Your Favorite Incarnation of "Playing Lessons"

[beisenhauer]

I'm curious about what everyone thinks about the various incarnations/formats of Golf Channel's "Playing Lessons with the Pros". There have been, as I reckon it, four versions: "Personal Lessons" with a pro and two non-celebrity amateurs, the solo format with just the pro playing and talking about his or her game, the Stephanie Sparks version and the current celebrity playing lessons.

My personal favorite was the "Personal Lessons" format, since it contained the most information that was useful to my own game. For the same reason I used to like the celebrity version for a while, but lately the show has degenerated into "play the ball forward in the sand," ad nauseam. And, seriously, Chris Riley and Kevin Sorbo? Where do they find these guys? I never thought Stephanie Sparks added anything to the show.

So, how about it?

[Chief Broom]

I liked the one's with Ms. Sparks. She did a pretty good job of getting the pros to open up to her (us) about their game and their mental approach. Having a host/interviewer is really about the only way you can get that kind of perspective in the show. I also enjoyed the playing lesson shows where a pro focused on a regular person's game. The problem there for me is that it's hard for a pro to come up with something new and insightful because it's all pretty much been covered before ad nauseum.

[Chilli Dipper]

Personal Lessons and the Stephanie Sparks-hosted version of Playing Lessons were the two most informative editions of the shows. From a TV perspective, the former's biggest flaw was the prevalence of senior players as the featured pros; while the likes of Jim Thorpe and Kathy Whitworth certainly had great insights into the game from their years on tour, they didn't attract viewers. On the other hand, the latter managed to feature many prominent active pros alongside Sparks. The solo episodes were good when the featured player also happened to be a good television analyst, but some pros are just hopeless on-camera without professional assistance.

The pro/celebrity format is pure entertainment, and as such is dependent on having an interesting pro and/or interesting celebrity develop a banter on the course. Rich Beem and Don Cheadle works; Fred Couples and Mark Wahlberg works; even Morgan Pressel and Wladimir Klitschko works. Kenny Perry and a C-list country musician, on the other hand, doesn't work. The worst was the one with Will MacKenzie and Jim McMahon, with the former showing why he ranks 123rd on the money list the year and the latter being the guy you never want to see in the group ahead of you.

[iacas]

It seems to me that the higher handicappers liked the shows with duffers or Stephanie Sparks. Every lower handicapper I ever talked to liked it before it became more about "entertainment" and less about "let's see what this really good golfer wants to share with you."

I'll elaborate.

I get nothing out of someone joking around with Alonzo Mourning or Don Cheadle or whomever. It's entertainment crap that does nothing to help me shoot better scores or add a shot to my repertoire.

Stephanie Sparks similarly distracted from things by: a) having to watch her hit shots (Zzzzzzzz), b) asking stupid questions, c) her bizarre bets ("If I win you have to do an Irish dance, Paddy" or "If I win I get to see your closet, Ian" or "Can you outdrive me from your knees, JB?"), d) other inane crap that has little to do with golf.

Personal Lessons rarely had players who were good enough to need the kinds of tips I wanted to hear.

So for me, the original series, which fortunately ran for three or four years (if I had to guess) and featured Nick Faldo, Tom Watson, David Toms, and a lot of other good or great players is the best. 24 minutes or so of pure "let me pick your brain" type stuff. The host stayed out of the way except to occasionally ask for more details. The tips were as often "mental" as physical, and the shots they were trying and the way they were thinking was much more at a sub-6.0 index type level than any of the other three versions.

So that's my take. I don't think the other three versions are rubbish, but they're close. I still watch, but if I miss one I don't search desperately for the next playing of it. From the answers here the 10+ handicappers seem to like them, and I realize I'm in the minority index-wise, so I'm glad for them, and I can't fault Golf Channel for catering to the majority.

[Big_M]

I agree with Erik a bit... but I chose the ones with other golfers being my favorite. One of the Jim Thorpe episodes had some low handicappers on and it was one of my favorites... but thinking back, most of the best shows were done in the solo mode. I would like to see more with one or two guests who are 0-10 handicap. Also, I think the ones with the celebs were probably the most worthless in that it seemed more about joking around and playing a casual round then any real advice or insight into how different pros approach different aspects of the game.