Are golf lessons a waste of time?

The average 30 minute lesson costs between $40 and $60. I've taken a few of these lessons, usually from a guy who likes to hear himself talk and, if not for that pesky wrist injury, would be on the PGA Tour earning millions. As fate would have it, he's had to resort to teaching at an artificial turf driving range and give lessons to lesser golfers like us.

The typical lessons consists of a few grip adjustments and then an effort to completely overhaul my swing. I shoot in the 70's but will be the first to admit my swing is unconventional and laid off. I have great hand/eye coordination, I'm athletic and I have a good short game.

That being said, lessons have never improved my game. I've given them a try and I've done the drills but my game has always suffered as a result. I always go back to the old swing and start hitting the ball great again. Why do I want my golf swing to be picture perfect? I have no idea. Seems like a stupid goal to me.

Besides, we all know that the key to scoring is practicing the short game.

Now I'm not about to begrudge any guy from earning a buck so long as its legal. I know a lot of these guys who are teachers belong to the PGA and have gone through educational courses and passed practical and playing tests. So they have the credentials. I haven't taken many formal lessons since I started playing in 1955 at my father's country club and the basic fundamentals were taught to me by my father. Of course it helped that he had a 250 yard bluegrass fairway and bent grass green with three sand bunkers built soon after he bought our farm. When I was 15, the old man took me to a very young Assistant Pro at another club he belonged to out in the country where the members were all Germans like us and not mostly all Italians like the club in the suburbs where I first started. So this young guy fiddled with my grip and stance and had me hit a bunch of balls on several occasions and after about three sessions had me hitting my 5 iron around 170. This was in the early '60's (JFK was still using O2 and boffing bimbos) and the only irons we had were forged blades. Since I was more interested in playing high school football, girls, and getting my driving license than playing golf, I opted out of any more lessons. The upshot was that it took me about another 20 years to get back to where I could fly a 5 iron 170 yards.

Nowadays, I am taking professional golf instruction every morning. In fact, all of my instructors are in that elite group known as "Golf Magazine Top 100 Instructors". I am fortunate to have access to all these people and, even though some of them are now deceased, their lessons shall live on into Perpetuity. Or as long as my archived copies of my subscription Golf Magazines last. God forbid Fahrenheit 451. So every morning as I prepare to face the day, with hot strong black coffee in hand and a page open to a priceless lesson on how to grip the wedge for a flop shot or how to align a left-to-right downhill breaker or how to hit low spinners out of deep soft sand over a high lip or just about any valauble shot or technique ever developed and taught to man, woman or child, its all right there as I greet the sunrise through the window with a satisfying dump.

FamousDavis wrote:The average 30 minute lesson costs between $40 and $60. I've taken a few of these lessons, usually from a guy who likes to hear himself talk and, if not for that pesky wrist injury, would be on the PGA Tour earning millions. As fate would have it, he's had to resort to teaching at an artificial turf driving range and give lessons to lesser golfers like us.

The typical lessons consists of a few grip adjustments and then an effort to completely overhaul my swing. I shoot in the 70's but will be the first to admit my swing is unconventional and laid off. I have great hand/eye coordination, I'm athletic and I have a good short game.

That being said, lessons have never improved my game. I've given them a try and I've done the drills but my game has always suffered as a result. I always go back to the old swing and start hitting the ball great again. Why do I want my golf swing to be picture perfect? I have no idea. Seems like a stupid goal to me.

Besides, we all know that the key to scoring is practicing the short game.

ever consider that the information youre receiving is either just plain wrong, or incorrect for the components you already possess??

we're all built differently and thus have to use different "templates" for the shot pattern we desire to see. For instance the grip should not be the same for every player, not the setup, posture, etc... i could go on, but you get the picture; it's a personalized machine, and while there are many laws that apply it's more about know which pieces will allow you to accomplish efficiency with the least resistance from your own built-in tendencies. No ones swing is "perfect" (in fact most of the player who are regarded as so are far from it) it's about building a swing that fits you, not making you look like an arbitrary picture or player. this is one aspect of "modern" instruction which get's it completely wrong in my opinion.


so to summarize golf instruction is not a waste in fact PROPER instruction is key to improvement many times.

Once you boil it down to a value proposition, just buying newer and better golf clubs is the more financially savvy move. Any errors in your swing tend to dissipate when you get your hands on the newer golf technology. I've never actually heard someone who swore by lessons anyway. Whenever I'm looking to improve my golf game, the answer from others is always, "new clubs."

Playa Hata wrote:Once you boil it down to a value proposition, just buying newer and better golf clubs is the more financially savvy move. Any errors in your swing tend to dissipate when you get your hands on the newer golf technology. I've never actually heard someone who swore by lessons anyway. Whenever I'm looking to improve my golf game, the answer from others is always, "new clubs."

Amen. Having problems hitting your drives left? Get a stiffer shafted driver. Everything going right? Get a more flexile shafted driver with an adjustable head so you can close that face angle. Leaving all your putts short? Get a new putter with a hot insert. Thin and chunky chips? Get you that magic new wedge with the Mucho Mojo Sole Grind. Are your irons slicing into the wind? Get a lower spin ball. Etc. Etc. If there were any other way to improve, none of the major equipment makers would be listed on the Big Board of NASDAQ.

The only people who advocate lessons are the people who give lessons. Everyone knows they can't be trusted. Just look at Larry. He'll die penniless, having spent his last dime learning the elusive weight shift that everyone else naturally figures out.

Horseballs wrote:The only people who advocate lessons are the people who give lessons. Everyone knows they can't be trusted. Just look at Larry. He'll die penniless, having spent his last dime learning the elusive weight shift that everyone else naturally figures out.

Sad but true. The only question will be: "Do you think he wants the headcover on his Whippy Tempomaster or not?"

FamousDavis wrote:The average 30 minute lesson costs between $40 and $60. I've taken a few of these lessons, usually from a guy who likes to hear himself talk and, if not for that pesky wrist injury, would be on the PGA Tour earning millions. As fate would have it, he's had to resort to teaching at an artificial turf driving range and give lessons to lesser golfers like us.

The typical lessons consists of a few grip adjustments and then an effort to completely overhaul my swing. I shoot in the 70's but will be the first to admit my swing is unconventional and laid off. I have great hand/eye coordination, I'm athletic and I have a good short game.

That being said, lessons have never improved my game. I've given them a try and I've done the drills but my game has always suffered as a result. I always go back to the old swing and start hitting the ball great again. Why do I want my golf swing to be picture perfect? I have no idea. Seems like a stupid goal to me.

Besides, we all know that the key to scoring is practicing the short game.

Good lessons would be great,,, but watch out for those instructors who change our swing to his/her. A friend of mine who shoots in the 85+/-3 range and wanted to improve his game, took lessons with a headpro who tried to change his swing and that really fukkk up his game, after 6 months my friend went back to his old swing, everything back to normal after a few months, according to him "what a waste of time and money"....
Larry: try to change Jim Furyk's swing and see how he could improve