What to expect with golf lessons

[merklitl]

I've been having fun hacking my way around the course (at slow times, of course) and now I want to get better, because two or three times now I've ruined my chance at a birdie with bad approach and wedge shots.

So, I signed up to take lessons at my local course. What can I expect in general? What should I expect to get the most out of my time? Any teaching pros on here?

Thanks in advance.

[kc8kir]

Take notes and practice what your instructor says. You may start hitting bad shots for a while, but stick to it. Otherwise it is time and money wasted.

[RMarks]

Go in with an open mind and don't fight what the Pro tells you.

[bruce]

Exactly what kc8kir said,if your swinging bad and the changes he puts to you feel weird its because there new to you,

[vVTalonVv]

Don't expect to get the hang of what your instructor is trying to teach you. It's going to take some practice.

[Zeph]

It is really imporant to remember the feelings you get and what you should work on. A golf lesson takes anything from 20 minutes to an hour, depending on how much you pay. I think most golfers get more than enough help with 20 minutes, but the pro is not supposed to fix your swing, he's just giving you help on finding out how you must fix your swing. Those 20 minutes are just the beginning, it's when he's left the range the work starts.

Take notes of what he says, remember the feelings. I like to hit lots of balls, or just swing the club for that matter some time after the lesson so I don't forget the feeling the next day. Give yourself small and accomplishable goals, don't try to fix your whole swing at once, it just won't work.

How players use the range pretty much determines how good they will get. Those who practice details all the time and have a plan with what they want to do will get better. Those who just come out and hit some balls won't progress. And that's ok too, but don't expect to get much better if you don't give your mind and body a chance. The more shots you take with a bad swing, the harder it will be to repair the swing. Not everyone has got the time to work that much on their swing, or they don't want to. That's fine, but don't take golf lessons and expect the pro to fix your swing, because he can't, unless you pay him thousands to stand by your side for hours and hours.

[merklitl]

Thank you guys. It's all very helpful. I'm looking forward to Monday!

[Jayel]

tell us how it went, or how it's going

[Grndslmhttr3]

Yeah, basically what everyone else said. If you have the expectations of becoming a tour-caliber golfer overnight, you may want to think of lowering them.

[srjorion]

I took a series of lessons last year and they really helped my game. One thing I noticed after every lesson was that I would start hitting the ball nicely, and then after a couple of days I would be worse than I was before the lesson. A few days later I would be back to hitting the ball good again.

Definitely take notes the same day you take the lesson so you can look back on them later. I had a few months where I didn't get to play or practice much at all after taking those lessons and my game went south. I went back, started right from the beginning with the drills my pro had me do, and eventually the feeling came back as well as my swing. I took another lesson a few weeks ago just to touch up on things and there wasn't much to mess with. Just small tweaks.

Good luck, don't get frustrated if things don't work out right away, and keep at it!!!

[Divot Tool]

I took my first golf lesson this summer, a little late perhaps but nonetheless. I felt that I needed a set of trained eyes, someone who understood the swing because frankly, I was tired of fighting my swing.


My CPGA instructor had me hit 10 or so balls while he observed. I went into my swing routine, setup etc. and proceeded to hit shanks and fats. After observing, I recall him saying "this is gonna be fun." He told me that I had a lot of good things going on in my swing, but there were some things that I needed to address. The first thing he had me do was change my ball position, (2" inside of left foot for all irons, all woods opposite the inside of left heel).


Secondly, he addressed my swing plane. My swing plane was too flat, and combined with a laid off position at the top, it made it nearly impossible to square the clubface, which in retrospect explains the shanks (hosel leading), fats and pushes right. My right hand would repeatedly come off the grip at the top of my swing and I constantly struggled with it (this is now one of my checks when I'm at the top). I always knew my swing plane was suspect, but his assessment of my swing along with the shot patterns confirmed it. The swing never felt efficient and effortless.


To resolve the issue of swing plane, he had me do a Leadbetter drill: address the ball, set your wrists with the butt of the club pointing toward target, shaft in line with target line and under your chin, then slowly take the club up to the top so that your right thumb is directly under the shaft with the shaft pointing at the target and swing through. Miraculously, my right hand did not come off the grip at the top of the the swing.


We progressed to a full swing from start to finish. I hit the odd shank, fat shot and push, but my instructor said it was a vast improvement. I concur because I have never hit my 6-iron that flush & straight in my life. I truly was hitting the ball 20+ yards further . . . which is unbelievable. It was a very uplifting and transcendental point in my golfing experience. That lesson has given me the hope that I truly needed to continue golfing, because there were times when I occupied thoughts of quitting the game. At the end of my lesson, my instructor expressed that he really enjoyed the coaching session. He must have been impressed, because I went from shanking to hitting spectacular shots. I'm looking forward to future lessons.


Go to your lesson with a blank slate. My advice is to write down all those key points : swing thoughts, feelings be it mechanics or what not on paper after the lesson. Make those notes precise and detailed, but do summarize what you felt was the crux of the lesson. Work hard on these fundamentals and be patient . The pieces will come together.

It's been a month since my lesson. I've practiced quite a bit in that time. It takes about 1 hour and 45 min to hit a large bucket of balls as opposed to before where I used to hit balls like a Gatling gun, with no idea of what I was doing. Sure I have had my bad spouts and at times struggled with my driver. But I feel that I am moving in a new and positive direction.


All the best and my apologies for rambling.

[merklitl]

tell us how it went, or how it's going

Well I arrived 10 minutes early than our agreed upon time, and found the teacher practicing himself on the range.

We greeted each other and talked about my experience (2 or so years of going to driving ranges and hacking around with buddies on the course) and what I wanted to achieve (more consistent irons and wedges, better alignment, and strategies for the various lies on the course - uphill, downhill, sidehill, rough, etc...). I basically wanted to be re-built from the ground-up so I didn't try to come up with fixes for bad habits. He told me that he likes to teach with visuals and hands on, so he would manipulate my arms/hands/club while at address, and give me ideas to "visualize" while playing a shot. First, he took out my 8 iron and asked me how I grip the club. That was something I had messed around with lately after reading something on here. I knew the 10 finger grip was "bad" but it was the most comfortable to start with. He mentioned the interlock and the overlap. I tried both, and even though an interlock is best for smaller hands like mine, the overlap was most comfortable so I went with that. He also adjusted my thumb locations and advised me to keep as loose a grip as possible without letting the club sail during follow through. Then we went through ball position at address and had me take a few cuts with my 8-iron. I hit a few good ones, a few bad ones (that he identified as tensing up during the swing) and then we talked about my swing in general. He said I had a lot of good points, that I had the toe up at both 3 and 9 o'clock, and that i had a good tempo, when I focused on it. The shots I hit poorly were mainly due to blips in focus that disrupted my natural tempo or made me worry about things mid-swing and subsequently tense up. After we hit a few with irons, he asked to see my driver. He found that I was addressing the ball with the club face slightly closed, so when I opened that up (and continued with staying loose and smooth) I hit a few arrow-straight drives about 240 carrying yards (long for me). All of that took about 45 minutes, and he had to leave then, so he left me with another bucket to continue work, and asked me to play a round or two, identify anything else that came up, and then we'd schedule my 2nd lesson, to work on alignment and bunker/wedge play. He also gave me a few ideas of things I can do in my yard or basement in the meantime. Overall it was a good experience, and nice to hear that I wasn't doing anything completely wrong. When I focused on a low, smooth takeaway, and staying loose, I pured more iron shots than I ever had before. I'm definitely looking forward to my next chance on the course to try it out. Here's the best part - he gives 3 lessons for $50 total!