It’s no secret that golf lessons are an expensive luxury, and it’s understandable why many people might be hesitant to purchase golf lessons, but are golf lessons worth it? Let me talk you through my own experience.
As a whole, golf lessons are worth it if you’re a beginner. Self-taught golfers can develop bad habits that can cause injuries and cost you shots around the golf course. It is debatable whether golf lessons are worth it for more experienced golfers, but they can help you improve your technique.
In this guide, we’ll be helping you better understand whether golf lessons are worth their cost and whether you’re the type of golfer who should be looking to take up golf lessons. We’ll also be looking to address how many lessons you’ll need to become a competent golfer.
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Are Golf Lessons Worth The Money?
In total, golf lessons are only worth the money if you put into practice what you learn from them. That means you need to get down the range and on the course and implement what your coach has been instructing you; only then do golfers start to see the results from taking golf lessons.
Many golfers expect to become world-class player after their first lesson, while many get disappointed when they don’t see results from their game straight away. That’s fair enough. Golfers pay a lot of money to take lessons, and it’s understandable to be frustrated if you don’t see results straight away, learn more about why this frustration happens, it’s normal in our post.
The thing to remember is that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was your golf swing. Golf lessons can be worth their high costs because a golf coach can give you a wealth of advice that can seriously help you become a better player. Ultimately, it comes down to how much you want to improve and put into practice the advice your coach has given you.
For beginners, lessons can be fairly in-expensive for the coaching you’ll receive. A one-hour private lesson for a beginner can cost around $50(£35), while a group lesson can cost approximately $15(£10) per person. If you’re starting from scratch and are looking to become a competent golfer, these lessons are well worth the money to help you build a foundation for your game.
For a complete guide on everything you need to know about golf lessons please check out my helpful article.
Why Golf Lessons Are Worth It
As a whole, golf lessons are worth it as they iron out the problems with your game by improving your golf grip and stance, improving your golf swing, which helps you shoot lower scores, this saves time as lessons prevent bad habits from developing from practicing incorrect technique.
Many self-taught golfers develop bad technique and don’t hit the ball correctly. Their poor swing can cost them many shots around the course, from their putting to their approach play. And that’s why it’s always worth seeking professional advice, even if it’s just for a quick swing-tune-up. Check out our guide on why it may be better to take lessons rather than go down the self-taught route.
Even if you’re a self-taught golfer and have a pretty good swing, the odd golf lesson can be very worthwhile for you. Most self-taught golfers have relied on friends, family members, and online golf blogs and YouTube videos to help them become better golfers, which is perhaps one of the best ways to learn how to play golf.
But that comes with the risk that, fundamentally, your swing might not be as conventional as how a PGA coach would like. Now there’s nothing wrong with being a bit unconventional; look at Matt Wolff’s swing on the PGA tour as an example. Although with unconventional swing actions, you will find that you may start to develop issues in your swing that can hinder your golfing game.
A golf coach can help you hit the ball sweeter, further, and longer by helping you to correct something as simple as your grip or hand placement on the golf club. Coaches can also help you iron out the issues from your game.
Every golfer at some stage has gone through a bad patch of form, where they keep hitting the ball fat, start slicing their shots, or even start topping the golf ball. Usually, these are all hard to fix if you don’t have a golf coach, but give it two lessons, and any good PGA tour professional will have you sweeping the ball into the air from the ground. For any golf coach looking to improve their skills, check out our guide on coaching beginner golfers.
Many players also don’t realize that coaches can help you improve your course management too! Lessons don’t just come down to improving your ball striking. The best lessons to take if you’re an experienced golfer are those on the course with your coach.
They can help you get the best out of your swing in a course environment, help you pick and chose shots that are appropriate for the situation and your ball’s lie, and ultimately work as your caddy to help you save shots off your round. That’s why having a golf coach is very beneficial for any amateur golfer.
Can You Get Better At Golf Without Lessons?
In total, you can get better at golf without having lessons, but you will need to do a lot of reading and watch a lot of online golf tutorials.
It can be tough to improve your golf game if you do not have a golf coach, but it is possible. There are many pros on the PGA tour who are self-taught golfers, perhaps the most notable of those being two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson, who rose the ranks of golf, having never had a professional golf lesson in his life. It is possible to get better at golf without lessons, but it is a tough and long road. Here’s how you can do it.
Study Hard
The best coaches in the world got to where they are today by reading books on former professional golfers. They developed their knowledge through analysis of how these pro players swung the golf club.
That’s everything from assessing their weight transfer through the shot, their grip, their movement in the backswing, and how they connect with the ball coming down onto the shot. If you’re looking to become a good golfer, you need to study how the best golfers in the world strike a golf ball and not just how they hit their driver.
Each club requires a different swing. Your swing with your lob wedge might be a little shallower than that of your five-iron, and you also might open up your stance more for your lob wedge as opposed to your irons. With that in mind, you should try to understand how professionals hit the golf ball by watching more golf and analyzing their swing. While you’re here, check out our guide on the six muscles you’ll need to work on if you want to hit the ball longer.
Use Online Golf Resources
Make sure to use only sources that you know are reliable if you’re looking to gain tips on striking the ball better. There is a wealth of online golf tuition out there, from YouTube golf coaches to golfing blogs; each can help you progress and develop a specific part of your game in the same way a coach can.
Many self-taught golfers can develop problems in their game that are hard to fix, such as slicing the ball. You will find a wealth of information online, including on TheGolfingPros.com blog, about how to fix these issues in your game. By reading up around the subject of slicing golf shots and watching a few YouTube tutorials, you can save yourself the best part of $100(£70) worth of golf lessons if you do your research and implement what online golf coaches are teaching you.
I find YouTube the best place to go for golfing tips and advice as here you get a better idea, visually of what the coach is instructing you to do, rather than reading about it in a tutorial. That can be particularly handy for novice golfers who don’t understand the language of golf all too well. Seeing the swing happen visually helps people learn a lot faster and is often a better way to learn than reading.
Our two favorite YouTube channels are Meandmygolf and Golf With Aimee, Aimee has a FANTASTIC beginner golf series, you can access the first episode here.
Practice At The Range
As Tiger Woods once said, “the harder I practice, the luckier I get.” There is no limit to how much you can practice when it comes to golf, and ultimately the more you work at your game, the better golfer you’re going to become. Becoming good at golf requires practice at the range and structure your sessions to ensure that you’re getting the most out of your time there.
That’s where your coach would usually come in handy to provide you with a few drills that can help you improve your game. But if you’re self-taught, that’s where you need to be creative to perhaps think of your drills or source some from the internet.
Plus, you also need to be disciplined not to focus purely on the part of your game that you excel in. Make sure you work on all aspects, from your chipping to your big drives, and try to work out how far you can hit each club. If you’re still thinking about having golf lessons, here’s what drills and exercises you can expect to do in your golf sessions.
Although, one big downside of not having a golf coach is you have no one there to look at your swing and assess what you’re doing wrong. You have to get a little creative and try to video yourself hitting a few shots or find a range bay with a mirror, or you can buy a dedicated golf mirror for a bargain on Amazon.
That’ll help you see your swing in motion a lot better while visualizing what you need to do to improve your posture, the position of the ball at your feet, and how you turn into your follow-through.
Play With People Better Than You
The other downside of being self-taught is that you won’t be able to schedule a lesson with a golf coach on the course to learn how to manage yourself over a full 18-holes. But playing with golfers who are a lot better than yourself can sometimes be more beneficial than playing with a coach.
Experienced golfers do have tips and tricks to impart, in the same way, if you played a round with a golf coach and didn’t ask them for a lesson, you’d find them giving you a few tips on how to play a particular hole or lie.
Playing with low handicappers can be a little daunting, but it can be super beneficial as you can pick all sorts of inside tips and tricks from these players. You can also watch how they swing the club first hand and get a feel for the different ways other people play the course. But if you’re still stuck on whether you should take lessons or not, have a look at our guide on how taking lessons can change your game in eleven different ways.
How Many Golf Lessons Should A Beginner Take?
As a general rule, beginner golfers should take between one and five lessons. Although there is no limit on how many classes they should have. Different players pick up the game at different speeds, and what works for one player might not work for another.
Golf is a challenging game to master. Particularly for those who have never held a club before, it can be hard to get to grips with, which is why it may take some golfers longer to become a competent player.
Ultimately, it comes down to what works for you as a golfer and what levels you want to achieve, for example, a beginner golfer who wants to start playing in competitions. That might mean you want to take more lessons so you can get used to competing at a good standard of golf.
But as I’ve said in this guide, lessons aren’t everything, and they won’t turn you into a professional golfer overnight.
Golf skill is acquired by practice, with the best golfers developing their skills on the driving range and the course. Sure, golf lessons can be worthwhile but are redundant if you’re not practicing, playing, and actively looking to get better.
Want to know everything there is to know about golf lessons? If so I suggest you take a look at my helpful article.