Golf Schools?

[juanrjackson]

Anyone ever went to one? If so, what did you think?

I'm thinking about going to this one:

http://www.golfmadesimple.com/

[jaragon126]

Not sure if this counts as a "golf school", but when I first started playing golf I went to one of the ESPN Golf School events in my city. It was a 2 day event over the weekend, and the focus of mine was: Driving, Chipping, and Putting. I still have my notebook with notes I took at that awesome event, although I should probably look through it more than I do now (it's probably been about 6-7 years since I went to the golf school). Another one of the AWESOME parts about the golf school was that as part of the $400 entry fee into the 2 day school, everyone got a Taylor Made R5 Driver (which I still use today). The school was definitely expensive, but you got a driver fitted to you for that fee.

I looked back over the ESPN Golf Schools again in my area over the years, and I believe they did a similar thing where as part of your entry fee they gave you clubs so it was pretty cool. But I took a quick look on google today to try to find a website for the ESPN Golf Schools and it looks like they aren't around any more.

On the other side of the coin, I dumped even more money into a pack of lessons from GolfTec last year (again, not sure if you can count GolfTec as a golf school) ... and it was a complete waste of time & money.

[photowriters]

Several years ago (12 or so), my wife and I went to the Ben Sutton golf school at Sun City Center south of Tampa. Great food! Good golf. I'd go again.

[plugged]

I went to the 3-day Butch Harmon school a few years ago. Now, you're thinking "three days? that is really intense!" Of those three days, though, you actually only receive about 5-6 hours of actual golf lessons, of which a total of about 45 minutes are taught by Butch himself, the remainder by his staff. You do get a group lunch with Butch and you play two rounds of golf at really nice courses - Rio Secco and Cascata - both of which are supposed to be "instruction rounds" although I received very little instruction (it was more of a chance to pal around with Butch's staff, who are great guys, BTW). They do give some good tips on course mmgt though. You are treated very well and the staff is very knowledgeable, professional, and friendly. You get some great video analysis, which I found to be the single best thing I received.

Overall, I would say Butch's school is a very nice vacation treat, sort of like a retirement/anniversary/graduation gift. You will get some quality instruction, but it is really limited. It is a neat experience and should be viewed as such. However, if you are looking for some serious golf instruction to bring your game to the next level, save your money and find someone within driving distance to give you one-on-one lessons for several weeks/months.

[plugged]

I almost left out the best part. While we practicing at the range, Natalie Gulbis (one of Butch's students) was practicing on the far end of the range. She walked over and chatted with us for a few minutes. She was very nice and very nice-looking, even moreso in person. In fact, I think if she spent half the time she did prepping herself for the day on hitting balls, she would be the world's No. 1 by now. I mean, her hair, her clothes, her makeup, were all perfectly arranged. Scary.