playing lesson as you cant hide your faults when on the course but maybe you can when banging 50 7 irons on the range.

 

[Mawgan]

I had a playing lesson two weeks ago, just before going up to play a weekend at Royal West Norfolk (Brancaster GC). I learnt so much in an hour and a half! Tips about course management were helpful, and although mainly common sense, it never does any harm to have things spelt out. We did a lot of short game work, bunker work, chipping & putting and the next day my foursomes partner put me in a bunker 12 feet below the green with nothing but railway sleepers for company - I somehow played a career bunker shot to 6 feet from the pin which would normally have hit said sleepers and ricocheted back to the tee, most likely!
Another tip, purely from the pro's observation, was that my stance and weight was too far onto my toes. Merely by feeling my balance to be more central over my feet, my perennial fade disappeared. At least it did until we went down to Lydd last Saturday .
Anyway, a playing lesson (the pro walked round with me and only played a couple of shots as demos) was great value, and thoroughly enjoyable. Hope it was for you as well...