Right Or Left handed Play

[Miss K]

Hi All,

I have an 11yr old girl who has been playing for 6 months, she is left handed but her couch has told her she

needs to play right handed as lefties do not get as far in golf....

I do not play it myself but I am a bit concerned as she is playing the game because she loves it & do not want her to quite because she feels she cant do i thte way she wants. she can golf both right & left but more comfortable left.

Do I let him change it or let her stick to what she wants?

Thanks

[BuckeyeNut]

Let your daughter choose between lefty/righty.  Her coach doesn't know what he/she is talking about.  If it's a private coach that you are paying for lessons, fire that person immediately.    If it's a school coach, take the advice with a grain of salt because many don't even know how to play the game.   They are school teachers, and most aren't qualified to teach golf.

[geauxforbroke]

This is a tricky one. I've personally seen this work out two different ways. The first, a guy (happens to be my father) learned to play golf left handed because he batted left handed in baseball. A teacher told him to switch to right handed, he did, and today he's probably a 5 handicap (he was mid to high 20s before switching). In another example, I used to play in junior tours with a guy who was left handed and was always in the high 70s in middle school, so a pretty good player. But his high school golf coach got him to switch to right handed. I played against him all through high school, and his lowest round that I can remember was in the low 90s. He even tried to switch back to lefty and his swing was all messed up.

I guess the moral of the story is, who knows? Really the difference between the two examples was that the first guy wasn't a good player and the other was. So if she's just starting off, let her go with what's more comfortable. Otherwise she might get frustrated and quit.

[Miss K]

Thanks, I do pay him to teach. I may see someone else and let her decide :)

[BuckeyeNut]

Earlier generations often changed to right handed for a good reason........because lefty equipment was scarce, but this isn't relevant today.

[phan52]

Originally Posted by Miss K

Hi All,

I have an 11yr old girl who has been playing for 6 months, she is left handed but her coach has told her she

needs to play right handed as lefties do not get as far in golf....

I do not play it myself but I am a bit concerned as she is playing the game because she loves it & do not want her to quite because she feels she cant do i thte way she wants. she can golf both right & left but more comfortable left.

Do I let him change it or let her stick to what she wants?

Thanks

That's a pretty ignorant statement.  She should do what makes her more comfortable.

[phan52]

Originally Posted by BuckeyeNut

Earlier generations often changed to right handed for a good reason........because lefty equipment was scarce, but this isn't relevant today.

That happened to me and my brother. We were using cutdown rightie clubs before we even had a baseball bat. When I went to Little League with my lefty glove, the coach was excited that he was going to have a lefty hitter and he was very disappointed when I went up and hit righty. I am severely lefthanded, but I swing everything from a bat to a hocky stick righthanded. It's what I'm used to. I have a devastating backhand in tennis.