Six Signs Golf Lessons Won’t Help Your Game

You’re thinking about taking golf lessons, but there are many things to consider before you do. Most importantly, will lessons actually help you get better at golf?

I’m a PGA Master Professional with more than 40 years of experience and have coached many champion golfers of all levels. It’s a beautiful thing to watch a 20-handicapper finally learn how to hit a draw or help someone win their club championship. I also can’t express how satisfying it is to coach golfers all the way to the professional ranks and see them succeed.

Mixed in with that magic, however, has been the realization that some golfers may not be cut out for lessons for one reason or another. Here are six signs lessons may not be a good idea for you… at least right now.

If you’re a self-taught, accomplished player.

If you’re someone who has eschewed the lesson route — you’ve “dug it out of the dirt,” as they say — and you have built a game and swing that is acceptable to you, I would think twice about taking a professional lesson. The idea of instruction is to get better, not to get a prettier swing. I never recommend that a golfer fix what isn’t broken, especially if he or she is self-taught.

You are playing well.

Even if you have worked with an instructor in the past, it’s a good idea to stay away from the lesson tee if you’re shooting the best scores of your life and your handicap is dropping like a stone. The thought, “If I’m this good on my own, how good could I be with lessons?” can be a surefire way to lose the roll you’re on. The smart teacher here says, “Keep doing what you’re doing.” Golf is an equation; the parts in the swing have to balance. When you’re playing well, your parts are in sync.

To please someone else.

If you’re trying to learn golf for any reason other than you love it, and want badly to get better at it, lessons might not be for you. Spouses who take the game up simply to please their mate often make poor students… for both the teacher AND the learner.

On the other hand, if that same person is fascinated with the idea of this wonderful game, they are an absolute joy to work with and often see great improvement. Fascination has so much to do with learning anything, as I see it.

You have a big event upcoming.

Unless you are shanking almost every shot you hit, DO NOT seek guidance before you play in an event where your results are important to you. Inevitably, you will be thinking too much and perform worse instead of better. Even a “tune-up” can confuse you at times.

You are averse to change.

There’s an old story about a 40-handicapper who went for a lesson. When he arrived home, his wife asked him how he did. He said: “I’m never going back; the pro tried to change my swing.”

You don’t have time or willingness to practice.

Recently, I had a gal who came to me shanking almost every shot she hit. Within 45 minutes, she was hitting all her shots on the face of the club. She returned two weeks later, shanking again. I asked her how much she had practiced what we worked on. She said, “None; I was very busy.”