If you have been sat on the fence wondering about whether to buy new clubs or to have lessons, and wondering if lessons are worth it, you are not alone.
Most Golfers have asked themselves the same question will golf lessons improve my game? The straight answer is YES.
Golf Lessons, with an experienced Golf Instructor, are the best way to learn the foundations and techniques needed to be able to play the game. To get the most out of the lessons it’s important to put in the work and practice what you have been taught.
Is It Worth You Taking Golf Lessons
The first thing you need to decide is what you want to get out of your game.
If you are happy with the level of golf that you currently play, and have no desire to put in the time to practice, then golf lessons are probably not for you.
But if you struggle to find any kind of consistency in your game and you are looking to improve, then there is no better way, than having golf lessons from a qualified golf instructor, to help you get to a new skill level.
When you can hit better shots and shoot lower scores the game of golf becomes much more fun.
There’s a lot to think about if you are considering having lessons.
Price can be an issue, having the free time, to practice what you have been shown, can be another obstacle and finding the right coach to suit you can also be a headache.
So we have broken down the key areas you need to think about, when you are going down the lesson route, and we’ll look at how to Improve your game with golf lessons and get the most from them.
Here are some quick links to each section
- The Benefits Of Golf Lessons
- The Downsides of Golf Lessons
- What Happens in A Golf Lesson
- How Much Do Golf Lessons Cost
- How Often Should you Take Golf Lessons
- How Many Golf Lessons Should A Beginner Take
- Golf Lessons With A Professional Or Take The DIY Approach
- Golf Lessons With A Teaching Pro Or A Touring Pro
- Golf Lessons With A Better Player
- How Good Are Online Lessons
- How Good Are Golf Lessons At Residential Courses
- When You Have Reached A Plateau In Your Game
The Benefits Of Golf Lessons
In short, you will learn to become a better player. By learning the fundamentals of the game, you will benefit longer term, because you should be able to self diagnose your faults in the future, because you will understand what you should be doing.
Most mistakes amateur golfers make usually happen before they hit the ball.
By learning the basics of grip, alignment, set-up and posture, you will give yourself a much better chance of building a repeatable swing that you can rely on when you are on the course.
Even the Pro’s have regular lessons to keep them on top of their golf swings.
The Downsides Of Golf Lessons
It’s very likely that you will go backwards before you make progress. This is because you may be learning a different way of doing things, perhaps a grip change, different posture or set up, different swing paths.
There are any number of things that could be changed and because it has changed it will feel different. That’s quite normal. You need to practice the new feelings and get used to them until they become the normal feeling for you.
Golf Lessons can be expensive, especially when you consider how much you have already paid for your kit and how much it costs to play around of golf. If you have to choose between a lesson and a round of golf, its easy to see that the round of golf would be preferable. There are ways to make golf cheaper.
The other downside is the Pro you are going to see for the lesson. Depending on their experience or financial situation, they may not always put your interests before their own, especially if they work somewhere like American Golf and have a sales target to meet and need to sell you equipment as well.
What Happens in A Golf Lesson
This can vary by instructor but in the main, for a one off lesson, the Pro will watch you hitting some shots and then try to give you a few pointers, which revert back to the way they perceive how the golf swing should be. And then try and give you one or two things for you to work on to achieve this.
There’s no point in having your brain filled with lots of technical information, as this generally leads to what’s known as analysis paralysis. Where you can’t think and act clearly because there’s too much going on in your head.
If you only have one lesson, try and give the pro as much information as you can about your bad shots and what you would like to fix and then trust their experience to guide you.
But be warned, like anything in life, it’s hard to make significant changes and achieve good results right away, in such a short amount of time.
If you are having more than one lesson, then it gives both you and the Pro more time to try and achieve your goals. This can be an easier way to make long term changes that are effective, because you will learn how to do something, then go away and practice it, come back for a review and feedback. The move on to the next stage and rinse and repeat.
The key thing here about having the lessons, is it’s really important for you to take on board what you’ve been taught and put those skills into practice until you can do them properly. If you don’t invest the time to do this you may be wasting your money on the lesson.
How Much Do Golf Lessons Cost
The duration of a golf lesson is often 30 minutes and you can expect to pay between $20 to $30. An hour lesson may cost you slightly less than double the 30 minute price.
Lessons do vary in price greatly across the golf industry. The pricing is usually dictated by the experience of the golf coach, the location, the quality of the golf club (which doesn’t always mean the quality of the Pro is better) and what the supply and demand is like in golf in general.
The recent Covid pandemic saw golf struggle in many areas. With lock downs meaning no-one could play the courses, revenue streams were massively reduced. Once lock-down was eased, and people were furloughed (UK) there was a much bigger demand for the game, and the result from the golfing industry local to me was as fairly significant increase in pricing.
How Often Should You Take Golf Lessons
The frequency of golf lessons should be dictated by you and what you are trying to achieve in your game. A good rule of thumb is to leave enough time between golf lessons so that you have time to implement and practice any changes that you need to make.
How Many Golf Lessons Should A Beginner Take
In the beginning of your golf career you will need more help than someone who has been playing for a while. So you may sign up for a package of lessons to get you on the right track.
Most Pro’s will offer group coaching which are perfect for beginner golfers. These will be a group session where you all work on the same thing and the pro will explain to the group and also give you a short one to one lesson during that time.
These are great when you’re just starting out, but after a while you will need to progress to a more individual coaching plan.
Golf Lessons With A Professional Or Take THE DIY Approach
Quite often golfers will get to a certain level of ability and then don’t have any more lessons as they believe they can fix things themselves.
It may be true but it’s usually a more frustrating path for them to go down rather than a quick tune up to check the basics.
Finance and time may again be barriers for this but playing below your potential for long periods of time must cost more in the long run, when you factor in less enjoyment and probably more lost golf balls.
Golf Lessons With A Teaching Pro Or A Touring Pro
This is a great debate.
To be a recognised PGA Professional, the Pro will have attended three years of study to get their PGA Status, during which time they will have had to maintain a 4.4 or lower handicap.
Now playing off 4 is a decent standard of golf, but it is a whole universe away from someone who plays off +4 or more, as a decent touring pro.
The Touring Pro may have more natural playing ability but the Teaching Pro will know how to teach and be able to get the message over more clearly, in a structured way.
I have had the benefit of being coached by both and I have benefited from both. If you get the chance to play with or be coached by a touring pro, you should jump at the chance as you can get the wisdom of their knowledge of competitive golf.
Golf Lessons With A Better Player
Taking advice from a better player, who is not a pro, can sometimes be good, but can also lead you down a dark path that leads to more problems.
Everyone has a mate who says, ‘keep your head down’ or ‘you need to roll your wrists’ or some other titbit of general advice, which unfortunately is not always the best thing for you.
The golf swing is a chain reaction and changing one part of it will certainly affect another part of it, which could lead to multiple faults.
I do think it’s good to play with better players, often, and watch what they do, how they manage the course, the types of shots they play and also try and notice the shots they don’t play.
Another good way is to try to practice with better players and compete with them, have a putting or chipping competition. Recreating competitive golf is always a good thing
How Good Are Online Golf Lessons
As someone who provides online golf lessons, we would obviously say they are great. But there should be a caveat with them. Online Lessons can show you how to do something, the good ones will also tell you why you’re doing it, but they can’t replicate real life as there is no simultaneous feedback.
The cost of online golf lessons are usually comparable to an hours real life coaching, with the added benefit that you can re-watch the coaching over and over, usually at no additional cost, unlike areal world lesson.
How Good Are Golf Lessons At RESIDENTIAL Courses
These could be likened to an intensive learning to drive a car course. It’s an immersive experience where you learn everything in a one or two day course.
it’s effectively a crash course in golf, with different aspects of the game being covered in great depth. Quite often these will follow a coaching program in the mornings with use of the golf course in the afternoon.
Many golf schools have the latest Trackman and GC Quad technology so can assist you with club distance gapping as well as the technical aspects surrounding swing speeds and ball flight for example.
When You Have Reached A Plateau In Your Game
Many Golfers who have played for a longer period of time often find their playing level and they then struggle to take it to the next level. I would say this is a great time to have a golf lesson to assess what is holding you back from making improvement.
It can sometimes be a simple tweak to set up, or perhaps it’s a ball position problem, but it could be the most common, a lack of practice and the space between the ears has experienced a few too many bad shots and has limiting beliefs.
In a golf lesson a pro can help identify these areas and put you back on the path to progress.
Golf Lessons Can Help You Improve
If you are still wondering will golf lessons improve my game, I’d like you to consider the following
Golf Lessons Or New Driver
Many Golfers will spend $100’s on a new driver, which often claims to make you hit the ball longer and straighter, but they won’t spend $20 on a golf lesson.
It’s probably down to marketing. Lessons are not sexy
But the end result of consistent lessons, with the application and practice of what you’ve been taught, holds far more credibility when making claims of being able to hit the ball longer and straighter.
Remember what I said earlier, When you can hit better shots and shoot lower scores the game of golf becomes much more fun.
I hope this has helped you figure out if golf lessons are worth it for you, and no matter what you decide I wish you all the best with your game
