Pros or Pros?

[Herbie]

A huge number of pros are just good golfers who have taken courses obtained the qualification and set up business as club pros. There are other groups who set up businesses like some you see on web sites, there are other groups of pros whos golf is of a very very high standard but not quite good enough to get them up with the upper echelons of tour play and there are those who had it, then lost it, making a few memorable appearences in the tour. It is right what has been said about the very small number of pro golfers who actually make a living out of play alone. Some potentially superb golfers have fallen by the wayside as the costs of playing the tour are so expensive and if you keep finishing 15th or 20th yet only a handful of strokes behind the top players you arent gonna make enough money to cover all your tour expenses let alone be left with earnings in the bank.

Of the pros that run lessons privately or as part of their business as a club pro, until you get to know them it is simply a lottery as to getting a good teacher or a crap one.

Some pros are no better and no more knowledgeable than many very low h/c players, but there are an awful lot that are.
Proof of the pudding is really how you should look at this.

 

[kingshankly]

i have also wondered about this myself aparantly you cant teach unless your 6 or less is this true? surely this is unfair do you have to be a great golfer to make a great teacher some of the best football managers were not great footballers !

 

[Leftie]

Our previous club pro, Bob Cameron, won a couple of the PGA Club Pro comps over the years. As soon as he was 50 he gave up the pro shop and joined the PGA European Senior Tour. In 6 years he has never finished outside the top 20 just earning enough I assume to pay his way. With the new arrivals to the tour however things will probably get tougher.

 

[forefortheday]

i have also wondered about this myself aparantly you cant teach unless your 6 or less is this true? surely this is unfair do you have to be a great golfer to make a great teacher some of the best football managers were not great footballers !

But football managers dont tell player how to strike a ball, you couldn't imagine Ferguson telling Beckham how to strike a dead ball could you?

Golf is far more technical than football, managers are there due to their tactical skill and transfer acumen not basic technical skills.

 

[haplesshacker]

I spent a few years a a sailing instructor, and it used to annoy me that there were a lot of other instructors that in my eyes couldn't sail.

I've coached people with more natural talent than me, but it was more about getting the best out of them as an individual or as a team. I guess more as a footie manager type role than a techneque type role at that level.

Much as I love golf now, as I used to with the sailing, I'd only be happy coaching sailing and not the golf. I know my limits!! If I'm paying for instruction, I'd like to think that the person that's teaching me can at least do it themselves. But the instructor in me comes out in the golf, which is why I'm quite analytical and self depricating about my own golf. As I know that I can do better.


What I didn't realise is just how rough aspiring teaching / golf club / golf shop pros have it. It's no wonder that as a retailer I'm not that impressed with pro shops, as this isn't what they really signed up for I guess.

 

[viscount17]

We have three pro's, one a GM top 25.
The two assistant pro's have both played on tour, though I don't know which.
One had to quit because a skin condition on his hands kept him out of a lot of comps, though he also says that he found being a good am doesn't make a good pro.
The other married, found he couldn't make enough as a pro, he also says he just plain wasn't good enough. He says it's damned hard to win when you absolutely have to.

Funnily enough, I don't know the top pro's history.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I wrote a piece for the GM blog about what makes a good coach. It can be a very hit and miss thing. We have a guy at my local range Wayne Owers who had a go at the European Tour (I think an eye injury curtailed his career) and he is recognised locally as one of the best coaches. I've been for several lessons with him and I get exactly what he wants me to do but find it difficult to replicate the form from lessons onto the range and course.

My current coach is fairly young and as far as I know has no ambition to make it on any of the tours. He has worked at Leadbitter Acadamies in the US and with Dennis Pugh and purely wants to teach. For some reason what he says clicks with me and stays and that is what is making the difference. He has recently moved with N1 golf to Maidenhead Golf Centre and is working really hard to get new clientele and build a reputation as a coach.

 

[Parmo]

I've never even thought about it, I wouldnt want to live out of a suitcase and live in debt just on the off chance of being good enough at the right time. Good on the young guns who do it, but it takes a lot of cash just to play and support yourself on tour, I think Seve got a 20,000 loan when he first started and his parents sold some of their cows to fund it, his brother lost that cash at a football match lol.

 

[USER1999]

Kingshankly - It isn't that unfair that a seven handicapper can't become a teaching pro, 6 handicap golfers aren't that good,let alone great. I play with plenty, and you wouldn't want lessons off any of them.
In my club, male membership is 700+, and 1/3 play off single digit h/caps. Of these say 100 odd are cat 1. They would make very poor teaching pro's. Their handicap alone is not enough.

 

[Herbie]

I second murph!

 

[Marko77]

I'd imagine in alot of cases it is the old saying "do as I say, not as I do" They will all be essentially following the same methods. I dare say alot of players/teachers have their own wee quirks they would not pass on unless a player had been struggling with the same issues?

I wonder, if Chris DiMarco was to give a putting lesson, what putter grip style would he teach? A convential style or the claw grip?

 

[Parmo]

me and Mrs Parmo are in a situation where Mrs P will be needing lessons in the next few months and I was going to book them at the club, but a couple at the weekend informed us they both had lessons of the assistant pro and for them he wasnt any good, the pro is always at his other course and do you waste money trying the assist out or risk putting the pro's nose out by looking elsewhere?

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Most pros should be canny enough to realise that lessons are subjective and that their methods may not suit everyone. My club pro seems to be like many and polarises opinion. Some members think he isa great teacher and others don't like his methods. I've had a few lessons with him and find him a good teacher with a good understanding of the swing who cured my faults.

THe problem was, and I've had it with other really respected local teachers, that the information didn't stick and I couldn't make the changes permanent. The guy I'm with now seems to have a knack of getting hte information to stick. My pro knows I use him and as far as I am aware has no problem with that. He and I both know that if I need a quick fix he is on hand

 

[viscount17]

parmo, it's your money and your choice. if the pro isn't there he can't complain if you go elsewhere, you have to have someone you trust and can get on with.

 

[Parmo]

parmo, it's your money and your choice. if the pro isn't there he can't complain if you go elsewhere, you have to have someone you trust and can get on with.

Yeah not sure at the moment what to do, both myself and wife don't drive so its a tricky situation we didnt think we would have come her needing lessons. I did mention to HID that maybe joining a private club (loose term as its more of a course and pub than club) but she is against it, it has a half decent 18 hole course (a tad boring) a 12 hole 3 par course which is in good nick and a 20 bay range and great chipping + putting area, but the downside is the joining fee's and the extra £6 in taxi's per visit.

 

[Seanald]

You love me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! oh my god - i feel the same way too. xx

 

[Seanald]

Hi hapless, nice to meet you, i,m Sean the pro that Flandango is talking about. Your story is very similiar to mine in that i actually did the training, and passed all exams etc etc. However after opening up the shop every weekend at 6.30 and working 13 hour days it eventually took its toll and i decided that i wanted my life back lol. I tell you it might look the most glamourous job in the world to have but believe me you the reality is far from it. It's ok if you are one of the lucky ones with the financial backing behind you but for the rest of us its a hard bloody grind. I do miss the thrill of playing in tournaments but really thats it. on a separate note - is there not a clause where you can get your amateur status back asap due to injury? Sean

 

[SammmeBee]

Hi hapless, nice to meet you, i,m Sean the pro that Flandango is talking about. Your story is very similiar to mine in that i actually did the training, and passed all exams etc etc. However after opening up the shop every weekend at 6.30 and working 13 hour days it eventually took its toll and i decided that i wanted my life back lol. I tell you it might look the most glamourous job in the world to have but believe me you the reality is far from it. It's ok if you are one of the lucky ones with the financial backing behind you but for the rest of us its a hard bloody grind. I do miss the thrill of playing in tournaments but really thats it. on a separate note - is there not a clause where you can get your amateur status back asap due to injury? Sean

So are you stil working in a Pro Shop then or not?