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What Teaching Program is Best for Me ?
Where Can I find good instruction ?
Does a PGA Certification Guarantee Good Instruction ?
Who Does the Instruction for Your Programs and Lessons ?

What Teaching Program is Best for Me ?

The primary factors in making this decision are playing experience, skill level and personal confidence. You have the basic choices of teaching yourself, attending a golf school, or private lessons. Teaching yourself is a minefield most people should avoid. If you choose this route, get a practice buddy for a second set of eyes. What you think you are doing is very often not what you are actually doing. Less skilled players should definitely think about group, school instruction. This does not mean more experienced or skilled players would be wasting their time in a group or school. As a rule of thumb, anyone who can't break 90 on their scorecard is in serious need of across the board, fundamental instruction and is a prime candidate for group instruction.

Group instruction concentrates on developing sound fundamentals. If Jack Nicklaus started from scratch every year then it can't be all that bad for everyone else. School instruction is usually highly concentrated, immersion type instruction. In this sense it can be like eating Chinese food ... an hour later you want some more. A major goal of school instruction should be sending you away with a clear cause and effect knowledge of what's going on in the golf swing. Very simply, you should come out of any school with the basic skill of being able to make solid contact, get the ball airborne and to move it in the general direction of the hole. Additionally, you should know how to analyze and correct the biggest mistakes ... the slice or hook and topping or skying the ball.

Private lessons are the best and the most expensive way to learn. An hour's worth of instruction typically ranges from $50 an hour to the sky's the limit/go get a loan. One lesson will usually not cut it! A good plan is to sign up for a set of three lessons with the option of adding more as needed. The first lesson should be diagnostic in nature with instruction limited to an overview of what you need to learn in subsequent lessons. Generally, you can learn and practice one pre-swing and one in-swing fundamental per lesson. This means

All instruction is only as good a the person doing the teaching. In addition to the knowledge/teaching skill factor, there is also the compatibility factor. A good teacher is in the business for more than just the money. S/he must also want to see you improve as much as you do. This translates into being alert, and engaged in the lesson. This is not a time for your "pro" to be distracted or to be "phoning in" your lesson. A teacher who seems to be on a ego trip and has a difficult time working with the "little people" should be avoided at all costs. Be careful, to be a good player, you have to develop a "game attitude". This sometimes carries over the the lesson tee. A good teacher should have the virtues of a Boy Scout, especially patience and a sense of humor. You can help by not being wound up too tight. Don't be afraid to make a mistake. Golf is a game of trial and error. Your teacher's job is to systematically reduce the size and and frequency of you errors. This is a lot easier to do if you can laugh off a skanked shot! A compassion and understanding for how hard it is for busy, distracted, tired, worried working people to learn this game is also a requirement.

Finally, a good teacher has the courage to stand up to the nonsense that comes of some learners. Women are wonderful to teach. They are like sponges. They soak up everything and are appreciative any little help. Men often are victims of their own efforts to learn. Some come to the lesson tee and want to discuss every little technical thing they might have read in the latest magazine or have seen on the Golf Channel Academy. The time to discuss these things is before your sign up for whatever form of instruction you are taking. This is part of the compatibility factor. If you are a dedicated "1930's hands player", then don't go to a thirty year old "big muscle" teacher. This is especially true if you are doing group instruction. Have a heart, the other learners don't want to hear you discussing how Sarazan and Jones hit hickory shafted clubs. Back to Top

Where can I find good instruction ?

Good luck and be very careful! Some golf "pros" are good players, dress like a champion and talk a good game, but they don't know Diddly about teaching. Teaching is a science and an art. It is mastered by very few. A few letters behind you name or some kind of certification, contrary to popular belief and advertising, does not guarantee your pro will know what s/he is doing. There are bad driving range pros and there are good ones. There are bad PGA pros and and there are good PGA pros. As good general rule of thumb PGA pros are better teachers than most driving range pros ... but there are exceptions. Back to Top

Does a PGA Certification Guarantee Good Instruction ?

There are several reasons. First, a PGA pro does a whole lot more than just teach and play golf. The club house at the golf course is the center for a lot of business activity and the pro is either the proprietor or manager for this activity. The apprentice program which results in certification pays far more attention to the business aspects of being a pro than the teaching aspects. Second, golf is a very traditional and conservative game. Club pros are very respectful of the elders of the game ... sometimes too respectful. The teaching of golf legends like Armour, Sneed, Hogan and Nicklaus dominate the thinking of many club pros. It is sometimes dangerous to their job safety to "step out" into the brave new world that technology and sports science makes possible. After all ... who are you to question (fill in the blank). Third, most PGA pros are not technically educated in sports science. Many, because of their playing skills have substituted the apprentice program for traditional higher education. One goal of education is to teach people how to be creative by "thinking out of the box". Back to Top

Who Does the Instruction for Your Programs and Lessons ?

The primary instructor is James F. Smith. James will be assisted by talented young golfers who are learning to be professional golf instructors. Each assistant has endured James' Boot Camp for wannabe teachers! For more information about James please go to our
Golf Guru page. Back to Top