Need some help with your game? Deliberating on whether you should get some professional golf lessons or coaching to help you along? Our latest blog discusses the benefits of professional golf lessons. Firstly lets delve into a little background detail.
What are professional golf lessons?
A golf lesson usually consists of an hour or more of one-to-one instruction from a professional golf player. Having golf lessons is a bit like having a personal trainer at the gym. Golf professionals can assist new golfers (and seasoned players) to develop and improve their game. As with the gym, you shouldn’t expect to become a golfing pro after a single lesson. A single lesson can sometimes be useful for experienced golfers who want to work on a particular area, or for new golfers who want to get a basic overview of the game. If you want to see ongoing improvements to your game, or you’re a new golfer that wants to develop good habits, you should expect to have at least a handful of lessons.
A good golf lesson should have the following stages:
- Begin with discussing the purpose of the lesson
- Agree on what areas will be worked on during the lesson
- Decide on ways to measure progress
- Main part of lesson including instructing and, practise
- Receive a lesson summary (verbal or written) to take away
So you know what a golf lesson is, what one should look like, and how golf lessons can generally help you. But what are the specific benefits of a professional golf lesson (or lessons)?
It has been proven that golf coaching improves your game.
Research has shown that players that take 3 or more professional golf lessons per year are much more likely to improve their handicap than those who practise without taking lessons. The improvements people see are regardless of their current skill level, which means that even golfers who have reached lower handicaps can still benefit from lessons.
Professional golf lessons can help you to improve even if you can’t practise as often as you’d like
You might find it hard to visit the course regularly due to work/life commitments. This could lead you to think that a lesson would be wasted on you. Interestingly, research has shown lessons are not wasted on infrequent players! Regular practise definitely will mean you see bigger improvements, however you could still see handicap improvements if you have 2 or more lessons in a year and only play golf once a month.
A Golf Professional can pick up on bad habit/posture just by watching your swing
If you book a lesson with a golf professional, you can be sure that they have seen thousands of swings in their time. If you’re having trouble driving straight and need some advice a golf professional may be able to watch you swing once and notice something that is off – solving the problem almost instantly! This can leave the rest of your lesson to get more tips and techniques from the pro.
Golf professionals know their stuff, literally
As well as helping you with your swing technique, golf professionals know a lot about golfing gear and can offer you advice and tips related to your clubs and balls. They can make sure you are using the best clubs for each type of shot, which can help improve your consistency.
A physical golf lesson means you can get hands on instruction
A professional golfer can diagnose any problems you have, and give you hands-on support to solve them. By having an in person golf lesson, the professional can manually adjust your posture and hand placement which can be really helpful when you need to replicate it on the course.
The Takeaway
A professional golf lesson can help with specific areas of your game and will always add something to your golfing experience.
Some other great reasons to have professional golf lessons are:
- For beginners – learning to play the game
- Staying motivated – by learning new things and feeling like you’re making progress
- Investing in yourself – to really make progress in any sport it is necessary to have expert coaching
- Fixing faults – for example in your posture or your swing
- Having fun on the course – If you feel confident in your techniques you’ll feel less stressed when playing
Riccarton Park Golf Complex has everything you need to help you prepare for a great game of golf. Come and see one of our professional golf coaches for a lesson. Then try visiting our driving range and putting green to practice your skills. We’re easy to find on Steadman Road, West Christchurch with access off of SH1 and we are open until 9pm Monday to Saturday and until 7pm on Sundays and Public Holidays. Please contact us if you would like any further information. We look forward to seeing you!
