Kobey

Nowadays it isn't politically correct to tell someone thay aren't as good at something as someone else. Every child is a winner at everything and they have the ribbons and trophies to prove it.

LOL, Deja Vu

Domenic, what most of the people are trying to say, including Shorty, is that you should make realistic goals for yourself. No one is saying you can never be a professional golfer. I believe that most people could become a pro if they had the desire and determination to do so. What we are saying is that the top PGA winners are not like most people. They have a gift that enables them to exceed the limitations that the rest of us have. Hopefully you have that gift. If you do, you will know it after a few years. If you don't, no amount of practice, lessons or desire will get you that last little edge that is needed to win PGA events. If that was all it took, there wouldn't be 26 stroke differences between the first and last place golfers in an event. Take racing for example. There are plenty of great drivers whose kids had every advantage growing up. You see a lot of them winning some races but never measuring up to the level of their fathers. No amount of desire or practice will ever make them among the best. They are good drivers, better than most, but they just don't have what it takes to be the very best. But best of luck to you. You have a lot of time before you have to decide if you want to make golf a career or not. Remember, if everyone ended up doing what they wanted to when they were young, there would be way too many firemen and cowboys in the world.

I think he is giving a set of RBZ clubs to every member that has over 100 posts. That's why he has to wait, they aren't available yet.

I think Shorty is right. (Did I just say that?) If he had explained things in his earlier sarcastic post the way he did in the later ones I don't think it would have become such an issue. Every time I read one of his posts I picture a guy on a porch yelling at the kids to get off his lawn.

Tick...Tick...Tick...

Wow, now if we could just squeeze in some religion and abortion posts this thread would have everything.

I think the problem is that there are basically two types of golfers. Some want to learn everything about the game and do everything they can to improve. They learn all the tech stuff and take things like the rules and the integrity of the game very seriously. Then there are guys like me that enjoy just playing the game for the fun of it. I like improving but am not interested at the moment in learning about arcs, angles, planes, stack and tilt, bait and switch, etc... That stuff just makes my head hurt. People like me are pretty much beginners, so we see a lot of improvement fast. When we say we are getting pretty good, it isn't in comparison to professionals, it's in comparison to what we were before. I can still see a lot of improvement with what I read and watch on the internet for free, so there is no reason for me to pay someone to fix things that I don't consider broken yet. I know that could complicate things later if I decide I'm not happy with where I am after I plateau, but since I'm nearing 50 already, I'm probably just going to go downhill anyway. Maybe I should look into getting senior shafts on any clubs I buy from now on.

Guess certain urls aren't allowed. Got a bunch of asterisks when I tried to post it.

Golfs-for-fun, are you sure we weren't separated at birth? You seem to think almost exactly like I do. I'm also a troubleshooter. Anyway, I don't think you have offended anyone. Your posts have been clear and the questions you ask are valid, at least to another person who is trying to decide whether to take lessons or not. This reminds me of a guy I know. He has a wicked slice, but instead of finding out what the real problem is, he just adjusts his stance so he is pointing at the woods when he tees off. Yes, it makes him hit the fairway most of the time, but he loses a lot of distance and when he does hit one straight, it is so far in the jungle Tarzan couldn't find it. I would really like to see what would happen if he took some lessons to straighten it out. I used to be a horrible putter too. People thought I was misreading the green when I hit it two feet to the side of the hole. In reality, I was aiming at the hole, I just couldn't get it to go straight. Don't know if you are already doing this or not, but I found a tip online to get over the ball, so that if you dropped a ball from your nose it would hit the one on the green. Once I started doing that my putting improved dramatically. I had been standing back too far and couldn't get a good read on the line. Now I wonder if an instructor would have told me the same thing or something completely different.

Keep it going guys. JetFan got it right. I am learning a lot about styles of instruction and what sort of instructor might fit my needs by reading all this.

You guys are talking me into it. I like what you are saying about how a good instructor would do it. Hopefully I can find an instructor that isn't fixed on only one way to do things. Knowing my luck, I'll get the one that makes me wax his car and paint his fence first. Wax on! Wax off!

I guess I'm just afraid that if I took lessons I might get worse before I got better. And since I don't have a lot of time to golf, that worse period may stretch for quite a while and take a lot of the fun out of the game for me. The way I am now I at least have some good shots that make it worthwhile. Then again, if I took lessons, maybe I could move to florida and go pro in a few years. I'm only 48, there's still time right?

Good points. That's exactly why I am reluctant to take lessons. How do you even know if an instructor is right for you until it is too late? I am happy with the progress I am making on part of my game. I'm driving between 250 and 270 and generally straight after one summer of practicing (about 10 or so rounds). My putting is coming along pretty good as well. But everything in between I look like a 7 year old on steroids. If I tell an instructor that I only want to work on my irons, will he happily oblige me or will his ego get in the way and try to make me learn what he wants me to? I don't know anyone who has ever had lessons so I don't know the first thing about how they usually work.