Are Golf Lessons Worth It? – Are They Worth The Money?

Golf lessons are one of the most valuable assets a golfer can have, provided they know how to use them. The sheer difficulty of the game and its individual nature lends itself to intensive one-on-one instruction with a golf instructor. 

If you know how to get the most out of lessons and leverage the right help for your game while weeding out a lot of the useless tips and tricks and marketing gimmicks that are common in the industry, you will be on your way to eliminating bad habits and developing a solid golf game.

Where To Go For Golf Lessons

Golf lessons are available in a variety of places. The traditional route is typically to learn some basics from a family member or friend, and once there is enough interest, to go take lessons from a qualified golf instructor. This is true no matter what age you are starting.

By far the largest resource for this is the PGA of America and its international counterparts. The PGA is the gold standard in training professionals to work in a variety of positions in the golfing world, including that of professional instructor. They maintain a database of certified golf instructors on their website. 

What You Will Learn At Golf Lessons

Every professional instructor and player is unique, and a good golf coach will focus on the most important factors for that individual and slowly build strong foundations to refine skills over a number of months or years. 

Good golf instruction will focus on the fundamentals, swing mechanics, short game and mental game.

As you progress, a good instructor will take you onto the course for playing lessons to fine tune your game.

Learn About Equipment

For the average or beginning player, the most important thing is having the essentials, like clubs that are within reason for your body size, swing speed, and skill level, and then refine from there and invest in more custom equipment, like an expensive putter or driver once your baseline swing is established.

A golf lesson for a beginner will address any major discrepancies in equipment selection but then focus on fundamentals of setup and body motion.

Learn How To Grip The Club

The first lesson will usually focus on your goals, and then begin to teach the fundamentals of golf, like the grip. The proper golf grip is perhaps the most fundamental mechanic in the game. It may feel unnatural at first and there are basically infinite variations on a few minor arrangements. The two basic positions of the fingers are called the interlock grip and overlap grip.

Interlocking grip - where the top hand index finger “interlocks” over top of the bottom hand pinky finger.

Overlapping grip - where the bottom hand pinky finger is placed resting on top of the index finger of the top hand.

An easy way to learn the correct golf grip is to use a training aid like the Click Stick, which has a grip trainer molded into the training aid.

There are many intricacies that a golf coach can cover IF you have a grip problem or have never gripped a club before, but the main variation you will adjust is known as grip “strength", which is measured as a weak grip, neutral grip, or strong grip. (Not to be confused with grip pressure.)

Grip strength basically correlates to how the face of the club is aligned with the palms. Matching the strength of your grip to you swing is as easy as experimenting until you are hitting the golf ball straight!

Learn The Proper Golf Stance

To the untrained eye many golf stances look completely different, but to experts who have been studying the golf swing for a long time, there are absolutely some common factors seen in almost all great ball strikers.

Stance will also vary for different body types and change slightly depending on the club and the type of shot needed. One guideline that is seen in a lot of old-time players and is now becoming popular amongst biomechanics professionals seeking to optimize the modern swing is to be completely balanced at setup by making sure that the armpits are directly over the balls of the feet. 

Typically in an iron swing, you will have the feet approximately shoulder width apart. With a wedge shot, have the outside of the feet inside shoulder width, and for a driver, have the inside of the feet outside the shoulders as a baseline starting point.

With all clubs, it is preferable to have the knees relaxed - not locked and not crouching down, and let the arms hang straight down after you have leaned forward just enough to get the armpits over the balls of your feet.

In this position, you will be standing the proper distance from the golf ball.

Learn Proper Ball Position

Ball position is something that an expert or professional player will be able to constantly adjust in order to produce slight variations in the height and curvature of their shots on command. For a beginner, it is better to always use the same ball position as much as possible for each club.

One good way to get consistent at this is to put the golf ball directly below the lead armpit for an iron, directly below the lead shoulder for a driver or wood, and directly below the sternum for a wedge shot until you are consistent. This is a good baseline that a knowledgeable golf coach or player could then adjust in order to account for different types of swings.

Learn Proper Alignment

A common saying in the golf world is “P.G.A.” - a play on the Professional Golfers Association acronym, but replacing it with “Posture, Grip, and Alignment.” It is often the last thing that golfers want to work on, but it is often the most important thing to work on. Tiger Woods’ former coach Sean Foley has even said that alignment is the most common thing he works on with his professional players, as it is extremely difficult to get lined up the exact same way every single time.

Learn How To Hit The Driver

After a few lessons, the focus will change to swing mechanics with the driver and irons. The key to having a good driver swing is really having a good iron swing. It’s important to build from the same model and change as little as possible.

The best way to learn how to hit the driver is to take a good iron swing, widen your stance slightly, tilt the upper body about 10 degrees away from the target, and then put the ball more forward at address.

After those adjustments, keep everything the same as you would with an iron. 

The key here is all these changes allow you to hit with a slight upward angle of attack as the ball is teed up with the driver. This method will produce the most distance and consistency alike. 

Learn How To Hit Irons

The iron swing is what you will build your entire golf game around. The club that is used in lessons to develop a swing and work on drills and motions is usually a mid-iron such as a 7 iron or 8 iron. This is the baseline for every other club in your bag and often times the go-to club for a player on the course whenever possible because it has been used so often in practice.

You will learn how to hit down with your irons and take a divot in order to compress the ball and make it fly high and straight.

The good news is that hitting solid iron shots has never been easier, thanks to the technology available in today's more forgiving irons.

Learn How To Chip and Pitch The Ball

Chipping and pitching are one of the biggest areas where you can quickly shave multiple strokes off of your game with the least effort. There are coaches who specialize in the short game such as The Short Game Chef or more traditionally a coach like Dave Pelz, whose books on the short game are some of the most famous in the industry.

Many instructors focus on the full swing, but the best teachers understand that the full swing is founded on the mechanics of the smaller swings. Tiger Woods has also often recommended that players learn the game “from the hole, out” to build the fine motor movements needed for the other clubs.

Learn How To Putt

Putting is another area that can shave a ton of strokes off of your game quickly, but players are reluctant to focus on coaching.

Once you have a basic putting grip and stance that are comfortable, Tiger Woods’ famous gate drill is a great way to learn how to putt. Even if you don’t look like Tiger when you do it, if you can swing the putter between those gates consistently, learning to control speed and line becomes much easier. 

Putting is one part of golf that anyone can improve at with a little practice. You should also have a putter that you like and that fits your putting stroke. Sometimes a more forgiving putter is all it takes to shave a few strokes off your score.

Learn About The Rules Of Golf

The rules of golf can seem quite complicated, but there’s a lot of great resources to get you started. Most friendly games where money isn’t involved don’t need to get into a lot of the advanced rules situations, and playing golf with other people is a great way to pick up the basics. The “golden rule” of golf if there is one is to first learn to “play the ball as it lies", as Bobby Jones said. 

A good place to start is with this guide from the PGA.

Learn Golf Etiquette

Golf etiquette is another subject that can cause debate or arguments even amongst long-time golfers and can either be a source of anxiety for somebody new to the game, or a source of major embarrassment or even injury for somebody with total disregard for basic golf etiquette.

There are a lot of finer points that can be debated, but the most important things to know before setting foot on a course have to do with being aware and considerate of the people you are sharing the golf course with. Here are a few basics to remember when you're learning golf etiquette:

• NEVER make noise while somebody else is getting ready to hit their shot. This includes talking, eating/drinking, and making sure your cell phone ringer is completely off before teeing off, if you choose to bring it at all.
• NEVER play a shot before checking to make sure that the group in front of you on the course has cleared the green or fairway completely. If you hit an errant shot you need to yell “FORE” to alert any neighboring groups to take precaution to avoid serious injury. 
• NEVER hold up the pace of play for the course. This is a major point of emphasis in the game of golf and the cardinal sin of any golf course or group. The pace can vary from course to course, but a good rule of thumb is to always keep up with the group in front of you. 

How To Prepare For Golf Lessons

Most of the preparation for a golf lesson is mental. You have to have the attitude of being willing to learn, and one way or another you have to trust your coach implicitly. Learning golf regardless of age, is a rollercoaster often with results getting worse before they get better as the body and brain learn to improve.

Be prepared to share with your instructor anything specific that you would like to work on or correct, such as fixing a slice, or how to fix a chicken wing golf swing.

For many the entire game is a lifelong journey/process that never ends. This open attitude and commitment to stay the course through inevitable highs and lows is a huge part of what makes a successful, and coachable golfer. 

Conclusion

The bottom line is, the returns on golf lessons can be invaluable. The game is extremely hard and not many can “dig it out of the dirt” like Ben Hogan did. The self-taught golfers who are the “exceptions that prove the rule” like Bubba Watson and Moe Norman are EXTREMELY uncommon.

So at the end of the day golf lessons are the best investment a golfer can make in their game in virtually every single case. It’s just a matter of finding out what is available to you, matching up with a golf coach that you can trust, and then getting the most out of your money by committing to practicing what they have taught you as much as possible in between lessons.