Golf lessons

Not on Teesside. More in general....

If you can, I suggest that you try to sign up for a set of group beginners lessons. You can save a lot of money that way. Plus get a good overall idea about various aspects of the game. You really do not need individual lessons when you are first starting out.
 
Andy Brooks at Cleveland is good for the basics. Don't know if he still has an offer on Groupon, but he used to.
 
buy some in door swing and grip trainers. get on youtube find some channels you like.(loads of good golf instructors)

learn the function of the swing and all the movements your hips, shoulder's, wrists etc need to do. then get cracking.

i did all that then went for lessons. he then told me what faults i had. thankfully i'd watched so many tuition video's i knew exactly what he was talking about. managed to iron out most of the big faults within a few months.

i found years ago when i first went for lessons. i had no idea what the instructor was trying to tell me. this time my instructor/coach is amazed at home fast i have improved my swing.

atm i'm currently working on hitting straight shots. i tended to push everything right. i'm able to over do it now and pull left hard when i'm not careful. but i know what a left and right of my aim set up feels like. hitting it straighter.
 
I would play for 6 months, figure out your swing, what your bad shots are and then go from there.

I went to James Atthey at Stokesley for mine.
 
I haven't played for about 6 years but I'm thinking of taking it back up again. I used to play once or twice a week. I was consistently in the low 90s then. My 2 mates who I played with were consistently low to mid 80s. One of them started lessons and it completely messed with his game. I was beating him regularly without improving my scores. Took him about 2 years to forget what he was coached and return to low 80s again.
 
Start with You Tube, get practicing the swing in your garden and go and whack loads of balls at a local driving range, then in a few months if you are sticking to it look into lessons.
 
Go and see Craig Donaldson at Ingleby...good for all levels of golfer and takes you out on the course for playing lessons too...not just driving range stuff...

Craig Donaldson PGA Professional. 01642 989331
 
I've played for years and I'm trying to change my swing now with lessons and it's very difficult.

I would stick with your plan and get lessons ASAP because trying to learn new stuff (with lessons) after you've played a bit is so much harder.

As a total novice it'll feel strange anyway so you might as well start with a good technique. I've seen total beginners have lessons from the start and they get to a good level far quicker than most self taught people.
 
Just get out and play, take your time, forget the bad shots and move onto the next one and have fun. Don't expect to be Rory or Tiger, but try and play occasionally with people of a better level, it can sometimes help you raise your game, listen to their advice along the way.
 
Uwefuchs said:
Sorry but I would do the exact opposite, why ingrain loads of swing faults before you have lessons?
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That is my view as well. Beginners lessons in a group tend to cover the basics of all aspects of the game including the full swing. Also chipping, putting, bunker shots etc. Then start practicing on the range and the putting green. Plus playing.
 
The earlier you have lessons the easier it will be to absorb them.

I had lessons after playing for years and its as hard to forget what you did as it is to adopt what you've been taught.

A proper golf seeing is a very simple thing, but most amateurs find it difficult to follow after they've developed their own methods, lots of idiosyncratic bits develop over time.
 
Youtube is great but watch it and try to spot things that you do or don't do rather than trying to change your game by doing it. Then when you go and take lessons you will be familiar with the terminology, what people do wrong etc. and it's much more relatable. You spend less of your lessons being taught theory instead of correcting things. If you slice it a lot then you can learn from Youtube what causes slices (open face and out to in path due to grip/coming over the top) and what a good swing/grip looks like even if you can't identify yourself what you are doing wrong. I used to have a terrible slice and watched loads of Youtube but I never got rid of it. 1 lesson with a pro and it was identified (grip needed adjusting and I was coming over the top because of several reasons) and then a few weeks of lessons/practicing and it was gone.

If you are using Youtube/self-diagnosing you tend to try and correct loads of different mistakes all at once which is impossible. A pro might change your grip but keep you swinging normally the 1st week which will mean your open face at impact has gone but it will cause you to hit left. The next week there might be a tweak to hit the ball straight but if you'd done that first it would still be slicing. Then you'll build on actually hitting the ball out of the centre of the club face so you are building consistency.

If you don't have the time to practice in between lessons then you won't improve though. It's all muscle memory which needs repetition to embed or you just go back to your original swing.
 
Robborevolution said:
Has anyone else used Craig Donaldson? I am a 14 handicapper and was thinking of James Atthey but heard a few mixed reviews.
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I went to Athey a few years ago as heard good things, and had a friend who improved massively with him. Personally he wasn't for me. Found him a bit smarmy and he double booked me and when I went back he didn't have a clue what we worked on the previous time.

If you are having lessons, I think its just as important that you find someone you get on with and are relaxed around.
 
uncle_rico said:
I went to Athey a few years ago as heard good things, and had a friend who improved massively with him. Personally he wasn't for me. Found him a bit smarmy and he double booked me and when I went back he didn't have a clue what we worked on the previous time.

If you are having lessons, I think its just as important that you find someone you get on with and are relaxed around.
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Agree you need someone you can feel comfortable with i had a few lessons years ago from the pro at Teesside golf club and he was ok but i could see he was going through the motions.
 
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