There is no better advice that anyone can offer you when you’re getting started with golf than to take lessons! It makes sense right? If you had never skied or snowboarded a day in your life, it is probably not the smartest move to hop on the chairlift and head down a steep, cold, and potentially icy mountainside without at least a little bit of instruction. Granted, the chance of serious bodily injury is drastically less on the slopes – you have to remember that a typical golf round is going to last anywhere from 4 – 5 ½ hours. Do you really want to commit to that much time on a golf course if you don’t know what you’re doing?
When you take lessons when you start golf, the other advantage is that you start out with the right swing. Every golfer has issues with their swing at some point; it could just be something that affects one round, or it could last an entire season!! Take it from me though – it is much easier to fix a swing that started “right”, than to fix a swing that never really was “right”. Whenever I take lessons (which I continue to do on a regular basis!), the instructor usually has to make a small tweak to my swing to either fix whatever issue I am experiencing, or to give me more power in my swing. I credit this to the fact that I went out on the golf course only once or twice before taking a 6-week lesson package at my local driving range.
I wish I could say that the logical arguments above are what convinced me to take lessons in the first place, but it would not really be true. Sheer stubbornness is what convinced me. You see, one of the characteristics that many golfers seem to share is that they mistakenly think they have all of the answers for fixing your swing. (Which I would say is true of only the top 5% of all golfers – so if you are planning to golf with scratch – 5 handicap players, I strongly encourage you to listen to their tips, otherwise, keep reading!) For me – it was my Mom (who meant really well!) and my friends (who were also just learning so what the heck did they know?!?) who seemed to know what I was doing wrong with every swing. I just could not take 4 – 5 ½ hours of another complete amateur telling me what to do to fix my swing. For-get-a-bout-it!!! I could not take it!! Now, I am thankful for it because, although my swing is far from perfect, and I have a lot of improving to do, fundamentally – I know I have a good swing!
To find golf lessons near you, I recommend calling a local driving range or public golf course to see what they offer. To offset costs, you can grab a couple of girlfriends and sign up for group lessons, which drastically reduces the costs. By the way – if you do not have golf clubs, and you do not want to spend money on them right now, just ask the course or driving range if they have rentals. That way if you hate the game, you’ve only lost your investment in the lessons! (My guess though is that you’re going to love it and buy clubs in time for your 3rd lesson)
No comments:
Post a Comment