Butting heads with your instructor ...

[Dave]

Well, kind of anyway. Here's the background. I bought a series of lessons with a local instructor (a well regarded instructor too). We worked on impact position, then we worked on impact position some more.

Next lesson, I say to him I want to work on the short game. Putting, chipping, pitching, sand. That's where all my shots go. I'm no Ben Hogan, but I'm getting off the tee okay and ending-up somewhere around the green on my 2nd/3rd shot, so what's going to bring my scores down is getting up and down.

He looked at me like I had lobsters crawling out of my ears. Can't really teach you the short game he says, it's all feel. Bologna I say to him, there are still principles for chipping, pitching, putting and getting it close from the sand.

We finally worked on chipping and pitching. But I was surprised I got so much push-back. I'd think instructors would love to focus on the short game anyway as the best way to lower your scores.

[nuck81]

Thats pretty much BS.

After my second lesson My pro told me the next one was going to be short game I didn't really have a choice. I'm glad we did I dropped Five strokes off my previous best score taking me to 89 for 18 holes my very next round. I'll drop another five easy with a little more practice and touch...

[1par2win]

That is a bazarre thing for a instructor to say. I get a "tune up" short game lesson at the beginning of the year and when I start to lose my feel I take another lesson and sure enough it's always soomething in the set up.

[DavidFehertysBike]

Well, he is right and he is wrong. Short game is mostly feel and individual imagination. You cant be "taught" how to get the ball up and down. But there are basic fundementals to it that can be taught. The least he can do is show you how he goes through his short game and you can decide weather or not to co-opt what you see. If you find no success there, Stan utley's art of the short game book, or phil micklesons short game DVD are very good basic short game instruction.

[sean_miller]

Well, kind of anyway. Here's the background. I bought a series of lessons with a local instructor (a well regarded instructor too). We worked on impact position, then we worked on impact position some more.

How many lessons did you have at this point?

[James_Black]

I think he was right.

My pro did some small changes, narrower stance, closer to the ball.
He then tried to get me to land a ball on a beermat to focus on distance control.

I still do that when I go chipping, and in my garden my main focus is to land the ball on my putt returner.

[bshack]

if your butting heads then go to someone else... there are plenty of other instructors out there imo...

sucks you bought the lessons in a package sometimes its best to get a solo lesson from a few different guys and find out which one matches your style best.

[Tomboys]

if your butting heads then go to someone else... there are plenty of other instructors out there imo...

I agree. As with any profession, there's the good and there's the bad.

For instance, my game had been slowly deteriorating over the past few years and recently, I decided enough was enough. So, rather than just go down to my nearest instructor and take a bunch of lesson--as I did in the past, I gathered the names of 5 or so instructors in the area and interviewed them. I discussed with them what my short-term and long-term goals were. From there, they all watched me hit a few balls on the range. They all told me what they thought and gave me an idea of what they felt I needed. However, there was one instructor who did something a little different. After the obligatory session of watching me hit (or in this case--skank) 20 or so balls on the range, he drove me out to the course to play a few holes. He wanted to analyze all aspects of my game when the shots counted (pressure). Not only did he watch my swing, he had me assess the conditions and pick targets for each of my shots including putting. So, during that outing, he was able to assess all aspects of my game, not just my swing. From there, he told me what he thought should be addressed first. Ultimately, I went with this instructor and I couldn't be happier.

[The Recreational Golfer]

Get a different instructor. I had five short game lessons this winter. In every one I learned something that I would have never thought of on my own about how to hit shots I was already hitting, that made a huge improvement in what is possible. At the outset, I said my shots from about 40 yards in are ending up 10-15 feet from the hole, and I want to cut that distance in half. So he showed me how. The rest is up to how much I practice what he taught me, but I had reached the positive limit of what I could figure out for myself.

[iacas]

Well, he is right and he is wrong. Short game is mostly feel and individual imagination. You cant be "taught" how to get the ball up and down.

Right and wrong... There are fundamentals, yes, but fundamental to developing your own feel (everyone has feel to varying degrees) is having the proper technique. A lot of the times when we teach people short game they'll hit the ball farther on their short game, but then they quickly dial it back down because their feel catches on.

It's nearly impossible to develop feel when you don't hit shots on the same part of the clubface. It's much easier when you have the proper short game stroke(s). Not enough people focus on the short game in instruction when they should.

[thrasher]

A lot of the times when we teach people short game they'll hit the ball farther on their short game, but then they quickly dial it back down because their feel catches on.

This is EXACTLY how it was for before I had my first short game lesson. My short game was VERY good (closer to that of a low single digit), but I still had some improvements in technique to make that were holding me back on certain shot types. After I got my lesson, I started hitting the ball significantly further on short shots until I learned to ajdust. Now, I would say that my short game is very near that of a scratch, as I get up and down from spots that I rarely could before.

[brgolf]

Perhaps the instructor felt that you were jumping the gun when he was building up your long game. Still he should have been able to explain that without making foolish comments about the short game.

[billysandy]

i know i practice my short game 90% of all the practice i do. I just stay on the putting green for hours and have fun. It is my long game, and shots from 150 and in that i am just not good enough on. Maybe he doesn't know much about the short game and didn't feel it would help?

[canadianpro]

Were all these "instructors" PGA Professionals?????