Golf Tips to help you when it comes to picking a Golf Pro
Hi. I’m Shawn Cox. And we sometimes get a question about “How should I start with lessons?” or “What should I do?” Bigger problem is, is most people don’t come to the PGA professional first and ask that question. They just kind of ponder, and that’s why we don’t have a lot of people taking lessons, and we have a great need for more instruction in helping this game. So I’m gonna give you some golf tips on how to pick a golf instructor or program.
If you’re the type of person that’s maybe a little shy, we have facilities that might have a separate area, a golf academy, or this particular range is a two-ended driving range, so most people showing up to play today are warming up at that end of the range while I’m up here working with you on your game. You don’t have to worry about other people watching you.
Second type of person that might be thinking about taking lessons is kind of more of a social golfer. You want to look for programs that might be more of a clinic-based. You might want to sign up with a friend and the two of you do the lesson together. A little bit more fun, a little bit less judgment on each shot because maybe the instructor’s watching somebody else. You feel like you’re kind of going a little bit more of a social situation.
And the third type of person that might be looking for a lesson is a little bit more of that engineer type brain that’s looking for some sort of technology, whether it be TrackMan or one of those 3-D systems where they put sensors on your body and they tell you every little pelvis and rotational angle and also maybe, you know, how’s your sequencing or stuff like that, that you may have thought about before but weren’t sure. Those type of people also may like to pick an instructor that uses more of a computer-based system, where they put a Rory McIlroy on one side of the screen and they put you on the other, and they show you your swing in slow motion in the hundredth of a second so that you can see the differences and you learn more visual because you’re seeing yourself on camera versus another professional.
So that’s kind of the three groups of people. I would still go and maybe sneak around a little bit. What I mean by that is you go and maybe practice at a facility, watch the style of the instructor, see the types of students that they may have coming. Are they more beginners? Are they more advanced players? That can tell a lot about an instructor and the type of players that he’s comfortable or she’s comfortable with working with.
So just use those little clues, and you can try the Internet. Sometimes the best instructors may not have a web page or be there, but they are popular, and you maybe have to ask a friend who they know about or where they can find one of the best in town. So, use my advice. We can all get better at this game. Even the guys on tour take lessons. We can all find somebody that fits our style, and we can all get better.
