What's your take on GOLF LESSONS?

[birdieman]

I didn't take any lessons when I started at 15 years old. Got myself down to 6 handicap mainly through straight hitting and a good short game. Packed golf in from age 20 to 33. Took it up again in a big way and have had 3 lessons since 2003, last one was about a year ago.

I was slightly concerned that the 2 pros I saw most recently didn't comment on the same things in my swing. The guy I saw last year wanted a much stronger grip and hip rotation as opposed to hip slide. To be fair I wouldn't have picked those 2 faults up myself and since I have ingrained these 2 aspects into my swing my long game has inmproved markedly. It took a while though and I still fall into the old way sometimes with hip sliding despite hitting a lot of practice balls.

I would say it is good to see a Pro but I don't belive you need to see one very often if your swing is in ok shape, once every couple of years does me but I'm lucky enough to have a half decent swing naturally. As some other posters have noted if you can't swing a club sometimes all the lessons in the world can't fix that.

Golf is unusual in that a lot of top sportsmen and women in other sports cant swing a club at all - thinking Daley Thomson, Charles Barkley etc -very athletic and co-ordinated but can't swing a club with any degree of grace.

 

[bazlambo]

Never had a golf lesson in my life and tend to know what I have done wrong if I hit a bad shot.

Saying that I have only taken up the game again in the last 18 months after a 10 year gap and have toyed with the idea of taking the plunge and having a lesson, but have a horrible fear that if any changes are made my enjoyment will go.

Scores over recent times in social golf probably have me playing to about 9, with my achilles heel being the short game which is either good or bad with nothing in the middle, so if I did have lessons it would be around this, particularly shots from sand.