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Worst professional golf advice received (in person / excluding pro's name)

Franklin51 said:
Worst advice I ever got is a long story. At 13 my mom pushed golf hard because she hated my racing hobby. So she got me lessons from a local cheap pro (he called himself a pro) at the local 9 hole course. 3rd lesson we played 9 and I beat him by 6 shots. No more lessons from that guy.
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well, to be fair one doesn't have to be good at something in order to have good knowledge, an understanding, a keen eye, and be able to teach it.
 
rollin said:
well, to be fair one doesn't have to be good at something in order to have good knowledge, an understanding, a keen eye, and be able to teach it.
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True , makes me think about Harvey Penick. When he was coaching Ben Crenahaw he could barely move efficiently without help
 
I've had taken lessons from 3 teaching professionals over time. With each, there was some improvement, but nothing really major. In fact, no professional has successfully taught me how to get out of a sand bunker. But my 4th instructor seriously improved my game almost immediately. He told me to stick my butt out more when taking my stance to allow my arms to swing through and remove my need to lift up. I sure wish the other 3 had noticed it. It's grip and posture, without those good luck.
 
blugold said:
Freddie had a good threaded about that a bit back. Type A (your first type) he listed names like David Leadbetter, Hank Haney, Butch Harmon. Type B (your type 2) was the standard course pro. I said, I may have been one of the few, I want Type A.
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I'm not any good at golf, but I spent time upwards of a year each with a Type A/1 and Type B/2 coach. I feel like I improved a lot more and faster with the current Type A/1 coach.

CMedina84 said:
Worst advice I ever got was from a pro at a driving range I work at. All he would do is just have me address the ball, and he would grab the club and show me where it has to be and just say you have to get the club here. I'm not sure if that is even considered advice? I was always afraid to go to the TPC River Highlands here in CT for a lesson in fear of teh price tag, but when i actually looked it up it was practically the same price! Took a lesson there recently, and WOW my game came back just like that! Distance was back, ball flight was back, contact was back, and most importantly the confidnece immediately came back. Whenever I take a lesson i look for an instructor who is going to give me drills I can do to get myself back in order, not someone who is gonna say bring the club here. What the heck is that????
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I learned the best/most to date from a coach that put me into positions. There are only a handful of pros that do not have a text book, single plane, in-to-out swing. Jim Furyk would be one of the exceptions to that statement (though Furyk manages to re-route and get to pretty much the same impact position as everyone else).
 
I had a instructor tell me to not play for at least two weeks while "we" worked on my swing ... the last lesson ( never went back) he had me hold on to my club with just two fingers on my right hand (thumb and index to drive home a point only) because I used my right hand too much ...
 
Sure sounds like communication issues here. We all just need to explain to them personally what we are looking for out of these teachers. It's like anything else that we pay for, a service or goods. If they are delivering a bad product to us I recommend by all means stopping them and telling the individual you aren't providing my needs. It isn't harmful at all, just a good business practice which I'm sure they would appreciate your feedback instead of getting bad recommendations. I'm glad I'm not the only one who experienced some less than stellar learning opportunities. Just need to speak our mind and they will accomodate us
 
Being told to keep my head down as long as I can possibly keep it there. Not a natural movement and pulled some muscles in my upper back/neck several times while trying to adhere to this. Also led to some serious pulled shots. Once I found that happy medium, where I stayed down until my body naturally lifted my head up, I was good. But sometimes pros are way too literal when giving tips.


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I've had only one true professional lesson and I thought it was great and very enlightening. We're the changes extreme - you bet, but the more I practice the less extreme they seem and the better I am getting. I don't think anything was bad advice or instruction but I did feel some of it was against my train of thought. I just Had to trust him and let it come together. I did a lot of research and got reviews direct from other people before I chose what instructor to go to though. I'd never go to a random person without doing some research on them or getting feedback.


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I've only had 3 lessons in my life. The first lesson I booked was to cure a sh*nk. The instructor, one of the better name golfers in NJ at the time, spent about 3 minutes with me, told me to work on tempo and balance, and spent the next 27 minutes smoking cigarettes and BS'ing with other people. The next person, who actually helped, was a local pro at a small 9-hole course nearby. He watched me swing, spent 30 minutes with me, and told me to swing more upright, and to get my right hand into it more. That did it for me, and I still go back to that advice when the sh*nks reappear.
 
Went to a vendor seminar held at a golf training center. After the seminar, we did chipping, putting and full shots. On the full shots, they filmed each of us individually. The guy had me hitting 7 iron and I was hitting this high little draw into a green they had (this was outside). I sort of over swung a couple of times and he told me to swing like I was trying to hit a push cut. WHAT? You can't be serious! Anyway, I did it for him. When I got the video of the swing, you could see exactly where he had me change. Geez, what an ugly swing for the remainder of the session. Don't remember hitting that green again with his suggestion.
 
My last instructor is now managing a pizza place. Should be all you need to know.
 
I talked to guy last week that I was looking at getting a fitting with and maybe even some lessons. Then as we talked a little further he starts to tell me what I should have in a driver based completely on what I told him was my average carry and average scores, having never seen me hit a single ball.
 
Move back from the ball. My left hand needs to be under or in front of my chin. I kept telling him the ball was too far out and I was reaching. I was hitting off the toe over and over and then I started really trying to reach and hitting on the heel. After about 5 heel shots he told me to back up more. I could not hit the ball. There was about a foot between the back of the club and my belt. But since I hit off the heel because I was reaching so bad he kept moving me back to where all my weight was on my toes at address. After 30 mins of him guessing on why I was slicing the crap out of the ball all of a sudden after he had me back up so much I just took my glove off and picked up my clubs and walked out. I had bought a 5 pack of lessons, I told him that I won't be back and to give my lesson time away to someone for free. He got very upset, told me I was not coach able. Needless to say, he is no longer a pro where I went and rumor has it he had been let go from 2 places after that as well.

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Sorry to hear that FNG. We are all coach able, just need find the right person. Good job walking out, if he told me I was "not coach able". I would've responded you just aren't teaching material, than see where he takes it from there
 
to be fair to instructors and instruction in general, aren't we all just too different. Things that work for some don't work for others. Is anything really "text book"?

I of course am of no authority on instruction at all but I feel aside from some basic fundamentals, there is just far too much variance from one person to another, and far too many tips and advice from too many instructor's, pros, people in general floating around magazines, internet videos, and all kinds of articles in just about anything golf related. But imo everyone is so different and just like some of those things may or may not work for a given individual, such is the same for an instructor and the student. I think there are very many instructors who can get a newbie hitting golf balls and then there are instructors (much fewer of them) who can honestly work with more avid players and who have the goods (ability) to be able to really help people with "their own" swing instead of reverting back to a text book type of teaching. I think text book teaching only works for a beginner and those who just so happen to possibly fall into a more text book style of swinging.

There are just too many different natural movements imo each of our body's make while we do any physical task. I think its just such a very hard thing for any person to not only be able to fix, repair, or help maintain another persons individual swing but to do it in a way that is very correct for "that person" vs other people. I think an instructor who can do that is very gifted and also must be very open minded towards the whole process, and has to also care. And even one who may be very good at doing that, may still find given individuals who they just cant mesh with.

Unfortunately the whole process uses a lot of resources of time and money. That in itself just adds to further complicate the whole process. Its not something most people can just search for whenever they wish. So imo one has to get sort of lucky to end up with a good mesh of teaching vs student.
 
The worst lesson I ever had was the FIRST lesson I ever had. I had only just taken up the game and was shooting an average of 115 or so while very occasionally breaking the 100 barrier. This instructor, with all the all the things I was doing wrong - decided I needed to be taught how to "lag" on my downswing. I then proceeded to hit nothing but shanks for the next 45 minutes. Took me months to get over that. Horrible, absolutely horrible lesson.....
 
- I've got an issue. I'm hitting my 7 iron 145 yards and 6 months ago I was hitting it 175.

***watches me swing for 20 minutes***

"You're hitting it straight.. Maybe just adjust for the new distances and enjoy the accuracy?"

......idiot
 
I found an instructor that I really liked the beginning of last year. He helped me hit the ball more consistently and I wanted to go back to GolfTec for more lessons over this past winter. Unfortunately, he left GolfTec and I was assigned to a new coach. This new coach made me undo almost everything that I learned from the last coach causing me to hit the ball terribly. I emailed the old coach and once he found out who the new coach was, he told me to run away.

He gave me a name for a new coach in the facility that has similar thoughts as him. I switched to his recommendation and we're slowly working my way back!
 
I made the mistake of taking a lesson based on distance from my house as opposed to reading reviews. All of the computer technology is probably great in the hands of somebody that knows how to use it. However, I left there more confused than ever. Instead of analyzing my swing by watching with his own eyes, he had me swing while a camera recorded (he actually walked away while I was swinging to get water) then came back and pulled up a video of my swing on the computer. After he watched he drew a ton of different lines (which made zero sense to me because he couldn't relay the information), told me that my head was a little off center and had me work on holding my head in a position that was so uncomfortable that it hurt my neck and back and I could barely swing the club. He said, "It's just uncomfortable because you are not used to it". I figured since he was a "pro" I should listen and give it a chance. I shouldn't have. It was completely bunk. I dropped his advice after two weeks.

I have since signed up for a different professional and did a lot of research online to find somebody who had great reviews. It took 1 swing at a lesson with my new professional watching for him to say, "You're swing for the most part is fine. You're issue is your wrists, you aren't turning them over at impact". He related my swing to hockey (a first I must say, but as a I played hockey for 15 years it clicked), he didn't use a computer, and had me hitting straight shots in 8 swings. Now, it's just working on what he taught me to keep it straight, but the information was fantastic and delivered in a manner which made sense.
 
Reading this thread, I feel really lucky that I got a good coach on my first try.
 
I had a lesson several years ago that the instructor had me take the club head back on a very inside path.
He had me work on that for 2 weeks before my next lesson.
After that, the only move I could make back to the ball was so over the top that everything was either a dead pull or a slice that Bubba Watson would be jealous of.
Luckily the next lesson was the last of the package and I got rid of him.
I then went to another guy that got the far too inside takeaway fixed.
 
Being self taught, I've only had I think about 4 lessons. The first I had though, I booked when I had a massive attack of the sh*nks! Went to see the local pro at my private club. He filmed me for 5 minutes then told me it was all in my head and that with my swing, I should be a single handicapper (I was an 11 at the time). Very nice of you to say mate, but it doesn't help me.
 
One thing I'm starting to realize here was maybe a lot of the teachers might be right and we just didn't devote the time that changes require. When i was a very avid golfer lessons never were worth my time or effort. The lessons had to be real fast basic fixes as playing golf was my main priority. Now that I play more golf swing than golf I'm able to devote more time in making the swing changes without worries of playing bad golf. Some of these responses could be from ladies and gentleman that were just hesitant to swing changes like I was. If it wasn't simple I just would disregard a lot of the info.

Changes take time and patience, something I was lacking back in the day
 
Mystery Meat said:
One thing I'm starting to realize here was maybe a lot of the teachers might be right and we just didn't devote the time that changes require. When i was a very avid golfer lessons never were worth my time or effort. The lessons had to be real fast basic fixes as playing golf was my main priority. Now that I play more golf swing than golf I'm able to devote more time in making the swing changes without worries of playing bad golf. Some of these responses could be from ladies and gentleman that were just hesitant to swing changes like I was. If it wasn't simple I just would disregard a lot of the info.

Changes take time and patience, something I was lacking back in the day
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That's an interesting point imo.
I would assume that most lessons are given to beginners and also to players who want a tweak or quick fix. Its probably the much smaller percentage of lessons over all that are being given to people with a real commitment for efforts and time. Truth is most people don't have the time (or money) to commit to what it really takes them and even some who do have it still may not have the will to do it nor may it be all that important to them.. So sort of by default I can see where many of the average instructors/pros at the average practice facility may get into a robotic routine (of an almost repetitive simplicity) of simple basics of just getting one to hit the ball. Sort of becomes just a job where no extra efforts or any real concern for any true "work in progress" type of care for the student is priority.

Doesn't make it right and certainly doesn't mean bad advice isn't often given. But again for "some" of that poor advice I refer back to my last post when saying I believe we are all far too different and what works for "james" doesn't work for Bill or Cheryl. Of course there will still always be some outright wrong and stupid advice too just as many here have mentioned. There is a saying. - "somewhere is the worlds worst doctor" , "and someone has an appointment with him tomorrow"
 
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