Should I take lessons or practice more ?

I have only had a couple of official lessons but have read lots of instruction as well as purchased a couple of video courses. I started playing in my 50's and have now been playing for about 6 years. My score has been steadily coming down, seems to slowly improve, then a bit of a slump before improving again. I usually shoot in the 90's (par 72) but do get the odd better round.  Seems like I can usually par several holes and then I "grenade" and lose a couple of balls or some other catastrophe to put and 8 or 9 on the card. I have good distance from all my clubs and play and practice a lot. My question is regarding lessons and just what to expect. Do I spend the money and see if lessons help or do I just keep working on the things that I know need work. If I could become more consistent that would be what I would like.

Have you posted a member swing thread? There are instructions on how to make one if you haven't done that. You'll get some free pointers of some things to work on. If you have a tripod and a smartphone you can make videos.

Lessons are good if you have a good instructor. They should use at minimum use video - a GoPro camera or even smartphone is bare minimum. Being able to see can help. Having tech like a GC2, Flightscope, or Trackman at their disposal is a plus.

SteveH, I was in your situation at start of this year.  After 5+ years of trying to do it my own through practice and golf tips from the usual suspects, I took some lessons, bought fitted clubs, and start golf specific workout,   After 2 months of struggle through swing change (my HI went up two full points), I am back to improving mode (HI below when I started it).   My recommendation is go for the lessons (get the one that analyzes your swing with slow mo video).

If you want to check my experience out, go to http://thesandtrap.com/t/78501/diary-of-a-bogey-golfer-with-his-1st-custom-fit-clubs.   Not much to read at but you may get some ideas on what it was like.

You should practice more if you know what your actual problem is and you know how to fix it. There's a good chance that you've misidentified the issue or you may need feedback on whether you've fixed it. That's where it becomes tricky. I was in your shoes for a while and lessons really helped clear me up. On one issue, it put me on the right path, instead of beating away at the problem without hope, and for the other it fixed my driver immediately with stuff I'd never thought of.

As was mentioned, make a member swing thread and hopefully that will be the best of both worlds.

Consistency is a word we all throw around too often. Realistically, if there's an issue with your swing, it's consistently wrong and what you view as success may just be a probabalistic success thing. In other words: it's possible that your swing issue might only be giving you an X% chance of success, so your misses aren't you doing anything different.

Anyway, the bit at the end is speculation. Make a swing thread and make sure you're practicing effectively.

Both.

They are only two parts of the equation. . .

Right!    If you are walking down the street and find $100 bill and a new Vokey SW, what would you pick up?  Both, of course.

My personal view based on my own experience:

practice is good if you know what the problem is and how to fix it.

If you're not sure what your problem is it is much better toget lessons first.

If you think you know what you need to do and practice a lot but you don't improve then it is very likely you have your problem misdiagnosed and you should get lessons.

+1. First get lessons and then practice more.