From the Lesson Tee to the First Tee

The longest journey in golf is from the lesson tee to the first tee, from the practice ground to the golf course! It might be the longest 50 or 100 yards in any sport! 

Golfers take lessons for a variety of treasons. Of course, improvement is their number one goal, but a decision must be made: long term improvement or a quick fix. It is a choice, make no mistake. That is why I always ask my students what they would like to get from a lesson. The lesson plan is drawn from their response and always conducted with that in mind.

If a student is interested in long term, deep-rooted improvement, he or she might follow a plan that includes a limited playing schedule and a considerable time on the lesson and practice tee. This is the essence of long-term improvement. A golfer simply cannot take a lesson at 10:00 AM and go to the first tee at 11:00 AM and expect to make the necessary changes to their game. I repeat: CANNOT! I have had this conversation with my students for many years. If you run to the course after your lesson and play perhaps a $5 Nassau with your golf buddies, it will be all but impossible to improve or even execute what you had just learned on the lesson tee. You MUST keep repeating the new motion until you CANNOT do it the old way!

Unfortunately, very few do this. While they may lend lip service to improvement, if they cannot commit to backing off the playing time and increasing the practice time, it may not be for nothing but it certainly is less than full blown commitment to improvement. This is what I call “taking the talk but not walking the walk.”

Depending on how much you need to change in your golf swing, a season-long commitment might be a serious consideration. Just take one season or one year and dedicate it to lessons and practice and spend less time playing golf. I know, we all love to play golf but if your goal is to enjoy it more by playing better, consider this suggestion. Nothing is more frustrating for a teacher or coach than to see the student out on the course playing and keeping their score right after a golf lesson. It just cannot be done successfully, or at least I have seldom seen it.