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Why Don't You Take Lessons?

Just signed up for my first golf lesson at the Darlington Country Club in Darlington, SC. I go in next Tuesday. Lessons are $40/hour. The instructor wants to do a half hour first lesson to get a feel for my swing and then to give me some pointers and have me work on it for a week. For this price, I could definitely justify a couple of hour lessons a month, but may have to dial back/cut out my weekday golf outings.
 
I've been thinkin about getting some coaching and it definitely can be cost prohibitive. Ive always.been good enough to play with most folks at a competitive level but I'd like to start playing in some tournaments and I'm not quite sure I can get to that level by myself. Especially since.the weak parts of my game have always been the same. The challenge will be finding somebody I trust out here. Not too many teachers to choose from in the mountains hereq

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I have no real good reason I haven't other than time and commitment...and maybe cost a little bit cause I'm cheap :)
 
I'm thinking about taking lessions this year from a local guy that would give me 5 lessions for $100. This is probably because we click and he is a good guy. The thing is I'm not sure of how good of a teacher he is, but at this point anything will probably help. The other golf lessions would be more then an hour drive away for me, and with the time I get off work and through traffic in that town I wouldn't be able to make it worth my while with kids and other stuff going on. Plus they are a lot more exspensive then what this guy would charge me.
 
For me not having anyone local I like and no options at all in the winter. I would love to get more lessons.
 
Good question. Cost and time are our biggest reasons. During the season Jacqui works 5 or 6 days a week at the course and wants to play on her day(s) off. I am in my own busy time all year building my business and want to play on my time off. The cost of playing at our courses (free) because Jacqui works there means we get to play. Otherwise we would be more limited in our golf time than we are! Give us a few more years and we'll have the extra to spend on lessons.
 
braddman19 said:
I can't remember if it was discussed in another thread somewhere, but did you undertake a complete swing rebuild? And if so, have you seen the benefits from it yet?
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That was the plan. Had 3 lessons and enjoyed them, but then I got injured. Have been injured for quite some time with surgery planned for after the PGA Show (no date set yet). I have not played since November, but have hit some balls. Will continue to do that and once I am healthy again, will undergo the lesson schedule.

I do not propose most go through a rebuild. That is just something I am interested in doing as I have reached a plateau and have some goals I want to hit.
 
I think cost can be a factor when deciding on taking lessons, but it's also a combination of the time you have to spend outside of lessons working on reinforcing what you've learned.

You probably don't have to spend hours a day practicing to benefit from lessons, and I think that finally just hit me. Even spending a few minutes working on your lessons will help.

So this thread pushed me over the edge on buying a few lessons from a smaller local golf shop, at a great price for Chicago standards.
 
I have took several lessons last year but I usually don't take them during the season because of time. I usually play every other weekend during my men's club. If I throw in lessons during that season that is one more day I'm away from the family.


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I think what I really need before a lesson is a talk with an instructor and answer the question "Where do I struggle".

When I did take lessons, it was all about hitting it farther and straighter. That isn't where I struggle though, so why was I taking lessons for that? Short game/putting lessons would probably benefit me far more than full swing.
 
I didn't used to take lessons regularly, but I do now, although "regularly" for me is a little less frequent than some people. I like to at least take a few lessons in the offseason/beginning of the season, so that any changes that need to happen will happen with enough time to groove them. I also like to wait at least a few weeks between lessons, because it gives me time to get comfortable with the new moves before trying something else. I'm actually kind of due now for another lesson, will probably be trying to schedule one in the next week or two to make sure my changes from the last one are sinking in.
 
Mostly I don't take lessons because it is 40 minutes one-way to the nearest golf pro. So it's an 80 minute round trip. I just don't have time like I used to since my son was born. So instead of taking lessons regularly like I did a few years ago, I now take about 1 lesson a year.

~Rock
 
For me I do take a few lessons here or there, but I've never taken a schedule of lessons. For me the answer to why not is cost/time, I think my local pro would do a wave of lessons, but his hourly rate is a bit high, and he never seems to have convenient times open for lessons. So for now I stop in every once in a while when I have something fairly specific I'm looking for help on, say a miss, certain club, or shot shape/type.

If I had a GolfTec or something similar open that was closer than an hour drive I might do that, but two hours of driving per lesson is a bit too much.
 
I tried "winging it" for 1 1/2 years in my pursuit to perfect my homemade swing; unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. It's those great shots here and there that really keep you coming back.

I finally took my first lesson a couple weeks ago. I had been hesitant to take them because they're not cheap - (~$50/hr) and there was the uncertainty around how many lessons I would need before I had a swing I could play with. To my surprise, it only took two lessons; I played a round yesterday and had improvements in every area. I have my 3rd lesson this week. I'll definitely be having at least one lesson a month after learning my new swing.
 
I biggest reason I don't take lessons is because it's over an hour drive to the nearest instructor.

Once I get back on the course this year and get a round or two under my belt, I'm hoping to provide Freddie with some video and get his insight. Maybe that will put me on the path to finally breaking 80 this year.
 
I don't know why I've never taken lessons. Most of the time I feel it's not worth it to me. I'll get in a funk; but enough range time I'll have it fixed again. I've been to "free" clinic nights, a pro has watched me, and either bypassed me or offered very little substance (or something I already know).
I would like to go to a savant, with video capabilities, swing analyzers, track man etc. I could see benefit coming from that.


Otherwise I'd love a short game coach.
 
Never taking lessons before for me was becuase I didnt have the time needed to make the lessons effective. I had fun playing a round of golf & didnt want to hit balls on the range. Also I was good enough to hold my own with the guys I regurlarly played with, so figured it was ok. I was good enough to win some skins & that was it.

I finally decided to be honest with myself & get serious. If I want to be in the 80's consistently with the chance to sniff the 70's I need a coach/pro to help. I am at a point where I have more free time & I want to get better also. THP has been a big influence in this area as well. Not because I think I need a certain handicap to be accepted or anything like that, but if I want to be in the MC, Invitationals & all the other events lined up, I need to bring it from a game perspective becuase now it's not just letting myself down, I potentially will have teammates to consider also.
 
I am going to say that one reason I haven't taken as many lessons as I probably should is that so far both of my lessons have ended with the same statement from my instructor, "I don't have a whole lot to teach you. You've got good rotation down, just relax and keep your spine angle and you'll do fine."

This isn't an indication that I'm necessarily a great golfer, and I know I've got a few lessons in the bag for this Spring to really focus on putting and to refine my scoring clubs, and I know the next nearest teaching coach is a fair distance away, but when a teacher says he doesn't have a whole lot to teach me from the topics I've asked to improve on -- my first lesson really was just a matter of fixing my address position and swing plane, my second was getting more hip drive to get on plane with my driver and some wedge shots -- I'm simply less likely to want to see him on a monthly basis. Or it means I need to dig in and start finding other ways to improve and work with my coach on those things, but if I'm paying him, isn't that sort of part of his job? To say things like, "Let's see if we can get a bit more lag in your swing and get some more distance and spin. Try this."
 
Firstly let me say that not everyone is spending money updating equipment. For me, my (latest set last year) is first of anything new in about 12 years. And plan on gaming them for many years.

But this comes down to one basic question.

Do you want to spend your resources of time and money working hard at taking lessons, practicing, and improving? or playing?

Its not an easy question to answer especially when your resources are limited. The more limited you are the harder it becomes to sacrifice and the longer it takes to achieve the goals. Limited amounts of golf means even more limited in order to take lessons and practice. Taking lessons and practice also means spending more of those further limited rounds of golf practicing which is also less "play" rounds.

Quite frankly it can really suck when you spend most of your golfing time that you have in one season working at it vs playing it. The less you have, the more perctage of it you will lose. That means on the course too. Its not so easy to do.
 
Paladin said:
I am going to say that one reason I haven't taken as many lessons as I probably should is that so far both of my lessons have ended with the same statement from my instructor, "I don't have a whole lot to teach you. You've got good rotation down, just relax and keep your spine angle and you'll do fine."

This isn't an indication that I'm necessarily a great golfer, and I know I've got a few lessons in the bag for this Spring to really focus on putting and to refine my scoring clubs, and I know the next nearest teaching coach is a fair distance away, but when a teacher says he doesn't have a whole lot to teach me from the topics I've asked to improve on -- my first lesson really was just a matter of fixing my address position and swing plane, my second was getting more hip drive to get on plane with my driver and some wedge shots -- I'm simply less likely to want to see him on a monthly basis. Or it means I need to dig in and start finding other ways to improve and work with my coach on those things, but if I'm paying him, isn't that sort of part of his job? To say things like, "Let's see if we can get a bit more lag in your swing and get some more distance and spin. Try this."
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Do you schedule those lesson with specific goals? Or do you show up and say, "teach me." Honest question.

I go into every lesson with a specific goal, I want to fade the ball, draw the ball more/less, trajectory control, I'm missing off the heal, or something. Have a goal on what you want to improve and then follow along.
 
I hadn't taken a lesson in years. Everything I've done up to this point was self taught (aside from the basics I learned from the lessons years ago). I went and got a 3 pack lesson and I used the first one back in November. He gave me a couple of helpful things but nothing specific to work on or drills. I know when I go back that I need to be more specific in what I want. It is a little expensive though and part me looks at as for the lessons it is less play on the course too.
 
For mr it's the I think I can do it on my own thing, you get to a point where you've shot under par a few times andpride takes over for me rather than the how low can I go with help thought. I've been thinking a lot about this lately and I'm glad this topic came up. This is a great discussion.
 
blugold said:
Do you schedule those lesson with specific goals? Or do you show up and say, "teach me." Honest question.
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So for a total newbie like me, who just started playing golf, has a horrible handicap, and doesn't know much about the intricacies of the game ... what is a good initial valid specific goal?

Honestly, I need so much work in so many areas that I'm not sure that if the pro asked me what I wanted to work on first ... what I should tell him, other than I need to know if my mechanics are good.
 
blugold said:
Do you schedule those lesson with specific goals? Or do you show up and say, "teach me." Honest question.

I go into every lesson with a specific goal, I want to fade the ball, draw the ball more/less, trajectory control, I'm missing off the heal, or something. Have a goal on what you want to improve and then follow along.
Click to expand...

The first lesson was more generalized, but with a goal of not slicing the ball anymore. Amazed at how simple some of the fixes can be to the most common problem in golf! But the second lesson was to learn to hit a draw off the tee. I had gotten there after my first lesson, but had developed some compensations while trying to keep playing/exercising after a pulled hamstring (a common thread of my life is moronically trying to tough out injury) that had me fading the ball more and more even after I had healed up. Since swinging just driver for an hour is pretty tiring, we spent some time working some wedges and play around the greens as well just to make the most of the time.

I am getting more specific as my misses get smaller in terms of what I want to improve on. Reading greens and alignment/accuracy with my short irons are high on my to-do list this Spring. Now that you mention it, I should probably get more specific than that.
 
I think the biggest thing that beginners (and possibly a lot more people) could get from lessons is a basic understanding of what happened to cause a bad shot and the quick and easy things you can do to rectify it - An example I guess could be someone who has just topped / thinned a ball because they lifted their head looking for where the ball had gone before they had actually struck it

Knowing what you have done wrong in a shot based on the result goes a long way to understanding how to fix the problem

blugold said:
Do you schedule those lesson with specific goals? Or do you show up and say, "teach me." Honest question.

I go into every lesson with a specific goal, I want to fade the ball, draw the ball more/less, trajectory control, I'm missing off the heal, or something. Have a goal on what you want to improve and then follow along.
Click to expand...

This is the approach that I would be looking to take if/when I decide to schedule some lessons - in my eyes, there is no point turning up for lessons if you don't know what you want to get from them

I would liken it to a previous thread that talked about 'Practice with a purpose'
 
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