Experience with teaching girlfriends how to golf?

[CollegeGolfer]

Hello, Golfworld!

So my current girlfriend of 26 months has finally decided that she wants to learn how to play golf after watching me hit range balls for 2 years.  With my passion for the game and the amount of experience I have with it, I obviously have no problem teaching her the basics and helping her to develop a solid golf swing, but there are a couple problems/questions that I have for you.

• Should she (well... I) invest in some women clubs for her? or is it ok if she uses Junior clubs? (which just happen to be fitted pretty well for her height and swing speed.)

• To those who may have taught their girlfriends how to golf, how "serious" do you get about the mistakes they make?  Do you just give them a little coaching at a time, let them try to figure it out, then after a few swings make the adjustments? or do you go the professional route, video their swing, show them what they are doing wrong, tell them how to fix it, and make adjustments every other swing? (in a nice way of course)

If I have any more questions, or run into any more problems, i'll post them here.

Thank you for all the help!

[dak4n6]

I started my wife 2 yrs ago dividing time between the range and a small 9 hole dogpatch course. She's pretty athletic, so it wasn't too hard. I started with the basics - stance and grip, using a short punch swing. As she developed, I started covering other more complex areas - (no)head movement, swing path, and clubface control. I did the 'water bottle outside and behind the ball' drill to instill the in/out path. Recently she responded very well to a visual key I made up. I told her to imagine wrapping the clubface around the outside of the ball as she makes contact, and now she is actually hitting draws.

As for clubs, she started with a woman's set, but I just bought her a set of Wilson Ci9 irons and gave her my old Clevland Launcher, and she is really smacking the ball now. At least 20% longer and with better contact. Strangely, her women's clubs feel head heavy when compared to the men's.

Good luck with your girl!

[ApocG10]

Let her take lessons. Trust me, she will resent you for pushing her to do things correctly, in a way she never would with a swing coach.

Or

Teach her the bare basics. Grip, stance, posture, let her learn the rest as she goes along, and give her advice, only when she asks for it.

[dak4n6]

Originally Posted by ApocG10

Let her take lessons. Trust me, she will resent you for pushing her to do things correctly, in a way she never would with a swing coach.

My girl is really good in that she always responds positively to my coaching (I lucked out), unlike my son:

"You have to stop moving your head."

"I'm NOT moving my head!"

"Yes, you are."

"OMG!"

[B-Con]

Take her swing faults as seriously as she takes them. If she's only casually interested and only hits a couple buckets a month, don't get overly concerned with faults and change things that break her swing for a couple months. That will likely dissuade her interest. But if she's very into it, hits a bucket or two a week, and makes it obvious she wants to improve, that's another story.

[David in FL]

Don't do it! Pay for lessons for her yourself, if need be, but there are two things you NEVER try to teach your wife/girlfriend/significant other....... How to play golf, and how to drive a car. :~(

[Mattplusness]

"This is my nightmare!"

[reedf]

I started this spring teaching my fiance. Bought her an inexpensive womans set from Dick's. If she ever has the desire to upgrade, that's great. If not, I didn't waste a lot of money! Like you, I have been able to teach her the basics, anything else is better handled by an instructor. I've found that I need to be very easy going with the swing corrections, it is the ultimate example of "feel is not real". Video can be your best friend, then she can see that she really is doing the things you say she is. And be very aware of her tolerance of your coaching, at the first sign of irritation, it's time to let her do it her way and fix it later.

[divot dave]

Originally Posted by ApocG10

Let her take lessons. Trust me, she will resent you for pushing her to do things correctly, in a way she never would with a swing coach.

Or

Teach her the bare basics. Grip, stance, posture, let her learn the rest as she goes along, and give her advice, only when she asks for it.

what he said!

[Valleygolfer]

Make sure you tell at her a lot and be very condescending. They like that. It depends on her personality. Some get sensitive quick. If this is the case back off and let her take lessons.

[TourSpoon]

Start with the basics. They are all covered in Valleygolfer's avatar!

[Valleygolfer]

Originally Posted by Valleygolfer

Make sure you tell at her a lot and be very condescending. They like that.

It depends on her personality. Some get sensitive quick. If this is the case back off and let her take lessons.

*yell......stupid autocorrect

[Wisguy]

Originally Posted by David in FL

Don't do it!

Pay for lessons for her yourself, if need be, but there are two things you NEVER try to teach your wife/girlfriend/significant other.......

How to play golf, and how to drive a car.

This is very true.  I tried to teach my wife many years ago how to drive my manual transmission, which I figured would be easy because she had been driving for a decade and was a very good driver.  She was doing great at the big empty parking lot and for the first ten minutes on the streets of a quiet neighborhood.  Then a car approached us from the opposite direction going a bit fast and she panicked, stalled it and almost hit a parked car.  She got out and said she would never drive another stick shift for the rest of her life, a promise she has thus far kept.  I'm regretting this experience to this day, as there are several cars I'd really like to own that she is vetoing because they only come in a manual.

[tiger187126]

i got my wife a set of cheap graphite women's clubs that comes with a stand bag for a little over ~$100. i have a little practice set up in the garage where we work on ball striking, i'm having her watch me and tell me what's going on with me and filming my swing and i'll watch her and give her little tips.

in my experience women are much better learners of things that they've never done before than men. shooting and golf are two of these things. they listen better and don't use a bunch of preconceived things to get in the way of learning.

it took a while to get some things through and for her to understand hip rotation without just throwing her hips around, but spending 15 minutes before we go the range shagging a few balls into the garage net makes it a lot less stressful by the time we get to the range.

i go with her once a week or once every other week to a par 3 course so we can have some fun and she doesn't have to worry about distance.

[Jwat381]

Don't do it haha. The chances of it turning out bad are greater than the chances of it turning out well!

[gwlee7]

I taught my wife the basics of chipping and putting and then asked her to see the Assistant Pro at my home course (who happens to be a woman).  Later, she wanted to get deeper into it and she paid for us both to attend a clinic with Dave, Erik, and James.  She hasn't played much lately because she is finishing up her MBA.

Now be careful, if the wife or GF gets bitten by the golf bug interesting things can start happening.  My wife had borrowed a nice SeeMore putter like Payne Stuart and Zach Johnson use from me to get started.  One day, while we were practicing, she said she wanted to go in the pro shop for a minute.  When she came back, she had had my putter cut down to fit her and put a purple Winn grip on it. I said "Hey that was my putter".  She said "Your right that WAS your putter".

[Drewskie]

My girl is really good in that she always responds positively to my coaching (I lucked out), unlike my son: "You have to stop moving your head." "I'm NOT moving my head!" "Yes, you are." "OMG!":doh:

Sounds like conversations I had with my dad when I was much younger. Wish I stuck with it when I was younger. OP good luck, it's a miracle your girlfriend even wants to play

[kevin.chan]

Same as teaching our kids to play golf...

Since it is free , they dont really listen much and confront you ...lol !